03-03-2013, 09:20 AM
TESC--the alma mater of such lesser lights as Goose Sainz and Sodomite Steve Levicoff.
TESC--undergrad units not accepted for admission at such places as UCLA grad school.
TESC--there's a reason why they call it one of the Easy Three.
But...TESC is RA, so FWIW...
TESC--undergrad units not accepted for admission at such places as UCLA grad school.
TESC--there's a reason why they call it one of the Easy Three.
But...TESC is RA, so FWIW...
Quote:College's $99 online courses could signal shift in cost trend
Thursday, February 21, 2013
BY PATRICIA ALEX
It's a bargain: $99 to earn three credits at a state university.
Thomas Edison State College announced Wednesday that it is partnering with an online provider to offer access to six free college courses that, for the cost of a $99 test, can each translate into credit toward an undergraduate degree.
The initiative is unique — the college, based in Trenton, is the first in the state and one of the first in the nation to allow degree-seeking students to capitalize on the growth in so-called massive open online courses.
The move may also signal the beginning of a shift that could help to reverse a decade of hyper-inflation in college costs.
"Potentially, this could mean significant savings for students," said Devon Ritter, special project administrator at the Saylor Foundation, the non-profit group that developed the courses that Thomas Edison will offer. "We still need more institutional buy-in [from schools], but this is a start."
Online education has been around for more than a decade and has long held out the promise of providing broad access at low cost. But many schools have been slow to embrace it and, for the most part, students get no discount for online credits.
The explosive growth last year of massive open online courses — many of which are taken by people who already have bachelor's degrees — has spurred a debate in higher education as to how the model could be used by those seeking undergraduate degrees.
"It was really students starting the conversation of what can I get for these courses," said Cathy Sandeen, vice president for education attainment and innovation at the American Council on Education.
The council is in the midst of a yearlong study – funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – of the courses and is reviewing those offered by two of the largest providers, Coursera and Udacity. The council has approved five of the courses for credit – students take a proctored exam at the end — but it remains up to schools to decide whether to accept those credits.
The initiative at Thomas Edison is one of very few that will offer a truly low-cost online alternative, said Marc Singer, vice provost at the school's assessment center. Saylor also is offering courses through Excelsior College in New York, a private school that, like Thomas Edison, caters to adult learners.
The College Board's College Level Examination Program, or CLEP, allows students to gain college credits for the $80 cost of taking a test, but it is not tied to specific coursework and the credits are not always accepted by colleges and universities.
The programs at Excelsior and Thomas Edison are novel in that they are tied to a degree track, Singer said. Both schools have catered to adult learners and were more agile than some traditional schools in embracing the online courses, he said.
"We didn't have to turn the ship around. This is already in our wheelhouse," Singer said.
He said the Saylor courses more closely resemble college courses, unlike the popular lectures presented by some other open online providers.
The end-of-course tests for college credits are designed by Thomas Edison and those credits are also accepted by other state colleges, including Ramapo, Montclair State and William Paterson universities, Singer said. Rutgers does not accept the Thomas Edison assessment or the CLEP test, he said.
The regular per credit cost at Thomas Edison is $164 and other state schools charge more than twice that. The cost ranges from $370 at Montclair to $411 at Ramapo – or more than $1,200 for one course, so the savings in using Thomas Edison's $99 course could be substantial.
The fist six Saylor courses offered for credit at the school are Introduction to Comparative Politics; World History in the Early Modern and Modern Eras (1600-Present); Management Information Systems; Negotiations and Conflict Management; Introduction to Mechanical Engineering; and Thermodynamics.
