
Ask HN: What is your opinion on online degrees these days? - non-entity
Just curious. I&#x27;m mainly asking in reference to both online undergraduate degrees and graduate degrees, primarily in STEM subjects (mostly CS, engineering, mathematics, sciences like physics or chemistry).<p>Online schools have a negative legacy, supposedly because the first institutions to offer them were for-profit schools providing basically scams. Today, many respected private and public schools offer at least a few degrees fully online and with the recent COVID-19 crisis, many traditional students have been quickly and sloppily forced online, and in my experience, this has led to a lot of these students having much disdain towards online education, at least the process. Online education in all forms also gets touted as inferior due to lack of or reduced support and the loss of many labs which are too expensive or just not possible to replicate in home. Many argue the content delivery is worse, often old and that the program from an online degree is low quality in general. But what about credentialing? Most degrees from a legitimate school of course, won&#x27;t have any explicit indication it was done online, however there are a handful of cases, where I imagine it could be deduced.<p>I&#x27;d prefer this not become a thread on whether university education is good or bad in general, or derail too much into something about alternative online education such as MOOCs (although there are a handful of schools offering degrees on large MOOC platforms, which is an interesting angle to discuss).
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WheelsAtLarge
Basically, online schools lack credibility. There is no real way to know the
quality of graduates the online schools are producing.

We've had correspondent schools forever. Also, anyone, that wants to, can go
to a library and learn whatever they want. Right now, online schools are just
a different flavor of those.

I think online schools need to follow some of the qualifications regular
universities follow. 1) there should be an accreditation body that accredits
online schools

2) Tests and projects need to be proctored

3) There also needs to be a way for students to get to know each other

4) Also, having someone to help you understand what you are doing wrong is
very important.

Online schools are a great way to continue your education, once you have
graduated, but as the primary way to get educated citizens they have a long
way to go.

I think in time there will not be 2 different methods of learning but a hybrid
of the two. Ultimately, having a combination of regular school and online
education will produce a better quality graduate.

~~~
austincheney
> There is no real way to know the quality of graduates the online schools are
> producing.

That can be said for any higher education. The only way to clearly address
that is to measure the performance of graduates over 5-10 years compared to a
pseudo-random mix of graduates from the same programs of other schools over
the same time interval.

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_448
Online schools/courses will have to adapt to the Open University(OU) model.
Here I am describing the Indian OU because I am aware of the workings of one
of them(Maharashtra Open University). India has many OUs, all funded by
governments(central and state level). This is because not everyone in India
can afford expensive education, most poor people work and study at the same
time so OUs help them with managing both, and the population is huge as
well(which are the same goals of MOOCs such as edX and Coursera). So how do
they manage this? Well, the Indian OUs have local chapters, they hire locals
to conduct "explanation sessions" for students, conduct exams etc (it is a
public-private partnership model). A place and time is fixed on when and where
students will get support. Almost all study is self-study. But if a student
wants to talk to someone then they have the option to go to the local chapter
for help. This is managed at a massive scale, and I am just talking about a
local state-level OU. Here is their link:
[https://www.ycmou.ac.in](https://www.ycmou.ac.in) Another well-known Indian
OU is run by the central government. This is even bigger in scale with TV
channels etc, as they have to cater to the whole country. Their link is here:
[http://www.ignou.ac.in](http://www.ignou.ac.in)

One thing to note here is that the OUs cater to the demands of the grassroots.
They have a massive feedback system(mostly offline) to adapt to the changing
demands quickly.

MOOC will have to do something similar in the long-run. But then again, they
won't be any different than OUs, except at the global scale.

Edit: typos and some additional information.

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aurizon
The difference between a school and a self taught environment will show those
capable of self-learning (auto-
didacticicism)[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodidacticism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodidacticism).
Some can do it, some can not - they lack some combination of self study
compulsion as well as some aspect of basic intellect ~~IQ. The other problem
is detection of exam cheats - how to invigilate the tests?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exam_invigilator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exam_invigilator)

As we have seen complex processes have emerged whereby people cheat on tests.
Radio WiFi in calculators has been found, hearing aid 2-way radios, often with
morse signals.

Unless an online school can find a way to defeat all the cheat-modes they will
not be able to verify the quality of their graduates. Grads who cheated are
soon found out in the job when they fail at the implementation level. In
addition, the lab work needs to be addressed. The U of U-tube is a possibility
for watched lab work, but the ability for someone to titrate, or weigh etc
etc, is not well taught at the U of U-tube. That is not to say it is
impossible, ways to deal with these aspects are needed before those who hire
will accept a graduate for the job. Perhaps detailed interviews with lab work
real-time tests will do the job? However MIT et al grads are hired on the
basis of their actual learning. Cheaters will not prosper, nor will their
schools...

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itronitron
Online programs that have been online for at least several years can be very
high quality. They have worked out their curriculum and how to communicate
content and assignments to students.

Schools that are used to a lot of in-person interaction between teachers and
students are probably having the roughest time with distance learning. I
therefore expect private schools to not fare well over the next year.

There are probably very few degrees in which access to physical materials and
labs is necessary. For every other degree being able to complete the degree
remotely probably shows more drive and determination.

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giantg2
I should preface this by saying that I don't have any hiring power.

I think online degrees are fine, especially if the school has an in-person
presence. The hiring process should rely less on OCR keywords and
stereotyping, and more on the candidate's skill and experience.

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13o31
I personally would be skeptical of someone with an online education. Even many
of the online degrees offered by state schools tend to be lower quality than
the equivalent on-campus programs.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
On the other hand seeing someone complete an online degree shows a lot of grit
and determinism. Especially if they are balancing it with work and family
commitments. Most people can't even complete a single MOOC, the dropout rate
is enormous.

