Has the Tide Turned? Mainstream Media Sees OL as "Richer"

This article from today's Miami Herald (6/7/10) certainly caught my attention [thanks to Sandra Coswatte at the Sloan Consortium for alerting me to it].

To me, five words in this article say it all: "This richer online learning experience..."

What a long way we have come, perception-wise. This is a clear signal IMO that the tide has turned - this is the first mainstream media article I have seen which portrays online learning as a distinctly superior experience. Have you seen other ones which clearly do so?

It is no coincidence that article cites the USDE study as background evidence, which is highly ironic IMO since that study was so flawed and its caveats were clear (if buried on page 51 of the report). But that study seems to have done more to unleash the "online learning is OK/even better" meme into the mainstream than any other single factor I can name.

I also had to laugh at the emphasis on "kitchen-based experiments" -- my former employer Northern Virginia CC has offered distance learning courses with kitchen-based experiments for over 20 years now; I helped develop one in the mid- 1990s -- and the mainstream media is only now discovering this?

Of course, we practitioners will continue to keep our focus on the reality of what's happening. But I find the change in perception to be noteworthy and still a bit astonishing...