Online courses open educational doors

In response to the letter by Jack Vazzana (“Online Courses Are Lowering Quality of Higher Education,” Aug. 20), I must take issue with his characterization of online learning in higher education. Mr. Vazzana begins by stating that online education is “driven by business ideas” and profit motives. Speaking as someone with years of experience in online programming for students enrolled in traditional public and private universities, I can assure you that what motivates those of us working on the front lines of this endeavor is the ability to reach students who would not otherwise be able to participate in the quality education that such institutions provide.

Mr. Vazzana claims online classes produce neither enjoyment nor learning for students. In fact, many studies have shown the exact opposite. When designed appropriately, online courses produce learning outcomes equal to or better than face-to-face courses. Of course, quality does vary from one online course to another, just as it does in face-to-face courses. Fortunately, 20 years of research in online learning has yielded a substantial corpus of effective practices to follow in designing andteaching online courses.

I am often asked if I think that online education will replace the campus experience for traditional undergraduates. I hope not! Those four years with peers and caring mentors provide an excellent foundation for the responsibilities of adulthood and civic engagement. The power of technology, however, can be leveraged to provide remediation for underprepared students and supplemental learning for high achievers. And, importantly, it offers a pathway for adult learners to professional agility and personaldevelopment. LORNA KEARNS

Mt. Lebanon

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violence. Only by joining together as one — and repudiating all violent extremism — can we build a community and an American society in which we allcan feel safe, grow and thrive. CYNTHIA D. SHAPIRA Chair, Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Oakland

Immediately following the Charlottesville, Va., incident, some liberal pundits began preaching to us about how we must protect the constitutional rights of American neo-Nazis and domestic terrorists.

My father didn’t wade ashore at Omaha Beach into five months of nearly continuous combat, followed by five months as a POW and a lifetime of trying to forget the carnage, so that threatening bully boys could flaunt Nazi paraphernalia and shout racist Nazi slogans on America’s streets.

Groups that lost family members, and even entire families, to the Holocaust should not be expected to endure a repeat of such hatred in their own American hometowns. AfricanAmerican parents who are still struggling to understand how to protect their own children after a 12-year-old black kid with a toy gun was shot down, in broad daylight, by a police officer should not be expected to accept the sight of heavily armed adult white men parading around threateningly with no consequences to them.

For far too long, some segments of our popular culture and our political leadership have tolerated, and even encouraged, these American Brownshirts in our midst for their own personal profit or re-election. It is time for that to stop. If not in the name of human decency, then for the survivalof the nation. KENNETH P. YONEK

Nottingham

As a Steelers season ticket holder and veteran, I feel obliged to weigh in on the controversy regarding various NFL players who are expressing their displeasure regarding various perceived societal ills by failing to render the national anthem and flag the respect they are normally given.

First, let me say unequivocally that I recognize that their rights regarding free speech and expression permit them to do whatever they want during the anthem. I served this country, and spent time in the desert, in part to guarantee that they are free to sit, raise their fist, eat lunch, mill around or do whatever they want while the rest of us are honoring the flag. However, I want them also to recognize my rights. I have the right to boo them, call them ignorant, misguided — and many other names not suitable for a family newspaper. It’s also my right to fervently wish every time they run on the field that someone cleans their clock and that they haveto be helped off.

Freedom of speech and expression runs both ways. My feelings do not arise from racism, but rather a much simpler fact. The flag they disrespect is the same one that was folded 13 times and presented on behalf of a grateful nation to the wives, mothers and fathers of my friends who did not make it home from the desert. PATRICK HEWITT

Upper St. Clair