"Like many early-career researchers, Justin Ortagus is typically drawn to quantitative studies that -- at least in theory -- are likely to produce unambiguous, sharply defined results. So his studies about online education have tended to focus on quantifiable issues such as whether cuts in state funding lead to increases in online enrollment (on balance, yes) or whether enrolling online in their first year of college helps or hurts students' long-term academic prospects (modestly helps)."—Source: Inside Higher Ed
WHY THIS MATTERS:
In online learning, it can be tricky to keep conversations around cost and quality of programs balanced. Even when institutions decide quality is key, they can have a hard time defining what that actually means in practice.
