Quality Concerns Mount in US Online Education
Sophia Learning, an online education platform that enables students in the United States to earn college credit at a lower cost and in less time, made significant changes to its system after a journalist completed two courses in only a few hours.
Sophia Learning is a subscription-based education platform that allows students to take online courses in subjects such as mathematics, business, history, and the social sciences and complete them at their own pace. Courses completed through Sophia can also be converted into college credit at partner higher education institutions, and Sophia courses are accepted by more than 100 universities and colleges.
After The Washington Post reporter Todd Wallack revealed that he had completed two Sophia Learning courses in one day by using the “Ctrl-F” text-search function on his computer to find answers to exam questions, Sophia Learning blocked students from using “Ctrl-F” to search the course materials within the platform. It also removed the option to download course content in PDF format, making it more difficult for students to open the files elsewhere and search for answers. The company stated that the changes were intended to encourage students to engage with the course content and study the materials rather than searching directly for keywords.
Sophia Learning’s parent company reports that the platform gained 65,000 new subscribers last year. Although students are said to complete a course in slightly more than three weeks on average, the journalist’s completion of two courses in only a few hours has reignited debate over the balance between speed, accessibility, and academic quality in online education.