Should Online Education be Free?

Our take: As more universities are offering online education, Jeffery King, from U.S. News, analyzes if it should be free. If it is free those that have less income and are in developing countries will have the chance for higher education. However, not everyone is happy with online education:

"It's clear the education realm is at a turning point. Since the Internet was made available to the public, a natural component of its growth has been the concept of free and open information, which covers almost all forms of media for whatever purpose you can imagine, from copyrighted videos and music to personal file sharing and educational material.

However, the significance of online learning is now becoming apparent with the adoption of online courses by leading colleges around the world. Online education was not taken all that seriously before, and any student wishing to gain a higher education would not have considered the online route, due to the questionable quality of the material and the defensive stance of the academic world towards it. But the times are changing, with online courses now a credible way of achieving qualifications that are truly useful. Leading universities are now beginning to offer online courses, opening up a new world of possibilities for education, but the big question is: Should they be free?"

Read more about Should Online Education be free on U.S. News.