online startup college

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by originalbigjim, Jul 9, 2006.

Loading...
  1. originalbigjim

    originalbigjim Member

    anyone here ever thought of making an online college? i can imagine it being to difficult to maintain, and after you get accredited I am assuming you just collect a check. get a couple people to act as teachers purchase the blackboard program you should be set. I cant imange a whole lot of overhead.
     
    originalbigjim, Jul 9, 2006
    #1
  2. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    What you propose is no small task...

    State licensing will generally take some capital investment and legal fees beyond your infrastructure and curriculum development costs.

    DETC accreditation is expensive and regional accreditation is astronomical in start up terms.

    In sum, you'd have to raise substantial capital to build the infrastructure, attract faculty and launch on a trajectory toward eventual accreditation.

    Dave
     
    Dave Wagner, Jul 9, 2006
    #2
  3. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I'm sure many here have thought about it. I know I have. I think that's natural.

    Dave's points on licensing and accreditation expenses are valid, but I think it's curriculum development and maintaining faculty payroll that's the challenging part for most. You mention Blackboard and if you're any size that's a million a year in licensing, so you might want to get creative there too. And then there's marketing....

    This isn't something you want to do from your spare room.

    -=Steve=-
     
    SteveFoerster, Jul 9, 2006
    #3
  4. originalbigjim

    originalbigjim Member

    yeah, I am not considering doing it, but I know these guys are making a killing, and I am pretty sure you just cant do this in you basement. Not yet anyways, give a ten years, everyone will have their own college.
     
    originalbigjim, Jul 9, 2006
    #4
  5. recruiting

    recruiting Member

    I don't know about that...:D
     
    recruiting, Jul 9, 2006
    #5
  6. ebbwvale

    ebbwvale Member

    Re: Re: online startup college

    Why is accreditation so expensive? I undersood these accrediting bodies to be nonprofits. Wouldn't most of the work to satisfy the accreditors be on the college itself?

    How do these agencies decide their area of operations? Does one ever overlap another accreditor's? Is the college locked into one accreditor because of location? How does competition work in the accrediting world? What influence does the cost of accreditation have on tuition costs for students?

    This form of accreditation, from my scant knowledge, seems to be particular to the US. If this is the case, I wonder why accreditation is different there. I guess we must pay for it through taxes, where it is paid there by the students.

    Slightly off the topic and probably most of the US contributors to the thread are knowledgeable on this, but it is very interesting to the rest of us (me anyway).
     
    ebbwvale, Jul 10, 2006
    #6
  7. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Re: Re: Re: online startup college

    Why is accreditation so expensive? I undersood these accrediting bodies to be nonprofits. Wouldn't most of the work to satisfy the accreditors be on the college itself?

    Yes, but one of the things that accreditors evaluate is the institution's financial stability. If you're some guy with a college in his spare room, you won't have the cash on hand to satisfy that requirement (nor the facilities requirement nor the library requirement).

    How do these agencies decide their area of operations? Does one ever overlap another accreditor's? Is the college locked into one accreditor because of location? How does competition work in the accrediting world? What influence does the cost of accreditation have on tuition costs for students?

    The regional accreditors do not overlap. However, an institution with operations in more than one region can pick which one to use. Alternatively, they can move their headquarters, like AMU did from Northern Virginia to a town in West Virginia about thirty miles away. Virginia is in the SACS region, West Virginia is in North Central.

    The national acreditors do overlap, both one another and all of the regional accreditors. They're much less prestigious, however, and usually once an institution becomes regionally accredited they let their national accreditation lapse (although AMU has said they won't ). Note that the word "national" only implies territory covered, not that they are government agencies, which they are not.

    This form of accreditation, from my scant knowledge, seems to be particular to the US. If this is the case, I wonder why accreditation is different there. I guess we must pay for it through taxes, where it is paid there by the students.

    I suppose. Thre are an awful lot of public universities and colleges here, though, so don't worry, taxpayers get to help out here as well.

    -=Steve=-
     
    SteveFoerster, Jul 10, 2006
    #7
  8. geoffs

    geoffs Member

    I am in Ontario, Canada where we have three classes of schools
    1) government funded CAATs (Community Colleges, offering 2/3 year diplomas and now degrees),
    2) government funded Universities
    3) Career colleges (Devry, CCC, etc).

    Just to start a dist. ed version of a Career college with 1 student you need a $30,000 bond (plus inspection, evaluation, etc). We have a problem in Ontario with small schools and local TV news shows do "tell all" stories now and then but its incredibly regulated.

    On the upside after 6 months of investigation you can start a career college. After a number of years open a virtual address in the US and perhaps look at DETC?

    I admit I have thought about it.

    Of course I wish I had paid more attention to the Web when it started, or invested in Apple, Microsoft, etc.etc
     
    geoffs, Jul 10, 2006
    #8

Share This Page