Has anyone had any experience with correspondence courses offered by universities and how that relates to COSC? I am looking into these two: http://dce.und.edu/dce/index.php http://www.indiana.edu/~scs/univ/undergradcourses.html Thanks
What makes you think that traditionally delivered distance education courses via correspondence mode would be treated any differently than on-line mode in terms of transferability to COSC? Most courses at Athabasca University, for example, are delivered in a correspondence mode although the number of courses offered via on-line mode is increasing. Athabasca University has recently been granted regional accreditation status by Middle States. But, as always, when in doubt simply ask the institution, in this case COSC.
I took some courses from Indiana and enjoyed them. LSU also has a large selection of correspondence courses, and is much cheaper than Indiana. Indiana sends the course guide, a pack of envelopes, the textbook, and the rest is up to you. Correspondence courses are the way to go, because they are often cheaper and have almost no time restrictions other than a final deadline.
The current SUPlan (ends as of 30 June 2006) speaks of an increasing reliance on online course delivery. I would expect that the next SUP will expand the scope of the online class scheme even further. It's impossible to say if the conversion of all of the university's courses will take place within the time frame of the 2006-2010 SUP or the one thereafter, but it seems like that's the way that they are going in the long run. Frankly, I have a bit of difficulty with the online course materials in terms of my attention span, so I end up having to print them off. While I'm told that the 160 clams for the Learning Resources Fee does not really cover all the costs of providing the online materials, I am somewhat suspicious of that statement. In any case, I do hope that the PTB allow students the option to purchase paper versions for a small supplemental Learning Resources Fee because AU can produce the stuff cheaper per page than I can. Sorry for the rant. Good luck to you in your studies.
