Across the country, the classroom is coming right to some students – at a great discount. With recent developments in technology that make online courses possible, some schools now offer courses to anyone with Internet access at low costs.
Unfortunately, that is not the case for Fairfield students.
Last summer, it cost $1,290 per online course, with a $25 registration fee, according to Janice Miles Dunn, director of Distance Education and Program Development.
At Fairfield, there has been an approximate increase of 25-30 percent in enrollment of online classes since the University College program began in 2002. The University College anticipates about 1,200 enrollments in online courses this year alone.
Other schools around the country have seen similar increases.
“From 2003 to 2006, the enrollment in distance-delivered credit courses at the school doubled,” according to a recent article in the Arkansas Traveler.
“Schools are feeling their way, experimenting with different technologies; some use Utah State University’s eduCommons on the Web; some post to free sites such as YouTube and the Apple University site iTunes U. Other schools have plunged right in: MIT has 1,800 classes online, virtually the entire curriculum free and open to all,” according to an article from the Washington Post .
The article went on to cite the advantages of free online courses: “These classes are free. At a time when many top schools are expensive and difficult to get into, some say it’s a return to the broader mission of higher education: to offer knowledge to everyone.”
According to Dunn, course content at Fairfield is created by the professor and lectures have copyright value, just like written articles or material, and are therefore the intellectual property of the person who creates them. It would be a professor’s decision to put any type of lecture online.
Students often use the summer and breaks to catch up on credits for various reasons. Full-time Fairfield students are generally not allowed to take online classes during the fall and spring semesters.
“We’re the way a student might graduate on time,” Dunn said in reference to University College’s online courses. There is no distinction on a student’s transcript between University College online classes and traditional classes, she said.
Online courses offer a “different type of learning, which caters to a much more diverse group of people that go to school part time,” according to Dunn.
Online classes offer a different style of learning that is more proactive because students must take charge of their own learning experience.
In the Arkansas Traveler article , Gary McHenry, director of Credit Studies at the School of Continuing Education and Academic Outreach at the University of Arkansas, said, “Online classes afford such students the opportunity to gain college credits with minimal disruption of their normal, daily activities while at the same time providing a challenging and rewarding educational experience.”
The rise in online courses as an alternative to the typical classroom setting can have its advantages and disadvantages, according to Richard Regan, a Fairfield English professor who also teaches some courses online.
In an online course, “the burden is on the students,” said Regan. There can be a good class online but it is partly about the type of student taking the class.
“I will always say face-to-face is better,” he said.
Regan also said that one major problem he has noticed is plagiarism, and that is a major concern. Online courses are a “different kind of work” and, if it piles up, students tend to panic, he said.
Kathryn Michal ’09, a finance major who took an online class to catch up with credits after being abroad, said she agrees with Regan.
“Online classes are good for students who have time to dedicate to accomplishing assignments on their own,” she said.
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