I have taken a few online courses at the graduate level, and they have varied widely in structure and quality. One thing really baffles me though. Typically an online course costs more than a typical graduate level course. I cannot figure out why.
It seems as though the courses are all "turnkey" for the instructor/mentor, as the content is all put together with no changes from term to term. There is no physical space to maintain. Students are responsible for learning the content independently and having the online discussions. All this is fine, as I am an independent learner.
The online course I just finished was the worst though. The mentor was basically AWOL for most of the term. I learned a lot from doing the readings and such, but the online "discussions" consisted of students posting their initial discussion, then generally "responding" to other students with chunks of text from their own initial postings. They usually posted the minimum of two response posts, but it didn't matter as the only one attempting to actually have a discussion was me. We got feedback so late on our papers and projects and still don't have a lot of our feedback or grades.
I want to give the mentor a scathing final eval, but since I don't have grades yet, I am a little worried about possible retribution.
But my bigger question is, considering all this hands-off basically automated process, why do the online courses cost so much? They should be way cheaper than an in-person course.
HI, I've been wondering the same thing . I've been looking to do my BSN online, but the cost is just too much for me at this time. Don't understand why not being in class on campus cost more than showing up for class!
... for your typical state school with reasonable tuition, the online courses can cost just as much to run (if not more) than the face-to-face classroom courses.
Those online learning platforms (such a BlackBoard) are extremely expensive to purchase and maintain -- and require a sizable, expensive IS department as well as Faculty Development Departments to use. Also, as someone who has taught the same course both in class and online ... I can tell you that the online version takes a lot more of my time. The articles about the subject that I have read have said that the good schools make less profit on those classes than they expected.
So ... I think that (1) The courses don't produce as much net profit as you would think ... and (2) Some schools are charging a lot of money just because they can -- because people are willing to pay big bucks for the convenience of online courses.
This is fascinating. The online version took more of your time as an instructor? How so? the online discussion? Learning the tech? I found BlackBoard to be a non-intuitive interface; using it for creating tests and content was clumsy for me.
I can see the online infrastructure being expensive to maintain, now that you describe it in those terms. It's just less visible than a classroom in a building with heat, staff, etc.
queenola1982
1 Post
HI, I've been wondering the same thing . I've been looking to do my BSN online, but the cost is just too much for me at this time. Don't understand why not being in class on campus cost more than showing up for class!