Washington, DC -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/23/2012 -- Dr. Fred DiUlus, online education systems inventor and Director of the non profit online Center for Ethics in Free Enterprise (CEFE) and the creator of its international university builder, Global Academy Online, recently spoke out on the real truths of online higher education. The forum was the Journal of Online Education.

According to research undertaken by the Center for Ethics in Free Enterprise over the past 15 years, 90% of students around the world who experience traditional and online education side-by-side at some point in their academic lives, rate online learning as superior or as good as traditional classroom teaching. The myth that a degree obtained through an online program is not as credible as a traditional classroom education is simply, states DiUlus, “A myth “.

The myth is held on to; DiUlus goes on to say, by college administrators and professors who perceived the risk as too costly to their own careers fearing for the schools and their own reputations. “Within the last four years, many universities have been drawn to online education, not because they consider it worthy or they changed their minds about its value, but because of their necessity to survive economically in the face of legislative and benefactor cutbacks in support.” He notes that many see online education as a cash cow, not as a way to really improve their knowledge delivery.

Consequently, financial survival not academic excellence is driving the detractors to adopt online programs for their schools at a record pace. The result according to DiUlus is shoddy prep and ill prepared educators. “The school’s ability to support infrastructure and the declining financial health of their institutions is seriously impacting administrative decisions to go online, not the lofty idea that the value of the education is actually better.”

When Dr. DiUlus is asked what he holds for the future of higher education, he states, “Colleges and universities as we know them will cease to exist in a generation transformed by technology and 24/7 continuous education online.”