05-11-2020, 09:13 AM
Agreed, if you're going to a big-name school, you're mostly paying for the schmoozing you get to do. The classwork itself is (mostly) standardized; that's what accreditation is for.
Going back to (one of) the original articles, they say that the schools "often charge less" for online learning and that makes the online classes less valuable on the whole. I'm guessing that these people have never looked closely and seen the ones that actually charge you more to learn online than in person. The per-credit-hour cost may be the same, but the college has some sort of additional technology fee (sometimes multiple fees and/or fees per class) tacked on that they don't charge to people who come to campus. It's not as common now, but it is definitely a thing.
Going back to (one of) the original articles, they say that the schools "often charge less" for online learning and that makes the online classes less valuable on the whole. I'm guessing that these people have never looked closely and seen the ones that actually charge you more to learn online than in person. The per-credit-hour cost may be the same, but the college has some sort of additional technology fee (sometimes multiple fees and/or fees per class) tacked on that they don't charge to people who come to campus. It's not as common now, but it is definitely a thing.
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