At U-Va., no more classes for the masses?

I work in an academic library, and I have a daughter in college, so I read with great interest the July 17 front-page article “U-Va. takes a major step in global online education.”

Although I have reservations about the rush to online education (I still think acquiring an education is better done in person), I recognize that, when applied wisely, digital technology can enhance scholarship. But with much unease, I read between the lines of “an ambitious plan to retool introductory courses as ‘hybrids,’ replacing much of the human labor with technology and freeing professors to focus on higher-level classes.”

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I am concerned that at the University of Virginia and other financially strapped colleges, online education is perceived as the next great hope for teaching more for less, i.e., for eventually collecting more tuition while paying fewer faculty members.

It used to be that one looked for — and paid premium tuition for — smaller classes taught by professors, rather than by graduate students. I fear that soon the choice will be between students in a classroom led by faculty vs. students sitting alone in front of a computer taking an online course.

Bridget Gazzo, Alexandria