On-Line Degrees: How Employers View Them

by Evelyn Beck

HOW ARE EMPLOYERS judging the value of the courses we’re
teaching on-line? What do they think of candidates whose entire
degree was earned via the Internet? The results of a number
of recent studies are mixed, with many business professionals
uneasy about the quality of on-line learning but a majority
of academics convinced that web courses are just as effective
as classroom-based education.

For example, a September 2000 survey of 239 human resource
professionals by Vault.com, a career resources firm based
in New York City, found that skepticism is high. Only 26 percent
believed that an on-line undergraduate degree was as good
as one earned by attending classes on campus, particularly
if the degree came from a virtual university such as Jones
International.

More than half simply felt that on-line degrees were too
new to judge effectively yet.

Their concerns included lower standards, less critical thinking,
and especially less interaction with faculty and with other
students.

“Recruiters are worrying that the social interaction that
comes with being live on campus is diminished, that the pedagogical
give and take between student and teacher isn’t there, and
that students aren’t honing the interpersonal skills that
make an effective employee,” says Mark Oldman, founder of
Vault.com.

Cathleen Kennedy, who teaches computer programming at California’s
San Mateo College and who has done a great deal of research
on the impact of on-line technologies on student learning,
also worries about the lack of live human interaction, and
understands why employers do, too.

She says, “I suspect employers value on-line training, but
not on-line degrees such as B.A. or M.A. Many of my on-line
students mention that ‘college’ is about socialization and
communication as much as learning specific content, and would
not like to be limited to on-line courses. The experience
of interacting with faculty, as well as other students, helps
familiarize students with the academic culture and values
relating to scholarship, collegiality, and citizenship.”

John Losak, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Nova Southeastern
University’s vice president for research and development,
does admit that in an on-line course, “you miss the affect
in having twenty people sit around a table. The interactions
are not there; that’s clear and obvious. But does that contribute
to cognitive learning? One doesn’t know the answer to that
question. It’s not a problem if you measure in terms of grades,
graduation, and satisfaction. Some argue that it’s negative
not to have that interaction, but there’s no evidence.”

His own study of NSU students found no difference in the
grades, graduation rates, and expressed satisfaction between
students enrolled in distance education courses and those
attending classes on campus, disputing the perception of less
rigorous standards.

While diplomas do not make a distinction between degrees
earned on-line or on campus, such a distinction might be revealed
during the interview process. The Vault.com survey found that
some fields are more open to on-line degrees than others.
Not surprisingly, businesses focused on technology and the
Internet were more likely than other firms to hire graduates
who earned their degrees on-line. In contrast, a Business
Week survey of 247 companies found that most “hadn’t considered
hiring an MBA with an on-line degree.”

Of course, most students taking classes through the Web are
also enrolled in traditional courses, blurring the meaning
of “on-line degrees.” For Thomas Russell, who’s been running
distance education programs in many forms at North Carolina
State University for forty years, that terminology itself
is the problem.

“I think employers are going to resist in many cases, especially
if educators continue to refer to them as on-line degrees.
As long as we differentiate, we’ll always have a second-class
citizenship.”

Acceptance is inevitable, he suggests, since employers themselves
are increasingly using on-line courses as a less disruptive
form of workforce training. Russell evaluated the effectiveness
of distance education courses in his book The No Significant
Difference Phenomenon (N.C. State University, 1999). As
the title suggests, Russell believes that students in on-line
courses are doing just as well as their in-class counterparts.
Looking at 355 distance education courses and comparing them
to traditional classroom student outcomes, Russell found that
“the research says there’s no significant difference using
traditional measurement standards. Tests average about the
same or slightly higher grades from on-line students.”

Russell thinks that on-line students work as hard and learn
as much as students in classrooms, and he thinks employers
are wrong to think otherwise.

“Employers tend to look at any different way, especially
involving computers, as easier, less fun, less strenuous,”
says Russell. “But the truth is 180 degrees away. An employer
assumes that someone who earned a degree by distance education
got a lesser degree. I don’t think that is deserved at all.
Research shows no difference. What technology has done is
not change the learning students experience for better or
worse. What it’s done is made learning accessible to people.”

He also believes that time is needed for a fairer evaluation
of on-line courses.

“Right now the jury’s still out,” he says. “The end result
will find no real difference.”