Online Education Isn't Always Cheap technology

Investment in technology and faculty training can make online ed expensive for schools and students.

As a working mother of two, 37-year-old Heather Blair felt the only way she could get a bachelor's degree was to find an online program that accommodated her busy schedule.
Cost-wise, she thought she knew how it would compare with the price of an on-campus degree.


"I thought it would be less," says Blair, who started a bachelor's degree in dental hygiene with Vermont Technical College in 2009. "In the end, I don't think it was."
[Explore whether online ed is right for you.]
Many believe that online education is easier on the bank account than taking classes on campus. But in many cases, an online degree is actually more expensive than a degree from a brick-and-mortar institution, according to data from U.S. News and other sources.
When it comes to paying in-state tuition at a public school, for example, a U.S. News analysis of about 300 ranked programs shows that it's more expensive on a per-credit basis to take an online undergraduate course than a comparable on-campus course.
The average per credit, in-state cost for an online bachelor's program is $277, compared with $243 per credit at brick-and-mortar schools.


Online undergraduate education is less per credit, however, than traditional education at private schools and for out-of-state students at public institutions.
A 2013 survey conducted by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the Learning House also found similar results.
[Discover five job search tips for online students.]
The survey, which will be published this October and involved 400 public universities, concluded that more than 60 percent charged the same tuition for face-to-face courses as they charged for online courses. Thirty-six percent of the schools charged more for online tuition.

 
For schools that don't already have an online program up and running, creating one is a significant investment, says Susan Aldridge, a senior fellow at the association.
"The courses cost more to develop, take more time to develop and take more time for the faculty to teach," says Aldridge. "In order for students to succeed in these online courses, 24/7 technical support, reference librarians, writing labs, automated degree plans and tutoring need to be available."
In addition, schools often have to train their faculty to teach effectively on online platforms – an expensive, ongoing endeavor, says Ray Schroeder, associate vice chancellor for online learning at the University of Illinois—Springfield.


"Most faculty members come prepared to teach face-to-face," Schroeder says. "They need substantial training and support in order to teach effectively. It's not a one-time training."
Not everyone, however, agrees that online education must or should be more expensive.
John Ebersole, president of Excelsior College, a New-York based institution that offers online education, believes that online education is cheaper for colleges to provide because they don't have to invest in creating or maintaining facilities. Those savings, he said, should outweigh the cost of any initial investment in technology.


"If my online students aren't going to take advantage of the cafeteria, going to the student union, participating in the extracurricular activities and we don't have the building costs, why isn't it cheaper?" he says.
[Finish an online degree via credit by exam.]
One reason, according to online education experts, may be faculty costs beyond training.
It's hard to make an online program more inexpensive for students when schools are using the same faculty for their online programs that they are using in their brick-and-mortar programs, Schroeder says.


Full-time faculty members are expensive, he says, which is why some online programs hire instructors who don't receive benefits and who may not have advanced degrees.

Options Abound for Free Online Education Programs online programs

New online programs feature courses from top-ranked universities.

In the past, students who aspired to attend a top-ranked university would need a high GPA, strong test scores, and the resources to fund an education.
Now, with video streaming tools, videoconferencing programs, and the ability to share and edit documents online, anyone with an Internet connection can gain access to college- and graduate-level education.


In recent years, universities have
 used the Web to post lectures online for users to watch at no cost. In 2006, Salman Khan created Khan Academy, a nonprofit education organization that posts YouTube "micro-lectures" on topics ranging from mathematics to art history.
[See how colleges have utilized YouTube.]


But still the public clamored for more organized online programs, notes Eren Bali, CEO and cofounder of Udemy, an online education provider.
"We realized that people are looking for structured content even though there are heaps of content available [online]," he says. "You need some guidance and a community."
For students interested in free online education programs, here are three that offer structured courses.


1. Coursera: Professors at Stanford University offered a series of free computer science courses online in fall 2011. Hundreds of thousands of students enrolled, far exceeding traditional enrollments, notes Andrew Ng, a cofounder of Coursera and a professor at Stanford who taught a machine learning course during the experiment.
"I normally teach a 400-student class," says Ng, who instructed more than 100,000 students through the online course. "To reach a comparable size audience, I'd have to teach my normal class for 250 years."


[Discover the growth and popularity of online education.]
Motivated by the experiment's success, Ng and Daphne Koller, a Stanford professor who also taught a free online course, founded Coursera, an online platform that offers structured courses from prestigious universities at no cost to students. The service—which features professors from Princeton University, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford—has topped a million enrollments since launching in March.
"Today's top universities offer an amazing education to a miniscule fraction of the population," Ng says. "We'd like to see a future where top schools are teaching not just thousands of students, but millions."


Within a course, video lectures are broken into segments with online quizzes to ensure students understand the material. Assignments are computer graded currently but, Koller notes, peer grading will soon be implemented for courses that may have more open-ended questions and answers.
Students can also engage in Q&A forums, where other users vote a question up or down based on its value and quality.
"I have checked into the discussion forums to see if people had the same questions as me and found that they almost always did," says Yoav Bergner, a Coursera user who is completing postdoctoral research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "There were really inspiring, high-level discussions happening from students all over the world."
Ng says the forums have made the ability to educate and engage thousands of students feasible.


"If you want to learn something, sitting at home watching YouTube videos is kind of a lonely experience," he notes. "Having a community of students working on the material together—that helps students learn."
[Explore four technology must haves for online students.]
2. Udacity: Former Stanford professor Sebastian Thrun cofounded this online learning community in January 2012 after also teaching a free online Stanford course in fall 2011 that enrolled roughly 160,000 students.


"That made me wake up and think about education in general and realize that we have a system that serves a small number of people, and it's very exclusive and very expensive and nonscalable," he says.
Udacity, which currently offers computer science courses, relies less on video lectures and enables students to do more work through online quizzes and exercises, Thrun notes.
Udacity also depends on a vibrant community of peer learners to ask and answer questions in the forums, he says. "In fact, there are many instances when a student's quality of answer to a question exceeds my own quality of answer."

Online Education Options Vary by More Than Cost Students

Students looking to learn a specific skill may pay less for online education than those seeking a degree.

Viewing content on sites such as Udacity, Udemy and Lynda.com can cost anywhere from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars.

When it comes to online education, there are a lot of different options with a lot of different price points.
Prospective learners can choose between free massive open online courses, or MOOCs, that are not for credit, for instance, and for-credit courses, which can cost thousands of dollars.
"Almost all free courses are leisure learning courses, or courses you’re taking because you want to," says Vicky Phillips, the CEO of GetEducated.com, an advocacy website for distance-learning programs. "There’s usually no certification and no employment credibility. Usually when you have to pay you are paying for the certification, the standardization. The course has to meet certain quality standards."
When it comes to determining which online course to take, academic or career goals are usually a major deciding factor, Phillips says. Still, examining the costs of different online education options can help you see what you’re getting for what you pay.
[Discover why online education isn't always cheap.]


MOOCs and Other Free Online Courses
Subsidized by outside parties such as universities, MOOCs are among the most widely used form of free online education, and they come with both benefits and downsides, experts say.
MOOCs are generally free and for the most part offer no college credit or form of certification – unless the student pays to take an exam. One example is Coursera’s Signature Track program, available in select classes, in which a verified certificate typically costs $30 to $100.


While anyone can enroll in a MOOC, some of the courses can be equivalent to graduate courses, which can make the class difficult if you don’t have a background in the specific field, says Kenneth Green, founding director of The Campus Computing Project, which examines the impact of computing, e-learning and information technology on higher education.


Additionally, with the low cost of MOOCs comes larger class sizes, often with thousands of students – even tens of thousands, says Michael Cusumano, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, who has studied the economic implications of MOOCs.


As a result, MOOCs can be "notoriously weak in terms of interactivity," says Steven Weiland, a professor in the education school at Michigan State University. Discussion boards can have thousands of responses, for instance, making them difficult to follow.
[Discover why class size can matter for online students.]
In terms of advantages, experts say many MOOCs are very well designed and are often taught by world-renowned faculty.


Christopher Wang, a third-year student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who has completed around 10 computer science-related MOOCs since his senior year of high school, says MOOCs allow him to learn simply for the sake of learning.
"I think a free course focuses more on learning as opposed to grade-achieving, something that gets lost in the real classroom and the accreditation route," Wang says, and the flexibility of MOOCs enables him to withdraw if he finds a course uninteresting.
Beyond MOOCs, there are other free options out there, too. Sites like Khan Academy, a nonprofit organization, provide instructional videos and other interactive assessments for students.


Skills-based Online Options
Sites such as Udacity, Udemy and Lynda.com have become popular in the past few years, experts say, and they can cost anywhere from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars.
In contrast to MOOCs, the content on Lynda.com is packaged as educational videos that teach very specific skills, from InDesign typography to using Google Analytics. Members can access all the videos they want for $25 a month or $250 per year, plus premium options.


Udemy offers a similar concept, providing students with educational videos from experts around the world. And Udacity provides free access to course materials. However, students who pay for certain classes can obtain professor feedback and earn a verified Udacity certificate.

Plug Into These Online Education Scholarships online degree

Some highly ranked online degree programs award students money.

Penn State World Campus offers online students a wealth of scholarships, including awards for undergraduates and part-timers.

​Earning a college degree has never been more essential to a working American, even when factoring in the high cost of college tuition and mounting student loan debt.
According to a New York Federal Reserve study released last June, individuals with a bachelor’s degree made an average of $1 million more in their lifetimes than those with just a high school diploma, and those with an associate degree made $325,000 more.
But if you’re already in the workforce or you’re busy raising a family, attending college classes outside of your work and home life can feel impossible. Thankfully, there are some fantastic online degree programs from reputable colleges and universities that can help you achieve your educational dreams, get your degree and maximize your earnings in the workforce. Not only that, many offer excellent scholarship opportunities that can help offset the cost of your tuition.


[Here's how to tell if an online program is accredited.]
Pennsylvania State University—World Campus is ranked No. 1 on U.S. News & World Report's list of ​​2015 Best O​​​nline Bachelor's Programs and has impressive scholarship opportunities available to students. The Jane Ireland Student Fund, for instance, is a scholarship dedicated solely to Penn State World Campus undergraduate degree students. Though the deadline for the next round of scholarships has passed, make sure to check back in a few months for more information on how to apply.


In addition, Penn State World Campus offers an array of other scholarships for those pursuing their degrees online, including scholarships for first time or returning students, adult learners, part-time and full-time students and military students. The good news is only one application is required for all of these scholarships, with the next round of recipients being notified in April.
[Learn scholarship tips for online students.]


Central Michigan University is another highly ranked online degree program to explore, and offers a wide variety of majors to choose from. As a bonus, the university also offers a number of scholarships to students earning their degrees online through CMU’s Global Campus.
For example, the Global Campus Endowed Scholarship is available to students pursuing a graduate or undergraduate degree, with preference given to single-parent or unemployed applicants. The Global Campus Staff and Faculty Award is similar, but preference is instead given to students admitted to or enrolled in their first semester. Though the scholarship application period for the 2014-2015 academic year is closed, keep an eye on the website so you don’t miss important scholarship information.


Colorado State University awards scholarships every trimester for both undergraduate and graduate students attending classes online.
These opportunities include scholarships for members of the military, parents and guardians, first-generation students and those pursuing associate degrees. Check out their website for more information on how and when to apply.
[Check out other scholarships for online students.]


Many of you have likely heard of popular online degree programs offered through for-profit schools, such as the University of Phoenix and Capella University. If either of these institutions interest you, you’re in luck, as both schools offer scholarships to help offset tuition costs.


For example, the University of Phoenix, in collaboration with Year Up, offers the Year Up Scholarship: full-tuition scholarships that are awarded to five prospective students to attend the University of Phoenix, either in person or online.
The application period opens Jan. 20 and closes March 5, so now is the perfect time to learn more on the website. Capella University also offers some generous scholarships. Visit their website for more information.


Finally, don’t limit yourself to scholarships available strictly for online degree seekers. Many general scholarships and federal financial aid programs can be applied to tuition at accredited online institutions. You’re just as eligible for these opportunities as someone attending a traditional brick-and-mortar institution.

5 Financial Questions to Ask Before Getting an Online Degree University Online

Students should find out about costs for the entire program – and what happens to financial aid if studies are interrupted.​

If you're not making progress toward your online degree, talk to a financial aid counselor, says one expert.

r counterparts attending brick-and-mortar schools.

But some unique money questions may arise as well.

"There are certainly a few regulations that online students should understand going into the process, given that so many of them are working adults, who attend college part-time," said Susan Aldridge, president of Drexel University Online, in an email.

For example, enrolling in fewer than six credits or taking a semester or two off may affect aid or trigger loan repayment, says Aldridge.

[Find out how to decipher the true cost of your online degree.]

Other questions may arise about how the program handles financial aid or transfers academic credits.

Below are five money questions that students should ask before pursuing an online degree.

Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Deana Coady, vice president of student fina

ncial aid for Apollo Education Group Inc., parent company of Western International University and University of Phoenix 

What is this degree going to cost me, and how am I going to pay for it? If you’re speaking with a school representative who cannot clearly give you the cost of the program, I’d suggest hanging up the phone. And don't just think about cost over one year. You want to look at the entire experience as you would with a home or a car. Understand what it'll cost you over the life of that program and think of loans as an investment.

Betty Vu, director of MBA and MPA programs, California State University—Dominguez Hills

How does the financial aid process w

ork within the program? At some schools the online programs are not a very big component, so they might not have specific financial aid processes that cater to those online programs.

At my school, online programs are not a huge component, so I warn students that their financial aid disbursement is not going to go by the academic calendar. My online program runs on a quarterly system, but the university runs on a semester system.

[Find out how to avoid the common mistakes many online students make.]

So, my students can start school in June but the u

niversity doesn't start until August and they don't disburse financial aid funds until then. That might be a deal-breaker for some students.

Vicky Phillips, founder, GetEducated.com
Does your chosen school maintain scholarship programs just for older online degree seekers? Look for scholarships just for online degree seekers or adult students. But be wary of Internet ads that promise scholarships for studying online but that only let students use these scholarships at one school or at a group of specific for-profit colleges.

These "scholarship programs" are really advertisements paid for by the limited schools listed on the application forms. These programs are designed to get your name and contact data which is then sold for X amount to the ad client schools.

The schools listed on these programs pay Internet sites upwards of $100 for each student "lead" – that's the ad term for your contact data – the sites are able to send to their telephone call or recruitment centers. Filling out one of these forms is a great way to end up on the relentless end of a telemarketing loop or email spam operation.

[Dodge these four hidden costs of online degrees.]

​Meg Benke, past president of the Online Learning Consortium and professor at SUNY—Empire StateCollege


What happens if I need to take a break for an emergency? Ask what happens if you get out of step and need to move forward. And leave room in your schedule, so that when life happens, you can catch up. Recognize and give yourself room as a parent or someone caring for an elderly family member, whatever the circumstances. If you’re not making progress, you should immediately get in touch with the financial aid office or student services office. Financial aid has complicated regulations, and it takes a professional to help interpret them.