Let’s do more on-line learning! But to raise graduation rates?

The University System of Georgia is aiming to provide more online education and figure out ways to improve it.  Great! As way to increase graduation rates?  Really?  Retention rates tend to drop online.  While we don’t know how to interpret the low success rates in the Stanford classes, it’s clear that face-to-face classes have much higher retention rates.  More online education means that you get more access.  Does it follow that you get more graduation?  Other papers around the state are recognizing that more on-line is about access, which is an important goal.

University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby named a task force Thursday to look for ways to improve how the system’s 35 colleges and universities provide online education.

The effort will be part of an initiative aimed at increasing the state’s college graduation rate.

“The economic future of Georgia depends upon more Georgians completing some level of college education,” Huckaby said in a prepared statement. “We have to make better use of our distance education resources and ramp up our efforts to help us meet state workforce needs.”

via Georgia university system to examine online learning – Atlanta Business Chronicle.