Online course offerings, enrollment grow

By Nora Strehl
Western Herald

When Donald Klemmen’s alarm goes off, it reads 8:30 a.m. It is the same old routine for the Western Michigan University chemical engineering senior — it has been since last semester and the semester before that. Except this time shutting that alarm off, rolling over, and falling back asleep is far too easy, thanks to online classes.

Jo Wei Looi/Western Herald

This means there is no need for the early wake up calls anymore—or even 12:30 p.m. wake-up calls for that matter. Having no particular time to get up and go to class is one of the comforts that come with online classes, among other things, but what some may not realize is that there is a fee for this luxury.

WMU began offering online classes in 2005. Since then, enrollment has increased from 423 students taking 1,513 credits in fall 2005 to 2,772 students enrolled in 8,402 credits in spring 2010.

Klemmens said that this was his first year taking online classes, and he seems to be doing better because there aren’t any restraints on him.

“My grades appear to be better than before, just because I don’t feel the pressure that I felt in a traditional classroom setting,” he said.

“Had I known this before, I would have taken online classes all along.”

C. Dennis Simpson, Ph.D., professor and member of the Faculty Senate’s Academic and Information Technology Council, said for all the students that love online classes, the same number hate them.

“Online classes aren’t for everybody,” Simpson said.

“Students come to universities having had computers with them since they were young, and in doing that they like to use the computer.

He said the online classes were a way of tying into the medium that students understand and already use.

“Some students have to work to get through school and the regular course schedule doesn’t fit with their work hours,” Simpson added. “So an online course is good for flexible hours, you can read and see the lectures at times when classes aren’t typically offered.”

Online classes are made to fit in with students’ lives, and ultimately make them easier, Simpson said.

“You can be anywhere you want, you can be on vacation,” he said. “We get a lot of assignments and it’s amazing how many students are sending them from the beach.”

“It gives students a lot of latitude but you have to be self-disciplined.”

Self-discipline is a major contributing factor to how well a student will do in an online class; and because of this, the students who lack that, are often at a disadvantage.

“You have to say, ‘I am going to do so much a week in order to make this work,’” Simpson said.

“If you wait until the last week to go through all the lectures, take all the tests and quizzes, you will probably be in trouble.”

Cash Concerns
The convenience that comes with online classes also comes with a fiscal price.

An upper level undergraduate pays the $292.50 per credit hour for taking traditional classes, but has to pay $318.28 per credit hour and a $20 per class technology fee for online classes.

Online classes also don’t count towards the flat rate tuition fee. The flat rate fee is $3,827 for 12-16 credits on campus. If a student takes 11 credits on campus and three online, the student misses out on the flat rate fee and has to pay the regular $264.66 per credit hour. Add that to $1,349.82 for a three credit online class, the cost for 14 credits is $4253.82, almost $400 more than the flat rate.

Dawn Gaymer, associate provost for extended university programs, said there are several advantages to taking an online class, but something students seem to point out is the price difference between an online and a traditional class.

She says that the reason for that is because EUP bundles all their fees into one tuition price, one bundled rate.

“Online classes can sometimes be more expensive or less expensive relative to credit hours,” Gaymer said.

“Main campus has a flat rate but that is where the biggest variance comes from.”

“These courses bundle the tuition and fees to accommodate tuition reimbursement programs,” she said.

“Which does not align with the flat rate tuition structure that is designed for full-time, undergraduate students.”

“Enrollment fees do not apply to EUP programs, there are no registration fees, no online fees, and most colleges usually have an additional online fee, but not us.”

Gaymer said something EUP has been struggling with is why students who are also taking classes on main campus also want to take online classes.

“Attending classes is integral to the campus experience,” she said. “We recognize that there are some interest in online classes for our Kalamazoo undergraduate students.”

“We would like to better understand the interest in online classes for Kalamazoo students and have created a survey, where students can share their opinions.”

Bassam Harik, vice provost for budget and personnel, said that pretty much any university has a difference in price between their online classes and their traditional classes.
There is higher tuition applied to online classes compared to traditional classes because there is a cost involved in providing the course online.

“We have to put money into the infrastructure and information technology and servers need to be upgraded and maintained,” Harik said. “The course is designed differently when it is online, so the staff also needs to be trained.”

Harik said that online courses often take a long time to prepare, and it may become an overload for a professor, so they are paid for the course on top of their regular load. If they teach an additional course online, there is some compensation there.

“There is a large amount of flexibility that comes with online classes, and with that there is a price to pay for that convenience,” Harik said.

“If you are a student taking online classes, you aren’t paying the fees that come with being a full time student on campus, and you don’t have to pay for parking. So, there are those advantages.”

But if a full time student is taking traditional classes, and would also like to take a few online classes, they end up paying double the rate — fees for traditional classes and the bundle rate for online classes.

“EUP is self-funded,” Harik said. “When they offer a class they have to cover the cost of that class.”

“EUP gets no revenue otherwise, and we have to get the money from somewhere.”

Harik said that the original intent was to provide courses to students who are unable to be on campus, except now that’s not what is happening.

“We are able to serve students who can’t come to campus, and we do that well,” he said. “But students on campus like the convenience of online classes too, and we’re trying to figure out the best way to address it.”

Face to face versus face to screen
While online classes use the latest technology to deliver information, they are revolutionizing the way classes have been taught for thousands of years.

“We are concerned about how certain important features of face-to-face instruction will fare in an online format,” said Dini Metro-Roland Ph.D., assistant professor of teaching, learning and educational studies.

“We value the kinds of relationships and emotional and intellectual growth that can occur when teachers and students work closely together, in a particular place and at a particular time, grappling with complex subject matter.”

Metro-Roland also said that information alone does not make an education.

“We believe that the success of a university as an institution of higher education depends in part on the ability to cultivate a shared commitment to learning and shared respect for the subject matter and one another,” he said.

“In our experience, universities with vibrant and active learning communities create the conditions that enable inspiring teachers and dedicated students to engage in a variety of stimulating issues and idea.”

Some students considered student-teacher interactions to be very necessary, while others may not consider it an important part of how they learn.

“You can take the classes on your own time schedule,” said Mike Hakun, business major at WMU.

“You can do the work ahead of time if you want, or later in the semester if you are really busy,” he said. “Not having teacher interaction helped and hurt me. I could do the work whenever I had time and still work with others. I had a lot of resources to help me learn.”

Hakun added that at the same time it was difficult because he didn’t really have an instructor explaining things to him, face to face.

Other students, like junior Rafe Foster, said the student-teacher interaction is necessary.

“Some have the discipline to sit down and bang out all the work during the week,” Foster said. “I personally don’t. I really need to be in class. I needed face-to face interaction.

“I wanted to be able to learn at my own pace,” he said. “That option was definitely there, but it just wasn’t for me.”

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Posted by heraldstaff on Apr 4 2010. Filed under Breaking, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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