Online graduate programs: Better equity for industrial-organizational psychologists among disadvantaged groups

Abstract

Kraiger et al. (2022) present an interesting overview of the current state of industrialorganizational (I-O) psychology graduate programs, specifically highlighting various quality metrics for comparing traditional classroom programs with online programs. An important note on this discussion is that the COVID-19 pandemic forced many traditional programs to become online, for better or for worse. Kraiger et al. report that most learning outcomes are comparable across program modality, with online programs or hybrid programs having a slight advantage on several outcome measures (e.g., declarative knowledge), so we question here how online programs could benefit particular groups of students who may feel a traditional face-to-face program is not for them. Kraiger et al. present various benefits of online programs (e.g., flexibility, lower cost) that may help disadvantaged groups (e.g., single parents). The goal of this paper is to add to this plentiful discussion with another extremely important factor: Can online graduate programs help reduce implicit bias and/or increase equity for disadvantaged groups compared with the traditional face-to-face programs? Thus, we first review empirical research highlighting the discrimination experienced by the disadvantaged groups in graduate programs. Next, we discuss the benefits of online graduate programs that can potentially help address some of the drawbacks that disadvantaged groups have experienced in a traditional academic institution. We then outline a few potential negatives of online graduate programs to caution the key stakeholders of academia. Finally, we provide recommendations for key stakeholders on how to leverage the benefits and reduce drawbacks to provide a meaningful online graduate program experience to these students.