There have been several very public failures of online degree programs in the past 12 months, and several others that were not so public as well.  As an observer of online higher education, I think it is safe to say that programs are closing almost as quickly as they are being launched.  The fact is traditional institutions seem to have a lot of trouble figuring out how to make a new online division successful.  In the process of trying to determine the equation for success, these colleges often spend large sums of money only to eventually close the online programs entirely.  This pattern begs the question, ‘why does this happen?’.  I think that there are several answers to this question, all of which center around a common theme: traditional institutions simply do not approach online education correctly.  The following are some flaws in approach that lead to online program failures.

Read the rest of this entry »