Position Paper

POSITION PAPER Committee: UNESCO
Country: USA
HOW TO MAKE ONLINE EDUCATION ACCESSIBLE
TO EVERYONE
Topic Background
There is a global demand for education and a growing gap between demand and supply. The
demand varies by country and type of education. The United Nations (UN) is central to the call for
improved rates of primary education worldwide for both genders. Using two important calls to
action, the UN and World Bank have developed the Education for All initiative and the Millennium
Development Goals. Most developed countries, while achieving high rates of success in primary and
secondary school, are still trying to grow participation in higher (tertiary) education. In addition, it
has been recognized by many, including UNESCO that the need for continuing education, which in
the United States (U.S.) often falls to higher education providers, is also growing and likely to
continue to do so as jobs, technology and knowledge change rapidly. Online learning, and more
recently Open Educational Resources, hold potential for helping to address the global demand for
education, particularly in higher education, by expanding access to experts, curriculum and learning
materials.
Past International Action

Online learning started as a type of distance education technology in the 1980s and 1990s. Other
distance education technologies were paper-based correspondence courses and later, video- or
satellite-based along Access to Education with Online Learning and Open Educational Resources: Can
they Close the Gap? 106 Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 12: Issue 1 with some
other technologies. The differentiator for online learning is that transmission occurs through the
internet connected computer while continuing the distance education construct where students and
faculty do not need to be in the same place at the same time. The Sloan Foundation’s asynchronous
learning network (ALN) model primarily uses the internet to facilitate something close to the way
traditional college courses have been taught for decades [1]. In the late 1990s, the industry began
using terms like e-learning and online learning to describe a richer environment than just ALN [2]. In
the U.S., more and more technologies, especially synchronous ones, have been added to provide
more immediacy and a richer set of options for interaction. The distinction between online learning
and e-learning remains nebulous, but e-learning is a term more frequently applied to corporate or
self-paced learning. Online learning, especially for U.S. higher education, continues to be designed
around the traditional course model. Students may take an online course or even choose to obtain
an entire degree online.
Country Policy
This paper draws on the literature of education policy, online learning and OER. The litereature
provides a basis for describing the scope of the demand for higher education and for identifying the
ways in which online learning and OER may help meet the demand. Much of the data reported tries
to reflect worldwide information. However, we base most of the online learning research and review
on available U.S. data. For the purposes of examining OER and online learning in terms of access, we
are using the “4-A Framework of the Human Rights Obligations” by Tomasevski [10]. The 4-A’s
emphasize rights to as well as rights in education and include ‘availability,’ ‘accessibility,’
‘acceptability,’ and ‘adaptability.’ The 4-
Possible Solutions
A. Current Attendance Levels
In 2004, nearly 132 million people worldwide were participating in higher education [11]. The U.
S. and Western Europe have more students attending college as a percent of their populations
than other areas of the world. For example, roughly 18 million are enrolled in the U. S. which is
13.5% of the total 132 million attending college worldwide. Yet, the U. S. represents only 4.6% of
the world’s population. U. S. attendance jumped dramatically from 1999 to 2004 where entry
rates of participation went from 46% to 61% [11]. If only the primary target market of 18-24 year
olds is considered, their participation in the U.S. system was 83% [12]. The 1980s and 1990s saw
sizeable increases in higher education attendance for middle-income countries too. And in
countries where entry rates were already high, like the U.S., the growth rate was still nearly 10%
for many of those countries. The combined impact is that demand is growing for a college
education in almost all types of countries. In addition, Education for All and Millenium
Development Goals are targeted to growing secondary attendance, the demand for college
education will continue to rise and the expectation is that middleincome countries, like China,
and India will continue to lead percentage growth in attendance. The UNESCO data does not
include how many want to attend and are not accepted. Sir John Daniel, sited in Atkins et al.
observes the growing gap and why the solutions of developed countries can’t keep up: Half of
the world’s population is under twenty years old; …over thirty million people are fully qualified
to enter a university, but there is no place available. This number will grow to over 100 million
during the next decade; To meet the staggering global demand for advanced education, a major
university needs to be created every week; In most of the world, higher education is mired in a
crisis of access, cost, and flexibility. The dominant forms of higher education in developed
nations—campus based, high cost, limited use of technology—seem ill-suited to address global
education needs of the billions of young people who will require it in the decades ahead [13].
B. Completion Gap in the U.S.

Based on the data in Figure 1, almost the same number of students enters and leaves U. S.
higher education each year. The total graduates include all types of degrees: associate through
doctoral. The purpose is not to make the data more complex, but to show that since 1999
almost three million more students are in the U.S. higher education system and yet almost no
increase has occurred in the number of graduation awards. The graduation awards include those
receiving graduate and professional degrees. The number of graduation awards is also skewed
as those in graduate, first-professional and doctoral programs make up more of the awards, as a
percentage, than the percent they represent in the system. For many, the data are not
surprising, but it underscores the fact that students pursuing two-year and four-year degrees are
getting fewer graduation awards then the percentage of their participation would indicate [14].
There are also data which show more undergraduate students are spending more time getting
that first degree. So the lengthening time is increasing the number in higher education more
than adding new young students even though participation of 18–22 year olds in the US remains
high. The graph also points that even though participation of new students is growing and
remains a large portion of the market, the increase is fewer than 2% per year. It is clear for
students in the U.S. that it takes increasing effort to complete a degree. Many factors contribute,
but perhaps none more than the fact that few students are in the category of being full-time and
living on campus. In fact, the U. S. Department of Education statistics indicate that only 17% of
all higher education students are traditional—living on a residential campus and attending a full-
time. Many attend full-time, but no longer live on campus, and often work full-time besides
attending college full-time. For this population who doesn’t live on campus, learning online
should be a convenient choice [14].
Figure 1. No Corresponding Increase in U.S. Completion.
The completion gap is growing in the US. It takes longer for students to finish and many who
enter never finish a degree. In the developing world, there is a growing demand for higher
education. Both these conditions are leading to less adults achieving a college degree. In the US
alone, using very simple math if you count the number of new freshmen who enter (roughly 21
million) and those who did not get a degree (70 percent) there are nearly 15 million adults who
did not complete. That, combined with the numbers projected by Sir John Daniel, means well
over 45 million either wanted to be in education or have tried it without completing successfully.

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POSITION PAPER Committee: UNESCO

Past International Action

B. Completion Gap in the U.S.

Figure 1. No Corresponding Increase in U.S. Completion.

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