I've bookmarked this interesting analysis to add the link to my personal website. I especially like the comparisons among differing brands of online courses. B

I've bookmarked this interesting analysis to add the link to my personal website. I especially like the comparisons among differing brands of online courses. Before I read the fine article (which I recommend you read too), I was going to react just to the headline. And that reaction is still there. The reason we (correctly) criticize lack of retention in online education is that online education makes apparent metrics that show the lack of retention. But I would suggest, for learned discussion by all the participants here, that most forms of classroom learning, and especially compulsory secondary schooling in most of the developed world, suffers from a very bad lack of engagement on the part of the students. (Some of the comments posted here before this comment tell stories about that.) A high school student may attend classes often enough to avoid being expelled and gain a diploma, but the student may operate in "regurgitate and forget" mode the whole time he is in high school, not really remembering anything he supposedly was taught. The one kind of deep learning many high school students engage in is learning how to pretend to be studying. If online education develops better demonstrations of learner acquisition of knowledge and skill than mere seat time in a classroom, it may be a powerful force for exposing the dirty secret of classroom education.