Monday, April 19, 2010

Online course fees. Seriously?

Today I logged into my college's registration portal to double check on the tuition for fall semester. To my surprise, I found I had been re-billed for my summer tuition. I called the bursar's office and found that the re-bill was a mistake caused when they added a $40 "online course" fee. Seriously?

I don't know what experience you all have had with online courses, but the two I've taken so far could have been correspondence courses. Read a few chapters, take an exam. Repeat. The online portion of the course has been practically nonexistent aside from taking the exams. What's the extra $40 for? We aren't using class space. The professor's contribution has been minimal (I'd love to "teach" some online classes. Where can I sign up?). I understand someone has to maintain the online portal, but believe me when I tell you that blackboard could do just as good a job. $40 x 25 students per class = $1000. Seriously?

Online courses: one more way for universities to get in your pocket.

3 comments:

Cathy said...

Yep, it costs me 660 this summer for an online class, 200 more than it would be on campus. I have no idea why this is considering it would logically seem much cheaper for a college to teach online. Highway robbery

Jube said...

Wow, that's really bad. Have you found online classes to be worthwhile?

Cathy said...

Hmmm, worthwhile.. Well It is definitely worth my while to not be in class three nights a week all summer - the college has no "fast-tracked" summer courses, they go from June 1 - Aug 10. Boo. I am taking Pathophysiology and I have already had so much of it in my Med-Surg and other nursing classes so it should be a breeze. Plus I get to come hang out with you guys for a week and a half! But you do miss out on lecture, which is how I learn best. So it just depends

 
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