HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Is Online Learning For Steerage?

Thus, it seems likely that lower-income and budget-strapped students will make the most use of online learning technologies. This is all well and good to the extent that more students will have access to higher education. Still, online college programs could further stratify our higher education system, dividing those educated at an “authentic” full-fare university and those who received their degrees from online programs.

We can therefore anticipate the formation of three distinct groups of students. Well-off students will attend the few colleges and universities that are wealthy enough to eschew standardization and automation. They alone will have real relationships with great faculty. A second, less wealthy group of students will use online courses for their general education and attend “authentic” institutions for a short while. For poorer students, online learning could well become the main course. They will attend institutions that, strictly speaking, grant post-high school credentials to the coach class.

The thing about traveling steerage is, you still get there. And the current system is really pretty stratified already.

UPDATE: Related thoughts here.