Three Priorities for the Future of Online Education

ABSTRACT

Online courses have moved from the margins to the center of higher education. Some scholars greet this trend cheerfully while others express concerns about quality and equity. Regardless of one's position, online education is here to stay and we have a limited window in which to chart the course of its development. While scholars debate many aspects of online education, we advocate focusing on three priorities (1) reasonable class sizes, (2) meaningful student-faculty connection, and (3) equity in fostering humanistic education. In the following work, we ground this argument in the current literature and our experiences as college educators and researchers.