Why Online Education May cut down the Cost of Your Degree

As the worth of higher education continues to skyrocket, some universities suppose they have found the key to keeping tuition costs down – online education.

Recently, for case, Georgia Institute of Technology announced it would be providing an online master's degree in computer science for $6,600 – about $35,000 less than its campus program. The University of the People, an accredited, online-only school, is now providing degrees with no tuition. And huge open online courses, or MOOCs, have been hailed as open educational resources that student could eventually use to complete a degree.

Although these developments in online education can influence the overall price of college eventually, people might not see dramatic changes soon, experts say. And as student test out different models, some argue that the cost of offering a quality education makes it difficult to offer online learning at discounted rates.

In the minds of people like Ben Nelson, it's clear that online education should be simpler on the pocketbook than attending an on-campus program. At his program, called the Minerva Schools at KGI, people take all of their courses online even as living together in the world's largest cities. Coaching isn't cheap, but at $10,000 it is less than out-of-state tuition at many state universities, he says.

Students pay less because the school doesn't have to keep facilities like cafeterias or libraries, subsidize sports teams or pay for amenities like climbing walls. The school also trimmed its budget by removing and mandating that faculty get research funding through outside sources rather than through tuition.

Other way online programs will save costs and thus lower tuition is by admitting more students – sometimes hundreds more – to class while taking the number of instructors to a minimum or outsourcing grading to computers. That model is being produced by Georgia Tech, which is providing its own MOOCs to students in its online master's program in computer science.

A professor of leadership at the University of Illinois—Springfield whose research focuses online education, ​​says that model has its downside. MOOCs will be expensive to produce, don't have a great track record when it comes to completion rates and can have weak process to teaching, known as pedagogy.

Dave R. Cillay, VP of Washington State University’s Global Campus, says his online students pay the same tuition as their on-campus course because they enjoy similar student services and interacting with the same lecturers. Online students aren't paying for facilities they aren't using because like at several other public universities, money for buildings comes from funding, not tuition, he says.

"One of the basic problem is there is no universal definition of higher education," he says. "You have to ask, 'What am I purchasing? Am I buying an adjunct that teaches a thousand people or am I buying a professor who is involved in cutting-edge ​research?' One is going to be more costly than the other."

Trying to fund your online education? Get tips from Expertsmind for Online Education center.