WALL STREET JOURNAL: Charles Isbell, Sr. Associate Dean for the College of Computing at Georgia Tech, said the quality of the online technology has only recently improved to the point where the school believes it can scale its lectures and course work for thousands of students and still maintain quality. The school bills the program, which will cost a student about $6,000, as the first top-tier university to use such technology to offer a graduate degree.
“If they can really produce a master’s degree for $6,000 and make it a sustainable model, that’s a game changer,” said David Breneman, a University of Virginia Professor in the Economics of Education. “The price and the scale and the quality of the institution make this an interesting proposition. It’s certainly something people should take a look at.”
The upfront costs to create the online lectures run between $200,000 and $300,000, but once those hard outlays have been made the cost per each additional student is minimal, said Mr. Isbell. He estimated the school would have to hire one full-time teacher for every 100 online students as opposed to one full-time teacher for every 10 or 20 students who study on campus. [emphasis added]… (more)
