A relevant topic for discussion within the online working group is the future of online education or more specifically how to protect online education from being coopted (outsourced). Under this very broad topic heading, I'd like to begin a conversation about online credit classes and how best to keep those classes under the purview of the instructor. My concern in this very digitized world is portions of university credit classes, such as grading, could more efficiently be done through outsourcing or subcontracting, particularly if the grading to be done is objective grading (matching questions, multiple choice, etc). It seems to me this is exactly the same concern other entities, such as manufacturing, are facing, and I'm not sure anyone has developed an alternative approach yet, but we need to be proactive and brainstorm some possible alternatives.

The creation of an online class by an instructor is time consuming and costly for the university. I see no reason why the university, in its quest to cut costs, wouldn't see subcontracting or outsourcing of portions of the class as a viable cost-cutting measure (particularly in labor studies and labor education where legislative assaults take place constantly). What should labor educators' response be? Obviously we can make the argument the quality of the instructor would be diminished if "taken over" by an outside entity, but in today's corporatist environment, that argument is falling on deaf ears. So what do we do?  I'm looking forward to hearing others' thoughts on this subject.