Like many others, after watching television for years I had developed a rather mocking attitude about what it takes to be an entertaining television personality. After all, if the hosts of NBC’s Today Show can get awards for journalism, then how hard can it be to convey your ideas, opinions, and biases to thousands of viewers while sitting in an air conditioned studio with the infamous green room just down the hall?
Much of this certainty, however, came to crashing halt last summer, when I was asked to be a guest on a national cable news show that would focus on e-learning for the 10-minute segment. Not only did I find communicating my answers more challenging than expected, but even the process of differentiating which questions were directed at me and which were directed to other guests (each located in different cities) was tricky for this novice.
But in this article I will avoid recalling the painful details of the episode, even if my mother still says that I looked great. What I do want to discuss is a challenge (of sorts) that another guest on the show submitted to those of us who are in the profession of distance education. Representing a corporate recruitment firm that specializes in placing college graduates in career positions at Fortune 500 companies, this guest questioned what distance educators and distance education programs have done to market the specialized skills of our graduates to the many corporations and organizations that would be potential employers.
As he pointed out through the discussion, the majority of human resource managers in today’s top organizations are not graduates of distance education programs, nor do they have a history of knowingly hiring employees who have degrees from institutions offering courses online. As a result, their perceptions and attitudes regarding online degrees often result from misunderstandings of the institutions offering online courses and rumors about poor quality in online programs.
These misperceptions of many human resource managers consequently have tremendous impact on our profession as distance educators, including—but not limited to—the placement of graduates in top organization, promotion of graduates already in organizations, availability of tuition remission programs, new student recruitment, and even graduate salaries. All of this, at a time when many distance education programs and professionals are working to distinguish online degree programs from the diploma mills that are showing up on more Websites and spam messages every day.
While there are many ancillary discussions (and future Ends and Means articles) that will undoubtedly come from this brief discussion during my short-lived television appearance, I would like to first suggest two general fronts on which each of us can start to address this growing issue for our profession.
First, it is important that our online students and graduates feel confident in sharing their online experiences with the colleagues, coworkers, and future employers. Online courses and degrees should be of the quality that all students feel confident that their knowledge and skills have prepared them to be successful in their careers. As a result, it is up to distance educators to ensure the quality of our courses and to encourage students to share their online experiences with others.
At many institutions, there are no designations that differentiate online degrees from those received by on-campus students. While this may have been a positive development a decade ago, today it may be keeping the popularity and quality of many online degree programs under wraps instead of promoting their successes. After all, if employers are never aware that a skilled employee was the result of an online degree program, it is less likely that past stigmas of online graduates will fade away.
As a second step in combating misperceptions and promoting the quality of our graduates, distance education programs and professional groups should step up the marketing and communications of online education to current and potential employers, highlighting the tremendous successes and skills of our graduates. Currently, potential students are the primary audience for most marketing campaigns, while future employers are left without accurate information on the quality of online courses and degrees. In response, it is the growing responsibility of professional groups in our profession to use our combined resources in developing effective communication strategies targeting audiences beyond potential students.
By recognizing and addressing the perceptions (or misperceptions) that many human resource managers have of distance education, we can support the success of our students long after they leave our online classrooms. As distance educators, we should be encouraging our students to share their positive online experiences with their colleagues and working together to market the value of online graduates to the many organizations that may be their future employers.
Note: Any opinion, findings, and conclusion or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of the National Science Foundation.
