Title: How Employers View Online Degrees: Interviews with Nine Hiring Executives
Headings: How Do Employers View Online Degrees?
How Do Employers View Online Degrees?
Meet the Interviewees: Nine CEOs and Executives
Employer Perceptions of Online Education
Positive perceptions of online degrees included:
Negative perceptions of online degrees included:
Positive Perceptions of Online Degrees
Negative Perceptions of Online Degrees
Conclusions: What to Consider Before Enrolling in an Online Program
Jocelyn Blore

Content: There’s been a trend toward not-for-profit and public institutions, which increased their online student enrollments 26 and 9 percent, respectively, between 2012 and 2014. During that same time, for-profit enrollments dropped 10 percent. One of the most striking findings in the thirteen years of this survey has been the shifting attitude within academia. In 2003, 57.2 percent of chief academic officers and leaders rated the outcomes of online education as the same (or superior) to traditional instruction; by 2015, this figure had swelled to 71.4 percent. There’s no denying that online education is still dogged by an image problem (note: content may be paywalled), largely due to skyrocketing student debt at the hands of exploitative for-profit schools. Despite these headwinds, there are several forces contributing to the continued popularity of online programs. Not only has new technology facilitated people’s access to distance-based degrees, but also a growing number of established, regionally accredited, public and private universities are now offering a full-slate of online degree programs. By illustration, the University of North Carolina, Georgetown University, Penn State University, Arizona State University, and UC Berkeley, among others, made several graduate degree programs available online.