Education is important for the success of individuals and societies. It seems obvious to say this. But there is currently a book published in the United States entitled The Case Against Education. The author, Bryan Caplan,is an economist and his arguments are informed by economic priorities. He contends that education, particularly college education, has fostered “runaway credential inflation.” Credentials are important to get employment, he argues, though not necessarily to do the work in jobs. Students are in college for credentials not for the learning. They need credentials for work, but while getting credentials they are usually not learning very much that helps them in their work life.
Although this is not a new argument, it does remind educators that we need to ensure that we take the value of our work seriously. We need to continue to provide engaging, quality education. We need to do so for our students, for society, and also to seriously address the concerns about the value of education. The articles in this issue all suggest the importance distance educators put upon these values.
The first article by Samantha Viano is about online education for high school students. Viano discusses just how critical online education is for secondary students at risk of failing and potentially dropping out of education. The vast majority of online high school students are taking courses to recover credits for a course they failed the first time in a face-to-face setting. For these students, the importance of succeeding in online education is immediate and urgent.
Sanghoon Park and Heoncheol Yun studied how regulation strategies can help distance education students be more engaged with their learning. Their focus is not just on cognitive engagement but also on behavioral and emotional engagement that can be important for students’ success in an online course. Their research suggests that students have different motivational profiles and these profiles require differentiated motivational scaffolding to help students succeed.
Azam Esfijiani does an extensive review of different approaches for measuring quality in online education. Using a meta-synthesis, Esfijiani reviews over 100 publications since the year 2000 on approaches to measuring quality in online education. He found that the students’ perspective is the focus of most approaches to quality in online education. However, most of these approaches use easy-to-measure metrics for assessing the quality of online programs. And few approaches to quality include perspectives of employers and clients.
Hajar Ghadirian, Keyvan Salehi, and Ahmad Fauzi Mohd Ayub studied the use of social networks by online students in discussion forums. They found important differences in the communication patterns of high- and low-performing students. Higher performing students had denser ego networks—social network relationships with core members. Higher performing students increased and kept their networks stable over the course in comparison. By contrast low-performing students’ network relationships fragmented over the course.
Raymond Fleming, Dylan Barth, Nicole Weber, Laura E. Pedrick, Sarah E. Kienzler, and Diane M. Reddy studied the effects of a mastery learning approach delivered online at the University of Wisconsin. The program is called U-Pace, where instructors provide proactive and personalized support to guide learners as they master content. Results indicate that both older and younger students improved their learning and had greater academic success and better perceptions of themselves as learners.
Abeer A. Alamri and Bader A. Alsaleh review the book Transforming Education in the Gulf Region: Emerging Learning Technologies and Innovative Pedagogy for the 21st Century. The book was edited by Khalid Alshahrani and Mohamed Ally. The review highlights that digital technologies continue to spread and change education, both online and offline. Their review states that the book provides not only analysis of initiatives using mobile learning, flipped classrooms, blended learning, and massive open online courses but also ready-to-use learning materials.
The articles in this issue suggest that distance educators are continuing to make a case for education. Their focus is not just on students’ credentials but also on learning. Providing education that fosters an engaging, quality experience for students is something that most distance educators and researchers still value.