Online Education Has Come a Long Way—So Why Do the Myths Persist?
Published by: WCET | 5/7/2026
A recent Washington Post article about online education, competency-based education, and accelerated degree programs elicited the comments you might expect. I lost count of those decrying such programs as degree mills. Not surprising. We continue to see a general misunderstanding of online education—even though the majority of students today are enrolled in at least one distance education course.
Despite an explosion in online education offerings, the myths about its quality remain pervasive. One example: During last year’s negotiated rulemaking, one negotiator likened online education to watching a bunch of YouTube videos—a comment that the federal negotiator did not challenge.
This is dangerous for our field and for our students: current, former, and prospective. It calls into question the value and validity of their hard work. And it is approaching an existential crisis for our field.
I began my career as a history professor, drawn to it by the transformative experiences I had at my small, liberal arts undergraduate institution. It was there that I learned to question assumptions, focus on critical inquiry, and explore new ideas in a way that opened up new worlds for me. But I was lucky. Higher education wasn’t as expensive in the 1980s as it is today, and my parents had been saving for my college education before I was even born. The truth is, higher education, and especially access to higher education, has drastically changed, but our golden ideal hasn’t. Too many people still believe that the only valid form of higher education is a residential, face-to-face model. That model may work for some 18–22-year-olds, but it makes higher education inaccessible for working adults, single parents, rural students, and other learners that cannot get to a college campus.
Who Competency-Based Education Is (and Isn’t) For
This bias is on full display in the aforementioned Washington Post article, Students are speeding through their online degrees in weeks, alarming educators (Wallack, 2026). Problematically, this article (among others) conflates online education in general with competency-based education (CBE), which focuses on mastery over time. Students in CBE programs are allowed to advance upon showing mastery of the materials, thus making mastery constant and seat time variable. Proponents of CBE often argue that this requirement that students prove mastery can be a higher standard than traditional courses where students can pass with mastery of some but not all of the material. CBE isn’t new; it’s been around for decades. However, it gained new prominence with the development of Western Governors University and the popularity of other programs such as Southern New Hampshire University’s numerous programs, Capella University’s FlexPath, and Purdue University Global’s ExcelTrack, to name just a few.
CBE isn’t for every student. Most CBE programs limit enrollment to e highly motivated adult learners whose life and professional experiences often translate into existing knowledge, ability, and skills; these students are often able to rapidly advance through portions of their programs by proving mastery. And because these programs are focused on mastery of material over seat time, they often are priced as subscription-based programs that allow students to complete as many competencies/credits as they can within a term, thus sometimes creating significant cost-savings for students who are coming in with considerable prior credit, knowledge, abilities, and skills and/or are highly motivated to complete their credentials in a timely fashion. In recent years, CBE programs have found that online education is their ideal modality since many CBE programs focus on asynchronous education.
The Problem With Outliers
Unfortunately, the Washington Post article focuses on a handful of outlier students who have completed degrees in just a few months and uses this speed to question the validity and rigor of the program and resulting credentials. Although the article does make a distinction between CBE and online education, that distinction is largely lost in the article—and is completely lost in the thousands of reader comments. As one reader wrote, “Sorry, gang. As someone with 3 real college degrees, done the traditional on-campus way, I have absolutely no respect for any online ‘degree.’ It’s really nothing more than a money-making scam which leaves many without money nor an education.” Another commenter simply wrote, “The on-line courses have always been a fraud. Why does this surprise anyone?”
Which brings me back to where I started this post: Why does online education have a persistent reputation problem? Why do so many people continue to believe that online education is somehow less than face-to-face? Why does the quality of online education continue to be disparaged?
In part, I suspect, it is because we do not always do a good job of telling our story. We talk about statistics, but we don’t always talk about learners and their families. It’s easier to be dismissive of that online learner when they are a number than when they are a single mother juggling work and family responsibilities who has started and stopped a degree program at least once, yet needs that degree in order to get a better job that pays more than minimum wage.
It’s Time to Refocus the Narrative
So, what can we do as online learning professionals? First, we must continue to push back against the false comparison of online education to face-to-face education. We can’t be afraid to dispel those myths of online learning: That what we do lacks rigor. That we are degree mills. That only face-to-face instruction can be high quality. We must do a better job of telling our story and those of our students, especially those who rely on distance education to better their lives and the lives of their families. And we must make sure that every course, every degree, every certificate program, and every institutional online education department are focused on rigor and quality.
To that end, we proudly announced the release of our Online Learning Quality Rubric and Toolkit for WCET members earlier this month. Meant to help institutions assess the maturity of their digital learning enterprise, the resource provides numerous tools and case studies that institutions can use to explore and improve the maturity of their program. Additionally, the toolkit’s author, Kara Monroe, will lead a preconference workshop before WCET 2026 in Minneapolis, in October. Look for more information coming soon.
Online education may not look like face-to-face learning, but its rigor, quality, and impact are just as important. Rather than focusing on a relatively small number of outliers who are completing their degrees in months and not years, I would urge the media to focus on the individuals whose lives are better because of the opportunities that online education has afforded them. Focus on that single parent who can’t make it to their local college campus during the workday. Focus on that rural student who lives in an educational desert. Focus on that veteran with college credit but no degree that works full-time. Focus on that student who otherwise thinks that college isn’t for them. Those are the lives that change.
References
Wallack, T. (2026, April 19). Students are speeding through their online degrees in weeks, alarming educators. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/04/19/accelerated-college-degree-hacking/.
