Online education – Does it pay ?

Online education has been hailed by some politicians and higher education experts as an innovation with the potential to deliver courses and degrees to students who might not otherwise attend college at a fraction of the typical cost.

But a new study is challenging that notion with evidence that, for most students, online education doesn’t typically pay off.

Though students who pursue an exclusively or substantially online education usually see their earnings go up following their efforts, it’s typically not enough to cover the amount they spent on tuition and fees, according to a working paper by Stanford University economist, Caroline Hoxby, distributed by the National Bureau of Economic Research this week. What’s more, the earnings increase is rarely enough to recoup the cost society pays — in the form of federal student loans — to send them to school, the study found.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Damning study finds students get lousy returns on online education – MarketWatch