The critical reasoning ability and prior academic preparation of typical new incoming students to online college courses is quite low. {from an online college educator}

A substantial number of them could not qualify to be professionals in any field requiring an advanced degree. {my inference}

Consequently we will have a nation of clerks with a B.S. / or B.A. degree who can barely read and write at a high school level.

A somewhat 'fractured' quote >>> '...We entered this century {20th} teaching Latin and Greek in high schools, and now we teach remedial math and English in colleges...' ... Thomas Sowell, > American economist, social commentator, and author of dozens of books. ... see Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sowell

education in America has been so 'dumbed down', that every undergrad, and some graduate college degrees have become suspect as to their true indicator and measure of education.

Consequently, the data used for these comparisons is highly suspect, since it is likely largely or wholly empirical -- based on historical information from the 20th century, and not from the most recent 10 years, when higher education in the U.S.A. became accessible to not only the marginally, but also the severely underqualified.