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Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

thestar.com

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Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#11

Post by siculars »

stblack wrote: post #8

Schools still have a very large proportion of their fixed costs to cover. Schools and their lecturers need to invest in perfecting onlive delivery. Therefore it's not particularly realistic to expect schools to chop their top-line so soon. This is clearly a transitory and uncertain period. With time, possibly less time than schools hope, they will be forced to adjust prices downward.

You adjust for that by increasing number of enrolled students. Not by pretending you are delivering the same product.

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#12

Post by mumblemumble »

Online courses lack class discussions that are key to making courses engaging.

This sounds absolutely nothing like how things worked in the online degree I received.

I don't know what is typical elsewhere. I will say, from watching my son's Zoom-based classroom sessions, that Zoom seems to be almost specifically designed to yield a poor classroom experience. For reasons that I believe would also apply to Skype, Google Hangouts, WebEx, GoToMeeting, etc. I am glad that my school used a meeting platform that was intended for educational use.

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#14

Post by electriclove »

mumblemumble wrote: post #12

Online courses lack class discussions that are key to making courses engaging. This sounds absolutely nothing like how things worked in the online degree I received. I don't know what is typical elsewhere. I will say, from watching my son's Zoom-based classroom sessions, that Zoom seems to be almost specifically designed to yield a poor classroom experience. For reasons that I believe would also apply to Skype, Googl…

What meeting platform did your school use? Which school?

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#15

Post by Dwolb »

What’s missing from all these online courses is a sense of community. The forums are ok but they’re not very vibrant.

For an example of a vibrant community, I’d look toward what video games, such as Rocket League, have created.

Players have a specific ranking based on competition stats. They level up when they when a sufficient number of games within their ranking. Progression through the game doesn’t have to be a solo endeavor because players can look to the community for how to improve.

The community not on my celebrates wins and gives advice on losses, they offer free coaching that can result in paid tutoring [1].

Not only that, but on average the community members are positive and light-hearted.

I think other skill-based activities could learn a lot from how and why these communities function and incorporate those aspects into their platforms to help students succeed.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/hv2vus/coachi...

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#16

Post by josephorjoe »

stblack wrote: post #8

Schools still have a very large proportion of their fixed costs to cover. Schools and their lecturers need to invest in perfecting onlive delivery. Therefore it's not particularly realistic to expect schools to chop their top-line so soon. This is clearly a transitory and uncertain period. With time, possibly less time than schools hope, they will be forced to adjust prices downward.

For profit institutions do not get sympathy for their fixed costs.

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#17

Post by whatshisface »

non-entity wrote: post #3

I started looking at going back to school around a year ago and online is basically the only way that will ever happen realistically. While most programs do charge a bit less for tuition, the amount of money they're charging for recorded lectures and a credential is almost comical. On top of that many programs, including some of the better looking ones (i.e. from flagship state schools) still differentiate between in…

>still differentiate between in and out of state tuition.

They do this because your taxes have already paid part of your tuition for every in-state University.

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#18

Post by auiya »

I did an online MS at Georgia Tech. I paid full price tuition for the program. Literally 3 years after I graduated, they announced a slash in price by 80 (EIGHTY!) percent. The program was excellent, and if not for my company offering to pay for it I wouldn't have considered it. I can absolutely recommend it now that it's so much cheaper, but it was also designed to be a remote program from the start.

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#20

Post by otoburb »

mumblemumble wrote: post #12

Online courses lack class discussions that are key to making courses engaging. This sounds absolutely nothing like how things worked in the online degree I received. I don't know what is typical elsewhere. I will say, from watching my son's Zoom-based classroom sessions, that Zoom seems to be almost specifically designed to yield a poor classroom experience. For reasons that I believe would also apply to Skype, Googl…

Please share the meeting platform used so that everybody else can start looking at it and perhaps lobby their schools or school boards.

My kids' schools used both Zoom and Google Meets, and schools converged back to Zoom. If there's truly something better would love to hear and share!

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