Many view online courses as the answer to lowering the
cost of higher education. A Dallas Morning News report concluded that’s always not the case, at least in Texas.
The News analyzed 18 universities in Texas and found
that only the University of North Texas, Denton, and the University of Texas,
Austin, offered online courses at a lower cost to students than traditional
classes on campus after extra fees and additional costs per credit hour were
included. The newspaper reported that a semester of online courses at UT-Arlington
was $4,439 for on-campus students, compared to $4,415-$4,490 for online
students.
“There’s sort of a snake-oil quality to some of the
facile answers that people periodically throw out there,” Barmak Nassirian,
director of federal regulations and policy analysis at the American Association
of State Colleges and Universities, told the News. “Online education can be a
tremendously valuable component for actual academic delivery, but if you were
to do it right, it would not only not save money, it would cost money.”
