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Area colleges expand online presence in light of high gas prices
(by Daphne Drohobyczer - August 20, 2008)
St. Louis-area colleges are starting to offer more online courses to their students, and in turn have seen a significant rise in the number of students who enroll in such classes. For most colleges, online classes are simply part of the mix, but with the increasing price of gas, online learning could become an even more familiar part of college life.
Bob Samples, a spokesman for University of Missouri-St. Louis, said the university is working to provide a combination of online and on-campus courses and noted that there is an inherent versatility that comes with online courses. At any time of day or night, faculty members can post items to a class website, and online discussion does not have to correspond to regular class times, he said.
UM-St. Louis was the first university in the state to offer an online MBA program. Although students might have the impression that an online course would inevitably mean a reduction in the quality of education, this is not the case, Samples said.
At UM-St. Louis, on-campus courses are now labeled as “traditional” courses, and the schools see benefits in learning from both styles, he said.
At Fontbonne University, online courses are seen as a way to reach out-of-state students, and they can also be a convenient way of learning for graduate students who have commitments to jobs and families. But, by and large, undergraduates are still looking for the campus experience, said Vice President for Enrollment Management Peggy Musen.
The university has seen significant growth in the last five years, which has put a strain on parking and on-campus housing. To counter those problems, the university has moved some of its older students and international graduate students off campus.
Clayton Berry, a spokesman for St. Louis University, said that about 50 percent of its students are from outside St. Louis; undergrads have taken on-campus courses exclusively, while there are online course offered to graduate students.
It’s a similar pattern at Washington University, where online classes are not directly available to undergraduates, although there are online courses available through the university’s night school, University College, said Director of Admissions Nanette Tarbouni.
A few years ago the university was caught out by a larger-than-expected incoming freshman class. In a last-minute bid to free up space in dormitory housing, the university offered financial incentives for second- and third-year students to move off campus. Now the university has the problem under control.
“We’ve known since May [that] we’re expecting 1,380 to 1,400 freshman will join us in August — it’s pretty stable from year to year,” Tarbouni said.
Tarbouni also said that the nature of the Washington University community is a little different from most. Washington University is “a residential community,” so rising gas prices will not impact enrollment in the way it might at a commuter school, and its financial-aid packages cover all travel expenses, including “plane, train and automobile.”
“Families from every type of financial background are feeling a squeeze, and we want to give them the resources to be here,” she said.
At St. Louis Community College, which has four campuses in the metro area, students are more likely to be at the sharp end of the recession.
“Typically the students who enroll here do not have a lot of disposable income, so between buying groceries and taking a class, they’ll buy groceries,” said Pat Matreci, media relations coordinator for St. Louis Community College.
But, Matreci said, there’s no evidence yet that gas prices have depressed enrollment for next semester. “Typically we get some late enrollment,” she said. “The biggest increase will be right before classes start,” and this year the classes are starting a week later than normal, she said.
However the college has floated the idea of moving to a four-day teaching week in the spring semester so that students will have to drive to class less often and, when they are there, will be there for longer periods of time.
Matreci emphasized that there are resources available for cash-strapped students; students just have to pursue them. Such resources include scholarships, loans and payment plans.
Online classes are simply one of many options available at the community college. Matreci said that SLCC offers two associate degrees online, compared to 10 transfer degrees and 90 vocational degrees. She said that if the college wanted to add more online associate degrees, they would have to be approved by the state.
Matreci said the level of preparedness individual students bring to online classes varies from person to person and depends on his or her own work ethic.
When students enroll in distance-learning courses (a category that also includes telecourses and video-based learning), they are invited to take a quiz that assesses whether the person has the self-discipline and temperament it takes to gets the most out of distance learning.
“Ten or 15 years ago, you couldn’t think of taking an online course, and as people’s lives get more hectic, technology will allow the classroom to reach them,” Matreci said, “As technology advances, and innovative instructors find ways to use it, the sky is the limit.”
Though schools such as Washington University and St. Louis University are currently resisting offering online classes to undergraduates, schools such as UM-St. Louis and Fontbonne are taking advantage of the new market and offering a wide variety of online courses, hoping to attract students from out of state.
Although it is hard to predict what higher education will be like five, 10 or 20 years from now, it doesn’t look like the development of the internet is going to slow down — or that gas prices are going to go down.
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