Written by Dr. Melik Peter Khoury
How a 1990s Mentality Is Undermining Access, Affordability, and Excellence in the Digital Age.
Somehow, in 2025, we are still stuck debating whether online education is “real” education. Despite decades of technological advances, a global pandemic that forced the entire academic world online, and a generation of learners raised on mobile-first knowledge, we still see policymakers, legacy faculty, and regulators reduce digital learning to a lazy caricature. Disembodied Zoom lectures. Passive students in pajamas. The supposed magic of brick-and-mortar buildings.
A clear example of policymakers grappling with the realities of digital learning is the recently reintroduced Affordable College Textbook Act. This bipartisan legislation aims to reduce the financial burden of textbooks by expanding the use of open educational resources; materials that are free to download, edit, and share. The Act would fund grant programs to help colleges create and adopt open textbooks, require transparency about digital content costs and data use, and ensure that all materials produced are freely accessible to the public. By prioritizing affordability and access, the bill directly addresses the challenges students face in the digital age, moving the conversation beyond outdated debates about modality and toward real solutions for equitable learning. Affordable College Textbook Act.
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