Under the pilot program, a core course would cost just $50 dollars a credit hour, or about one seventh the $360 an hour it costs now. The charges for fees still apply.
Distance learning courses are becoming common at college. Even three decades ago Akron students had to take some required courses in large theater rooms, watching the professor on closed circuit television. Vice Provost Todd Rickell says these new classes are different
“The days of correspondence education even using video or broadcast is really not a very engaging way to teach. There needs to be a way for students to respond. Online allows a lot of interaction between a student and her faculty member but also from students to students.”
University president Scott Scarborough told the Board of Trustees that Ohio may see competition from online colleges like Western Governors University, which now has affiliated schools in five states.
Scarborough doesn’t see these so-called blended learning courses as college on the cheap. He is the best method of education.
“The issue for us is can we do it with an underlying cost model that is sustainable and that’s the reason we’re calling it a pilot. We have to prove that we can do what others have done.”
You already have to balance a budget that is in the red right now. Here you are lowering prices instead of raising them.
“Yes but we see this as a chance to attract students we’ve never been able to attract before. So we see this as a growth opportunity. And if we can help students be successful retention rates improve state appropriations improve, they get into some other academic programs where the rates are a little bit higher so we cover some of our investment.”
Is this going to be the future for all core, general education classes?
“I think it has the potential but I think that’ll take quite some time to get there. Although I would say this: there are so many different types of students that we serve. This may be the ideal learning model for a certain segment but it may never be the ideal model for all segments.”
Akron’s trustees approved the plan but the Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents gets the final say.