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According to an article recently posted on the conservative Heritage Foundation Web site, online colleges are a way to make higher education more affordable. This argument, though questionable, has been made by proprietary school advocates for years. Online schools are cheaper. People who go there same money by eschewing pricey, traditional schools.
Heritage takes this farther, however, arguing not just that online schools save students money, but they will eventually save all Americans money by reducing the cost of college. From the article:
Rather than continuing to expand federal subsidies for college students and student loan borrowers, policymakers and the private sector should focus on strategies to lower college costs. A promising strategy is to strengthen competition between higher education providers by harnessing the power of technology and online learning.
These trends have the potential to dramatically lower costs and pop what some observers have called the “college tuition bubble.” This presents policymakers and the private sector with a better strategy to solve the college affordability problem.
Heritage recommends that colleges lower costs by offering online instruction. State governments should offer financial incentives to promote such instruction.
Heritage argues that Obama’s student loan policies, by offering more federal aid, will only increase the cost of college. More government money distorts the true cost of college and allows tuition increases to continue.
This is a good point. So far the Obama administration, like every prior administration, has made little attempt to rein in the cost of college.
It’s not really clear why more online classes would decrease the cost of college, however. Currently online classes don’t really compete with regular ones, because they’re of lower quality. While virtual classrooms certainly have the potential to decrease the cost of running a college, unless people perceive online learning as on-par with traditional learning, and unless the price of taking an online course gets a lot cheaper than it is now, more online courses won’t mean competitive pricing to decrease the cost of college. Try again.
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Daniel L. Bennett on February 01, 2010 5:45 PM:
There is a growing amount of literature which suggests that online courses are of comparable (in some cases, better) quality in terms of learning outcomes than traditional face-to-face courses. See, for example:
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies, Washington, D.C., 2009.
Bernard, R., et.al. �A Meta-Analysis of Three Types of Interaction Treatments in Distance Education,� Review of Educational Research, Vol. 79, No. 3, 2009.
Twigg, Carol, A. �Course Redesign Improves Learning and Reduces Cost,� The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, June 2005.
Or a number or reports from the Sloan Consortium
In addition, the marginal cost of providing an online course is relatively low when compared to traditional courses. Burke Smith's StraighterLine is able to offer course for $99 a month. East Carolina University offers online course for $100 per credit. Other colleges are able to charge tuition for online courses comparable to traditional courses because colleges do not compete on value and are therefore able to charge the going rate, which may be well above the cost of provision.
Online College on October 27, 2010 12:52 PM:
I agree with you but do you think in the long run online colleges are hurting people? Do you think employers look at those with online degrees and pass them over for people with 4 year degrees? I think that's unfair because Online colleges are a lot easier for the non traditional student to return to school and to pay for class.
Stephanie Austin on June 14, 2012 4:13 PM:
But which is better learning wise online is cheeper but does the learning experience compare with traditional classes?
Right on June 14, 2012 6:20 PM:
Well obviously real anything is better than virtual. It's also not really clear that "online colleges are a lot easier for the non traditional student to return to school and to pay for class"; their completion rates are pretty bad. Just because it's easy to sign up doesn't mean the program is any good.