Featured Articles on OnlineEducation.com

People pursue master’s degrees for the same reasons they always have: their profession requires that level of education, or it will help them reach the next pay grade in their current job. That said, the way in which students can complete a graduate-level program has changed, and traditional on-campus degrees are no longer their only option.

The National Association of Social Work Professions (NASW) describes the primary goal of careers in social services as enhancing the well-being of the most vulnerable and oppressed members of society. These 14 social work professors have demonstrated expertise gained through years of professional field experience and academic scholarship.

This guide profiles 15 outstanding members of faculty from three universities with fantastic speech pathology programs.

Learn about three first-rate university psychology programs and 15 phenomenal faculty members that shine in the classroom and beyond.

CIOs play a vital role in the modern economy, guiding companies in all different industries towards the right strategic information technology investments. The CIOs on this list are active C-level officers who are also engaged on Twitter.

After the Biden Administration had wiped out $109 million in student loan debt during the third quarter of 2023, the U.S. Department of Education now finds itself under pressure from congressional Democrats who want tax relief for their constituents.

Being a distance-based student is an investment of time and money. Choosing an accredited school with support from faculty, a student-focused learning experience, career-based networking opportunities, and accommodating academic schedules is critical to making the most of an online educational experience.

Proposals for student loan forgiveness have been debated for years. They have come under increased attention with the financial impact to student borrowers struggling to make ends meet during the novel coronavirus period.

Making physical spaces and products more accessible and inclusive is important. The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) created the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework and guidelines to support the process of making learning transformative for all students.

Although the UC System has never officially offered undergraduate programs available completely online, savvy students could cobble together enough of the online versions of the university’s courses to satisfy degree requirements without attending any of those classes in person.

The University of California System will launch a new initiative to offer online undergraduate courses for free to low-income high school students nationwide starting early in 2024. In collaboration with the National Education Equity Lab (NEEL), UC will start by offering two of its existing courses in high schools but plans to add more classes in the coming months. Students will earn both high school and transferable UC college credits for each class.

In one of the fastest-moving stories we’ve ever covered here at OnlineEducation.com, a legal memorandum by the Idaho Legislature’s counsel marked a turning point in the battle over the University of Idaho’s proposed acquisition of the online, for-profit University of Phoenix.

In September 2023, the Biden administration announced that it would approve $37 million in student loan cancellations for more than 1,200 former students enrolled at the University of Phoenix between 2012 and 2014 who essentially claimed that the for-profit school scammed them.

In August 2023, the University of Texas launched an expanded microcredential program designed to better prepare UT students and alumni for changing workforce demands within the State of Texas. Part of the UT system’s initiative known as Texas Credentials for the Future, the new program will provide 240,000 students from the nine UT campuses with access to Coursera’s Career Academy at no additional cost.

Educators have been innovative in their response to the massive move to online learning, whether exploring digital theatre arts or blockchain models in education. In particular, the use of games to support education and create a third-place, digital space for students to learn has emerged as an innovative model.

The hottest story in online education right now involves a potential deal in which the University of Arkansas System would acquire the University of Phoenix as a nonprofit affiliate. Such an acquisition would continue a controversial trend in which state universities have recently bought for-profit schools, despite substantial risks to those public institutions’ brands, rankings, and reputations.

Since the outset of the pandemic, educators globally have responded creatively to ensure access to education for students when countries implemented stay-at-home orders in efforts to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. And while the rapid move to online education options this year by many traditionally brick-and-mortar institutions has been lauded by the broader public, there continues to be somewhat last-minute-planning by institutions grappling to navigate online, offline, and hybrid program offerings.

China’s Ministry of Education announced a ban on recognizing online degrees from overseas colleges, leaving thousands of Chinese students scrambling to make international travel arrangements or seek exemptions. This policy decision has significant implications for the landscape of international education. It raises concerns about the Chinese government’s understanding of online education despite its goals of Chinese Education Modernization by 2035.

Online education is booming, and it’s no secret that China is a massive market for the industry, from established companies to up-and-coming startups. Recently, however, the Chinese government fined online education firms for misleading customers.

While startups in China’s edtech landscape face challenging futures following the government’s crackdown on the companies, the environment for those in the U.S. seems to have taken a positive turn as mobile language learning app Duolingo secured strong IPO pricing at the end of July.

With Covid-19 straining financial budgets, lots of low- and mid-tier universities might be in trouble, especially if they don’t have robust distance-based offerings. What happens in the event of a permanent campus closure? If history is any indication, such campuses can be repurposed and reimagined in several different ways.

Surprising and massive jumps in a group of statistics about the American public’s rapidly changing perceptions of online education quality first appeared in late July 2022. Most Americans—55 percent—now rank the quality of online education equivalent to or better than in-person instruction, a tremendous surge over the 2021 report.

What if earning a degree was a matter of demonstrating mastery and skill rather than attending a set number of classes for a required number of weeks and repeating memorized information? Students could complete degrees faster and often for much less tuition than traditional programs that award grades and set semester schedules.

Just now we’re witnessing new survey data indicating how much more money workers should be able to earn as soon as they can demonstrate “upskilling” through training and experience with artificial intelligence platforms. The new data showed up in November 2023, only a few days before the one-year anniversary of the explosive launch of the ChatGPT artificial intelligence platform back on November 30, 2022.

The Federal Trade Commission appears to be on quite a roll during 2022 and 2023 by launching landmark data security and privacy enforcement actions to help protect online education students. What’s more, the FTC’s new actions seem designed to make clear examples out of two companies—Chegg and Edmodo—in order to encourage firms throughout the online education industry to comply with the agency’s data integrity rules.