Thursday, May 10, 2001

Brenau U. Offers Automatic Scholarships to Some of Its Online Students By JEFFREY R. YOUNG Students who enroll in the online version of Brenau University's master's program in early-childhood education automatically get a $200-per-course scholarship. The unusual incentive was created to attract students who otherwise might not be able to afford the university's distance-education courses, which cost more than its traditional ones. The online master's program, which begins this summer, marks the first time the university has offered education courses online, though the university has delivered online courses in other subjects for several years. The university decided that elementary-school teachers who are the target audience for the degree program probably have less access to other means of support for graduate education, and so need a price break. "This scholarship was a way to give them a break without affecting our standard pricing," says Heather S. Gibbons, director of online education for the university. "I think we all have a soft spot for teachers." The university, a small, private institution in Gainesville, Ga., normally charges $335 per semester hour for its online courses. That's considerably more than it charges for traditional courses, which cost $225 per semester hour. So even with the scholarships, students in the online master's program will pay about $130 more for each three-hour course than students in classroom versions of the same courses. Ms. Gibbons says the higher tuition rate for online courses was set to cover the technology costs associated with delivering courses online, as well as to place a "surcharge" on the convenience of the virtual classes. The scholarship program highlights the question of how much colleges and universities should charge for their distance-education programs. So far, institutions have taken a variety of approaches to pricing, says Bruce N. Chaloux, director of the Southern Regional Education Board's Electronic Campus. "There are groups of institutions that have priced [online courses] higher than traditional ones, and groups that have discounted it on the basis that it is not utilizing the traditional campus resources and services that tuition covers," he says. "And some of them have assessed separate fees, for example a technology fee," for distance-education courses. The most common strategy, says Mr. Chaloux, is to charge the same price for online and in-person courses -- regardless of how much the courses cost the college to produce. Mr. Chaloux says that he has not heard of other institutions' creating scholarships specifically for online students. "That's a very creative strategy that I hope others will take a look at," he adds. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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