June 23, 2022
Edward Conroy wrote an article for Forbes about the predatory nature of Online Program Managers.
Proponents believe online education is the future of higher education, providing ease of access, more flexible learning, and the opportunity to engage students wherever they are. The pandemic has shown that many universities can pivot to online education when needed, but creating effective, fully online programs is still hard. Perhaps that is why many online programs at public universities are run by private corporations known as Online Program Managers (OPMs). Worryingly, these private companies bear many of the predatory hallmarks—aggressive recruiting and targeting minoritized students—we saw in for-profit colleges like Corinthian and ITT Tech, both of which collapsed after years of hoovering up as many federal dollars as possible, harming tens of thousands of students in the process.
What are OPMs, and why do they exist?
As online education expanded over the past twenty years, particularly at for-profit schools, public universities, eager to compete by expanding their online classes, chose to pursue contracts with OPMs rather than expand internal capacity. at least partly because they were convinced that doing so was less financially risky. That strategy has unfortunately created more risk for students and, in the long run, more risk for institutions.
The idea is that OPMs provide the tech platforms that help students engage with and access online education, and universities provide the courses and content. But increasingly, the courses are designed and run by the OPMs as well, with the contracting university mainly providing its brand to attract students. If an OPM ceases to provide the platform for online courses, students could be left without a course to attend overnight.
Read the full article here.