The Online Degree Dorm Room

Coming soon to a college near you - Digitial Textbooks…

Posted by bposton on December 30th, 2009 — Posted in online degree programs psychology

Now that the holidays are winding down and most of my dorm room buddies are checking their wallets to see wha’t left, there’s that sinking feeling when they realize that a new semester is coming up and along with that - the rush to get the college textbooks.

It’s a VERY sad fact that the cost of college textbooks has risen at 20 times the inflation rate in the last 20 years (according to the US Government) and I’m sorry, but this is just CRAZY. The poor economic situation brings this to light even more so, and finally there appears to be some good news - the education community is finally starting to “get it” - the time digitial textbooks is NOW.

Yes, there are still opposing camps on this subject. But the biggest opposition I’ve read comes from college faculty that fear they will be left out of the selection process, and worst case, state governments will eventually “mandate” certain books for certain classes. But since the cost of textbooks are such a huge burden on students today, some local governments have already started to write laws to make them more affordable.

These opposing views can’t stop the tide. Here’s some examples of what’s happening today in the move towards digital books:

CourseSmart is a company that has several thousand books in digitial format, costing half the price of printed versions. They have served over 6,500 students (and saved a few trees in the process, too )

Amazon is taking part in a study with seven universities to test and evaluate the success of digitial textbooks

Orange Grove Texts Plus is a partnership between the University Press of Florida (the Florida university system’s nonprofit publishing arm), Integrated Book Technology (a Virginia publisher) and The Orange Grove (Florida’s digital database of K-20 teaching material). This program offers students digital versions of over 140 textbooks and scholarly monographs for free, and bound printed versions for $30 to $50. Eventually, Orange Grove Texts Plus plans to stock more than 1600 titles.

California is also starting an initative similar to that in Florida. However this appears to be targeted to High School textbooks (probably because the state forks out the money for those.)

So, maybe in the very near future we won’t have to add the cost of textbooks to the other stressful activities along the college road.  Let’s hope it’s sooner than later.

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Associate Online Degree Programs | South Carolina grows it’s online degree programs

Posted by bposton on November 30th, 2006 — Posted in associate online degree programs

Both the University of South Carolina and it’s Community Colleges are seeing rapid growth in online enrollements.

The University of South Carolina Upstate has offered 56 online courses during the last two semesters. The courses are in the arts and sciences, nursing, education and business departments.

The number of online courses that the university has offered has more than doubled over the last two years and they expect the number to increase even more over the next two years.

They’ve had great success with its “RN to BSN program,”

This a program designed for registered nurses who already have an associates degree who want to earn their bachelor of science degree in nursing.

Of the 98 students enrolled in the program at the university, 30 are earning their degree online. The rest are taking course in a traditional classroom setting or through a partnership with state educational television (ETV).

Spartanburg Community College’s online courses have grown steadily since the college began offering them in 2001.

The community college currently offers three online degrees: an associate of arts degree, interpreter training program and a management degree. And they offer 60 online courses each semester.

They report that these online courses fill up as fast as are developed. And the school is finding that many students are taking traditional classes, and then adding online courses because of their flexibility.

They’re also finding out that online courses are often less expensive for colleges to offer since there’s little overhead, and textbooks can be updated often and downloaded easily.

According to college spokesmen, the South Carolina college system as learned that online classes can be just as good, or better than the traditional class environment,

And as long as the technology continues to expand (which it will, online courses are the way of the future.

Ben

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