Divided by Distance? The Labour Market Outcomes Associated with Postsecondary Distance Education

• In Event: 3429 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 29. Wage, Employment, Occupational Outcomes

Abstract

Higher education in Canada is in the process of transformation as the growing popularity of online and distance education programs has led many postsecondary institutions to adopt alternatives to traditional in-class courses. While distance education has been praised for its accessibility and its ability to offer flexible, round-the-clock alternatives to in-class instruction, there are those who believe that online education has largely served as a net to catch traditionally marginalized students—students who go on to struggle with the unique challenges of these loosely structured programs. Moreover, researchers have not yet adequately evaluated the returns associated with these programs to determine the viability of these educational pathways. Drawing on Statistics Canada’s 2013 National Graduates Survey, this paper examines the earnings and education-to-job match of recent graduates who pursued more than half their degree via distance education at Canadian postsecondary institutions. The results of these analyses indicate that pursuing a university education through either distance or traditional programs yields similar earnings and employment outcomes, when controlling for the other variables in our models. At the same time, it does not appear that distance education has become populated with marginalized students who are otherwise unable to enroll in traditional education institutions, as previous research suggests.

Authors

• Bradley Seward, Mowat Centre

• David Michael Walters, University of Guelph

• David Zarifa, Nipissing University