Stoffel Finally Sees Online Schools Benefits
Brian Stoffel has previously ranted about the evils of “for profit” schools at fool.com, but he is beginning to change his mind about online schools benefits after viewing a speech by Harvard Business school professor Clayton Christensen. Although Stoffel’s bias against for-profit schools came primarily from a stock-investment perspective, he now sees that online schools can help students who would otherwise never have the opportunity to pursue degrees without them.
In a nutshell, here are the reasons that are making Stoffel change his mind about online schools from his article “Was I Completely Wrong About For-Profit Education”:
- For-profit education schools have brought the ability to obtain a degree to thousands of students who otherwise wouldn’t have had a chance to attend college. Apollo‘s University of Phoenix — the leader, by size, in the field — has 380,800 students enrolled in its school alone!
- A typical college or university focuses on the quality of the research being conducted by faculty as a preeminent metric for value and worth that a college has. While that might seem great, it doesn’t do much to ensure that students are actually being taught. Online schools worry about a different metric: the actual quality of teaching.
- With the cost of sending a child to college sky-rocketing, more and more students may look at online schools as a viable alternative. Forced to choose between spending a lifetime paying off debt, or having to prove in the real world that they have the skills to justify their online degree, many students will begin choosing the latter.
Online Schools Benefits: Advantage Students