WASHINGTON, D.C. — HBCUs and the online learning community need to become “more married” to reach more African-American students and reverse the United States’ continual slippage from its former position as the most degreed nation in the world.
That was the heart of the message delivered Thursday by Dr. John Wilson, executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
“We need a quality-based game-changer, and online education can help,” Wilson told an audience of about 50 during his keynote speech at the 2011 United States Distance Learning Association Public Policy Forum.
Wilson noted that of the 105 HBCUs throughout the nation, fewer than 20 have online degree programs.
“We definitely need to strengthen the HBCUs infrastructure in this regard, and we have a lot of work to do in order to strengthen the infrastructure since so few of our HBCUs have online degree programs,” Wilson said.
But while Wilson said “the marketplace is ripe” for online education at HBCUs, an expert on online learning at HBCUs said there’s a reason why so few HBCUs have online degree programs.
Dr. Roy Beasley, director of Howard-Online at Howard University, said while online education is popular with adults who are continuing their education and need flexibility in their academic programs, HBCUs still primarily serve traditional campus-based students, and, thus, the demand for online education has not seen significant growth.
