This article is discussing Straighter Line, a startup which apparently makes deals with regionally accredited colleges to offer basically the most profitable courses colleges provide -- introductory lecture courses with hundreds of students -- for $99 a month unlimited. Apparently the traditional educational system is annoyed and fighting back (unsurprisingly), but this poses an interesting question (at least to me): If most introductory courses really are just listening to lectures and reading books, without any real interactive discussion, *why not* find a way to offer that instruction for a reasonable cost? I can see pros and cons... interested in other viewpoints
straighterline.com Here's the website: http://www.straighterline.com/ There are two payment systems: 1. $399 per course. This doesn't seem like a bargain 2. $99 a month for all the courses you can take, one at a time. If the courses are actually self-paced and one has time, ability, and ambition, one could complete numerous courses in a single month. Only 11 courses are available; not all of them accepted at each "partner college" http://www.straighterline.com/courses/ Only 4 "partner colleges". One a for-profit. http://www.straighterline.com/about/partners/partner-college-details.cfm It's not entirely clear from the straighterline website whether their partner colleges require additional fees to receive credit after having completed and submitted the straighterline units. But, for example: Students will receive 3 credits for each StraighterLine course when they complete a Potomac College course of equal credit value.
Yes, it's definitely not perfect, but Charter Oak is one of the partner schools, and they seemed to have a pretty reasonable arrangement to allow the credits to be granted through their program. I think it will be interesting to see if the regionals (and the schools backing them) put up a stink. From the article, it looks like they already are. The interesting thing is, this method has been tried before, usually with not-very-good results, because the coursework offered by the non-accredited institution was developed in-house, and there wasn't much oversight. Here, it looks like they're using well established materials developed by major providers, and they appear to have well credentialed people involved in review and delivery of educational services. So I think it's worth keeping an eye on.
A couple of weeks ago, I posted an article about "Edupunks" which addressed technology in higher ed as well. The Edupunks article went almost one step further; since there is a great deal of quality free material on the web (MIT's lectures for instance), why not put the LEARNING together for a degree. There is going to be a change in higher ed with technology, it's inevitable. What the final product is going to look like in a few years, is anybody's guess. Shawn
Interesting article. Ah. So if I understand this correctly, US universities are charging as much as they are for DL because - they can? And in doing so are relying on federal financial aid / student loans and state subsidies to enable students to still enroll in those courses? And the combination of high tuition + state subsidized education leads to two different rates, resident and non-resident. Which in turn leads to a student from Louisiana paying twice as much as a Texan or more to study at a university in Texas, while a student from Lithuania or Poland or Bulgaria gets to study e.g. in the UK at the same (EU) rates UK citizens are paying? Isn't that a case of universities actually stifling free exchange of ideas and knowledge? And while they object very much to StraighterLine and such on the basis of suspicious quality, many of them really don't have a problem with putting their university logos on outsourced continuing education courses? Anyway, how is this going to affect the whole tuition rates / loans system?
Actually, Charter Oak accepts only 4 of the courses offered. And, unless you have a bunch of other credits you want CHSC to accept, there are big catches. Students must apply for admission to Charter Oak and will be required to submit the $75 application fee to Charter Oak State College Students seeking transferable credit for StraighterLine courses will be required to pay Charter Oak State College a single, annual credit registry fee of $345 (for non-Connecticut residents) covering all coursework submitted during a 1 year period. However, I do agree it is an interesting concept. Certainly there's no reason why introductory courses can't be learned in standardized manner on the web. Further, at many colleges, standards are so pathetically low that a web course, that would have to be semi-publically reviewed, would be a great improvement.
Bulgarians at Oxford It's true that students from Lithuania, et al can study at UK universities at UK rate, but it's worth recalling that there are vast, vast differences in income levels between these countries and the UK. Per capita income in Bulgaria is about $4500 (US) while in the UK it's about $28000. Since tuition fees alone for UK and EU students are about $5500 (in England), and living expenses easily equal that, only the most affluent Bulgarians will be able to study in the UK. However, Scottish universities are free to Scots and oddly, EU students. The hated English must pay about $3500. source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/3013272.stm
Lithuanians, Bulgarians and Poles were just an example, same of course goes for the rest of EU. A German, or a French, or a Dutchman can do so as well if there is a particular program they are interested in. Another thing, while per capita income may be radically different so are living expenses. And if we are talking about DL there is no actual physical moving to a different country. So a Bulgarian would be paying much more than he's paying at his home country, but the decision would be more of a kind will I by myself a second-hand car or a UK Master's degree that I really like. Also, not having to pay extra for being an overseas student probably means more scholarships available for full-time. I actually have a friend who recently finished her Master's at Cambridge on one of these. http://www.studentloans.co.uk/news/2008/Oct/uk-tuition-fees-make-britain-number-one-choice-for-bulgarian-students.html Trust me, I'm living (quite comfortably I might add) on 750 euros per month here in B&H and there are a few programs I would apply for tomorrow if those rates you mention were available to me. Funny you should mention Oxford. Overseas rates are usually that times 2 or 3.
Bulgarians at Middlesex I think you should consider your source. The source you cite is a private UK company that makes loans to students. Obviously they're going to state that the UK is affordable for Bulgarians - - they want to loan money to them to make it affordable. As I pointed out, the UK (England, Wales, NI) does not have low tuition rates. In fact, they are probably the highest in the EU. As anyone who knows the UK system understands, the Brits have the worst of both worlds. UK universities don't receive alumni donations like US universities do, so they have tiny endowments. And they receive less government support than universities in other well-off European countries.
Would the British Embassy in Bulgaria be considered objective enough? http://ukinbulgaria.fco.gov.uk/en/newsroom/newsletter/july As for tuition rates, some of those programs I'm interested in have EU rates that are low enough for me. Anyway we are a bit off topic now.
Anyway I'm really sorry Chip for this slight off-topic, I hope to see this discussion continue. I hope you don't perceive this as a foreigner meddling in something that doesn't concern him, the fact is I really really respect US education and that's why I find some of these things so confusing. Now basically what I understand so far, and I might be (very) wrong, a possible reason most US universities don't feel the need to offer low-priced DL education, or one of the reasons, is that they feel confident they can keep milking the federal and state aid/loan/subsidy funds while keeping or raising their tuition rates? Basically a pretty safe game by the universities as long as the federal and state governments play along, and your taxpayers and students themselves are essentially left paying for it in the end? Why would anyone sane in the academia want to end that and go into price wars that might spill over from DL into B&M?
Has anyone tried to apply these credits directly to TESC with any success, or is it going to be necessary to "wash" them through one of the "Partner" colleges?
Years ago, I started a thread (probably still in the archives somewhere) about how to get a really topnotch education dirt cheap and turn it into an accredited degree. This works if your focus is on the quality of your education itself rather than the name that appears on your degree. The idea was to choose a college of your choice (near where you live) get a schedule, choose the classes you like, and... simply go to classes. With lecture classes, you could just show up and likely no one would notice. Even in a class of 30 or so, if you go up to the professor and express interest in the topic and ask if you can sit in, a large percentage of professors (at least among the people I know who have done this) were actually delighted to have someone come sit in who was genuinely interested in and excited about the material. A number of people I know have been successful even in getting into smaller seminar classes with 10 or 12 people. So once you're in, you attend the lectures, study the textbook, and some profs will even grade your tests or read your papers. Once you've completed the class, you can then either take the DANTES/DTTS or CLEP exam for credit, or use the papers/tests/etc you've written it submit for portfolio credit to one of the Big 3. I know people who have done this for dozens of classes, at some of the most prestigious schools in the country. And, by the way, it is also an extremely effective "backdoor admissions" technique to get into a school where you might not otherwise qualify for the normal admissions process; just cultivate an ongoing conversation with someone in Admissions, and after you've "sat in" on a semester's worth of a couple of classes, take a couple of those professors to lunch and ask if they would write a short recommendation indicating that you've handled the workload and would be a strong contribution to the incoming class. Granted, the technique would quickly fall apart if lots and lots of people started doing it, but it really is a great way to get the best education possible for very low cost.
FHSU fees at Straightliner According to: Jenifer DeHart ([email protected]) There are no other fees to earn credit at FHSU. However, they do require a “transcript” fee of $5 to have an official transcript sent somewhere. http://www.fhsu.edu/registrar/TranscriptReq.shtml
