[munin]

Teaching classes effectively is very hard and very few people can do it. It also doesn’t pay that well and is draining and often times not that rewarding. Universities try to get people that are good at it as professors by bribing them with the respect and autonomy that the title “professor” confers. Outside of the classroom, the professor does whatever they want to advance their own agenda.

I would think online only programs would have a hard time competing with universities for people that can design and execute effective courses. There are so few that most universities don’t even employ many of them. Why would someone like that work for an online school when they could work for one that would give them tenure, funding, lab space, grad students, etc?

[foldr]

>Universities try to get people that are good at it as professors by bribing them with the respect and autonomy that the title “professor” confers.

Generally speaking, universities don't care much about teaching ability. Hiring decisions are based almost entirely on research profiles (except where the institution itself has a clear focus on teaching over research, as at e.g. some liberal arts colleges). There are two main reasons for this. First, research brings more money and prestige. Second, student satisfaction has little to do with teaching quality. You can make students happy just by giving them a light workload and good grades.

So in fact, there are lots of people who are good at teaching who universities have no interest in hiring.

[galimaufry]

> Why would someone like that work for an online school when they could work for one that would give them tenure, funding, lab space, grad students, etc?

Well, someone like that would love to not have to waste time lecturing. By not being on campus they could go to more conferences and spend more time in the field. They could recruit ideal grad students from anywhere on earth without worrying about immigration restrictions or family ties.

[rmbeard]

Online Universities at least some of them do offer those things, within the limits of their funding. And that is really the issue - funding.

[unreal37]

That's quite a cynical take.