The Cost of Education...

One thing that has bugged me for a while is that I could never understand why online delivery of coursework was as costly as the more tradition presence in a classroom setting. I mean how expensive could it be for some geek to keep the server up and running?

Well, I’ve been following this issue closely now since the late-nineties and it was the Spring of 2001, when I stumbled across an article regarding reciprocity agreements between schools and states which would allow a non-resident student to attend the school (via online) of another participating state at a discounted rate. The thought was that the tuition would fall somewhere between in-state and out-of-state costs. At the time the study only concerned itself with Doctoral programs. (http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/cheri/survey2001/summary.html) I thought to myself... "about time."

A recent article I read suggests that some schools may take this to the next level, but not until the “economy turns” or so they claim.

“The Southern Regional Education Board, which represents 16 southern states been pushing its members to set tuition for all of their online courses at a rate that falls between traditional in-state and out-of-state tuition. Proponents say the new tuition, dubbed an "e-rate," would encourage students to look beyond their state borders for Web-based courses.” (http://chronicle.com/free/2002/03/2002032501u.htm) This will probably not take place anytime soon and there’s a reason why.

It seems that administrators are realizing that the cost of expanding programs are a little more costly than anticipated, both in delivery and development. (http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i23/23a04101.htm)

So, don’t expect tuition cost to drop until distance learning is better understood, greater accepted and more to the point, appreciated for it's true value.

 

Tuition: Enemy of education

For a Canadian student outside Alberta (Which most are), a 3 credit course at Athabasca University costs $546.00 CDN (Over $700.00 CDN for an International student). It takes 90 credits (120 for honours) to obtain a Bachelors Degree. That is $16,380 or $21,840 (Honours) CDN dollars in tuition alone.

I can get a Bachelors degree that is just as accredited and probably more respected worldwide from the University of London from $1,800 CDN to $3,800 CDN or from UNISA for just over $5,000 CDN

Sad part is if more people knew this and only went with the cost efficient schools the lack of business may force other higher cost Universities ot reconsider their prices. Spread the word.

 

The cost of the hardware server is nothing in the larger scheme of things. You have operating system and software licensing rights for multiple applications. These can easily run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. You have content royalties. You have additional staff for content development as well as UI and support staff. You have programming costs. You have additional network hardware costs, including new routers, switches, CSU-DSU, and possibly a firewall, This can be an another easy $100K just in hardware. There is also licensing costs for the software that runs on this network hardware. Then there is the matter of circuit connectivity and the costs associated with bandwidth. Finally, the more classes you add, the more all of the above grows in amount required and associated costs.

Hope this helps,

Christian
Network Engineer