The Future of Education

Flexibility has been considered one of the characteristics of online education that has made it a popular option in schools, particularly among non-traditional students. Many institutions of higher learning, however, vary widely in their beliefs on the implementation of flexibility in school policies and classroom rules. As agents of societal transformation, they believe that they ought to impose discipline to their main clients—the students—in preparing them for the world of work, just as they do in traditional teaching. Besides, realities in higher education institutions such as achievement of specific student competencies and distribution of faculty loading are primarily affected when flexibility is practiced. Many schools are, therefore, wrestling with the issue of how flexibility is best implemented in online classes. This study is an attempt to answer the question: How flexible should an online class be in order to maximize student engagement and academic achievement? To answer this question, 10 graduate level fully online classes were examined to determine how flexibility is applied in course design and its corresponding effects on students’ engagement, end-of-course achievement, and retention. To verify these results, student interviews were also done to know their desired level of flexibility in their classes and thereby arrive at their satisfaction rate. Results reveal three typologies of how flexibility is applied by faculty in online classes, each of which has varying effects on students’ class performance.

Keywords: online learning, flexibility, discipline, student engagement, online course design;