student-centered education versus consumer-centered education

Online ed is a real winner for college administrations: lots of dough rolling in; reduced expenditures on physical plant; trend towards adjunct faculty, who have neither the clout, nor the time, nor the emotional connection to the institution to protest being abused; no pesky in-person students - thus no on-campus drinking, violence, or vandalism.

Adminstrators can tout the convenience: no commuting time! No parking hassles! Do schoolwork when and where you want! In your pajamas!

There is little if any discussion of the pedagogical benefits of online education: it's all about the consumer convenience. As if education were a 6-pack of soda, made available when and where you might be inclined to desire it. As if education were just another errand in a busy day: drop the kids at daycare; hurry to the office; mail some letters at the post office; do some online learning.

I am old-fashioned but this to me devalues higher education. (Thus I wonder about Prez Obama's plan to increase the number of students in college; do we really need to do more of this low-level type of "higher" education?)

We collectively oversell the convenience, but surely we undersell the commitment and self-discipline and TIME that it takes to do well in what is essentially self-directed learning. I think students are allowed to form the idea that if they check in a couple of times a week, do some reading, and write a few paragraphs here and there, then they have done the work of a full-credit, in-the-classroom course.

(Rude awakening for my current students, although they have not complained.)