Question:
I'm up late, but isn't cyberspace supposed to make life easier for us? Shouldn't a DL program involve less infrastructure costs than traditional classroom learning? Seems to me some schools might be looking to subsidise budget shortfalls via the DL craze.
I've been looking into alternate Master's Adult ed programs, and found an interesting program offered on-line by National-Louis University, www.nl.edu . After sending away for some info,I found out that the cost is $451.00 per SEMESTER HOUR!. 15 Hundred bucks a course? Most full-time Adult educators (very few, many work the secondary school substitute pool during the day) make 10 bucks an hour if they are lucky, maybe more if they can get on full time at a community college versus general community funding. What do these folks expect you to do with the degree? Ths is a growing field, but it is stocked with people who generally want to help people and society, not get rich.
I'm a capitalist again. Indiana University has managed to put together a related field on-line masters program for only about $575 a course. The major is Language education, but hey, that's what most adult ed guys (gender-nuetral GUYS) do, with ESL, Literacy, and GED students. www.indiana.edu
Answer:
The assumption is that distance-education courses offered by traditional schools are going to be taken by people who can not only afford the regular tuition rates, but who can also afford to pay a premium for the convenience of distance learning. The corporate types who run most schools these days have visions of prosperous, status-hungry executives from industry taking their programs.
I don't have a solution beyond what I've already proposed. As long as state school administrative boards, governmental bodies, and other organizations offer promotions based on degrees, there will be a market for expensive DL diplomas.
I understand. The alternative is a traditional, go-there-and-sit approach. Most PhD students don't pay tuition because they have assistantships of some sort. The assumption is that if you're working at a job that pays a lot more than the stipend given to most teaching/research students, you won't mind paying the tuition.
Yes, distance education ought to be cheaper. In fact, college in general ought to be cheaper. But most of our universities have adopted a corporate model, poorly as it might fit.
