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This study analyzes longitudinal data on nearly every person who engaged in postsecondary education that was wholly or substantially online between 1999 and 2014. It shows how much they and taxpayers paid for the education and how their earnings changed as a result. I compute both private returns-on-investment (ROIs) and social ROIS, which are relevant for governments—especially the federal government. The findings provide little support for optimistic prognostications about online education. It is not substantially less expensive than comparable in-person education. Students themselves pay more for online education than in-person education. Online enrollment usually does raise a person's earnings, but almost never by enough to cover the social cost of the education. There is scant evidence that online enrollment moves people toward jobs associated with higher labor productivity. Calculations indicate that federal taxpayers fund most of the cost of online postsecondary education and are extremely unlikely to recoup their investment in the form of higher future tax payments by former students. The evidence also suggests that many online students will struggle to repay their federal loans.

Instructors are a chief input into higher education production, yet we know little about their role in promoting student success, in contrast to elementary and secondary schooling for which ample evidence suggests teacher quality is an important determinant of student achievement. Whether colleges could improve student and institutional performance by reallocating instructors or altering personnel policies hinges on instructors’ roles in student success. We measure variation in postsecondary instructor effectiveness and estimate its relationship to overall and course-specific teaching experience. We explore this issue in the context of the University of Phoenix, a large for-profit university that offers both online and in-person courses in a wide array of fields and degree programs. We focus on instructors in the college algebra course that is required for all BA degree program students. We find substantial variation in student performance across instructors both in the current class and subsequent classes. Variation is larger for in-person classes, but is still substantial for online courses. Effectiveness grows modestly with course-specific teaching experience, but is unrelated to pay. Our results suggest that personnel policies for recruiting, developing, motivating, and retaining effective postsecondary instructors may be a key, yet underdeveloped, tool for improving institutional productivity.

While economic data show that a college degree is still a very worthwhile and important investment of time and money, the public’s realization of this is eroding. In addition to these political challenges, higher education is grappling with changing demographics, which lead to a reduction in the number of students who can pay the full tuition and a change in where the new students are located; financial challenges that stem from the fact that higher education continues to increase in costs while revenue sources are shrinking; and technological challenges that change how students want to receive knowledge.

This chapter provides some critical reflections on Web-based courseware design in the last five years in China in general, and at the Beiwai Institute of Online Education in particular. It explains the six types of designs identified and provides concrete examples of them. It suggests that a holistic approach to Web-based courseware design, such as an ecological approach, holds the key to successful design.

This chapter examines the concept of the Chinese University Teacher Training in English (CUTE) project, a flexible approach for integrating online and face-to-face (F2F) support for language learning. This project is one of the component projects of the eChina-UK Programme and it aims to develop a course which will enable Chinese teachers to teach their specialist subjects in English and to participate effectively in academic exchange. This chapter discusses the initial pilot phase of the CUTE Project which explored an integrated online/F2F approach to language learning.

The first section, Mindset and Philosophy, is organized into two chapters orienting readers on aspects of online education, philosophy, and mindset. The first of these chapters is a discussion of online education and its similarities and differences when compared to traditional face-to-face courses. An overview of various degrees of partially and fully online course modalities is presented alongside a tour of common learning spaces within online learning management systems. Methods for transferring live, face-to-face music appreciation classes into online courses are included. Because the population of online undergraduate students typically includes many adult learners ages 25 and older, a foundational introduction to andragogy is provided. The second chapter in this section introduces teaching philosophy and ways in which music appreciation instructors might develop a philosophy for teaching the course online that can withstand various inherent challenges. Both chapters provide a broad view that can be helpful to those new to online education or who seek clarity about the purposes and goals of teaching music appreciation.

This chapter examines the quality of online investment education materials and advice offered to individuals planning for retirement. It is shown that the educational materials and investment advice offered by financial services firms are often dangerously misleading. A new generation of investment products are needed to provide insurance against severe market declines.

This chapter explores the rapid growth of online education. It evaluates the likelihood that distance learning will break the rise in college cost and disrupt the traditional model of campus-based programming. There are many ways that the rapid entrepreneurial development of digital learning can change how higher education is provided, and there are many ways that online education may work in the labor market of the future. Although digital techniques will continue to improve and develop, this chapter does not forecast an upheaval in the way higher education is delivered to students in the traditional age range of eighteen to twenty-four. Online education will continue to expand the opportunities for older and returning students, while traditional campus-based programming will continue to offer the best alternative for younger first-time students.

This chapter describes King's College London's online MA/PGDip in French Language and Culture programme. The programme, launched in October 2009, is believed to be the only truly entirely online postgraduate degree in both French language and content in the UK. It suggests that online and blended programmes benefit institutions by contributing to internationalisation; from a departmental point of view, such programmes extend the range of modes of delivery, expand the range of offerings, and also feed into staff motivation and departmental synergies.

This chapter discusses how both departments and individuals can incorporate effective practices in online course development and instruction. It is organized into five sections covering the critical course components for providing quality instruction and promoting student success in the online classroom: (i) developing and presenting learning objectives; (ii) student preparedness and orientation to online learning; (iii) increasing engagement through technology; (iv) managing online discussions; and (v) assessment of student learning.

Educational technology, such as radio, television, and the Internet, can dramatically increase the number of people who can be reached with conservation messages. It also allows audiences to vicariously experience natural events and places they might never see in person. Websites, social media, videos, apps, computer simulations, and distance education allow conservation agencies and organizations to go beyond traditional face-to-face programming. They can establish new ways to effectively reach their audience and open the door for audience members to share information with others. Whether these technologies are successful depends in part on the degree to which they incorporate relevant learning theories. Strategies for evaluating websites, videos, and online education programs help ensure quality programs.

While early discussions around the pros and cons of MOOCs have been spirited, often overlooked in such discussions are how MOOCs can enhance rather than replace classroom teaching. Experience with an early and highly-successful software engineering MOOC led to coining the term SPOC, for Small Private Online Course, to describe the more intimate experience resulting from the careful customization and adaptation of MOOC-tested materials for classroom use. The result is that the campus course on which the MOOC was based has quadrupled its enrollment while maintaining high student evaluations and has allowed teaching assistants to spend more of their time advising open-ended student projects, which are key to the course's learning objectives. Further, a growing community of classroom instructors at other universities has adapted the same MOOC materials in a wide variety of pedagogies, dispelling the myth that MOOCs threaten to impose homogeneity that de-professionalizes instructors and devalues their creativity. On the contrary, this SPOC community now regularly contributes new course materials to the MOOC and enhances existing ones, to the benefit of all. Notwithstanding, structural and cultural institutional obstacles pose some challenges to widespread emulation of this successful strategy.

In the third section, Specifics of Course Components and Samples, course components other than text are introduced. These include multimedia assets—effective tools to deliver content, engage learners, and promote creativity—as well as discussion forums, assignments, announcements, and other tools, illustrated by examples. This section is organized topically and serves as a resource for both novice and veteran online educators. For each area, tips are provided to ensure that these aspects of the online course are successfully developed and presented to students. Specific examples are provided that can be used in any online course without additional permission.

This chapter presents an essay on the escalating influence of computer technology in the affairs of pedagogy and the possible decline in face-to-face encounters in the pedagogical environment. It states that the development of online education has caused the quality of pedagogical interaction to deteriorate. This development has undermined the implacable power of face-to-face experience and highlighted the diluting character of distance as illustrated by voice mails. It suggests that the wider the physical gap, the more indirect the experience and the lesser the quality of educational experience.

This chapter reviews multimedia assets that involve audio, video, presentation, and engaging aspects, and which can be developed by the instructor and students. Elements of accessibility for students with learning differences and disabling conditions are provided to guide instructors in selecting and using tools. Copyright compliance is also introduced. Readers will benefit from guidelines for integrating multimedia content, suggestions for student asset development, and the reviews of many sample educational technology tools that can be effectively integrated into the online music appreciation course. The chapter ends with a brief summary of important points and an infographic designed to visually highlight four categories of multimedia tools that can be used to create instructor-made assets, with several applications and app examples included.