"I never have to go to school. It's great!"

     Yep, things change.
     Though I have never taught an online course, I have for years added online elements to my courses—such as homework assignments that students submit online (on Blackboard). My experiences with that tell me that online instruction will tend to be especially hard on flaky and undisciplined students who tend to turn things in late or not at all. When you set up an assignment online and give students a window to turn it in, they either do that or they don’t. There’s no middle ground. Students deal with a computer, not a person, and the computer is unforgiving.
     I like it. Most of our students need encouragement to be less, um, flaky. On the other hand, those students who persist in their flakiness fail. So, in some respects, our new era has more of an unforgiving "sink or swim" quality for many. Many will simply sink. That's not good.
     We’ve been hearing about textbook rental for years, and programs have started at our own campuses, though it is nice to hear that some newer programs (mentioned in the article below) allow students to write in their rented textbooks. It has always seemed to me that prohibiting such writing can thwart many students' studies. Students need all the help they can get!
     At many colleges, student government acquires much of its funding through a stiff tax on textbooks, and our own trustees here at the SOCCCD (especially Wagner and Fuentes) have rightly questioned that practice. I do hope that student government at our colleges will go even further than it has in reducing the extra cost placed on student textbooks. I fear, however, that they won't budge unless trustees pressure them again.
     When I was an undergraduate (at UCI in the 70s), I always kept my textbooks. They formed the basis of my personal library, and though I only occasionally consulted them, they served as a constant reminder of what I had learned and a basis for further inquiry. It's nice to see that some students still feel that way about their texts. But the rising cost of books and the rise of such measures as book renting will make this phenomenon virtually disappear. Too bad.
     Of course, when I was an undergraduate, textbooks cost about $20 a pop and tuition was about $250 per quarter. It simply amazes me what textbooks cost now. (I provide "free" materials for my students on Blackboard — mostly my own notes, rewritten as text.)

Colleges embrace online education (Daily Breeze)

     Alissa Dimock gazes into her laptop and studies a litigation lesson from a Los Angeles community college — all in the comfort of her South Pasadena bedroom.
     Dimock has never met her professor. She's also never sat in his class or set eyes on her fellow paralegal students at Los Angeles Mission College.
     Instead, her studies rely on a virtual pedagogic exchange, tapped out every day on a keyboard 25 miles from the Sylmar campus.
     "It's terrific," said Dimock, 44, seated next to a stack of law books. "I never have to go to school. It's great."
     Her class, Law 11-Civil Litigation, is among the steadily growing number of online courses being taught at community colleges throughout Los Angeles and California. In fact, community colleges are leading the way in online education, with annual online enrollments growing about 20 percent nationally over the past few years.
     The two-year colleges are following the successes of private universities like the University of Phoenix and National University that have conferred online degrees for years. They're also setting an example for four-year universities that are now kicking their online studies programs into high gear.
     The growth in online learning is a response to the demands of a busy public, desperate to acquire new skills in a fast-changing jobs market that will make most Americans take on multiple careers throughout their lifetimes. And in Los Angeles, it's a reaction to traffic gridlock.
. . .
     "You can see the trend - steep," said Gary Columbo, vice chancellor of institutional effectiveness for the nation's largest community college district. "It's all changed. Harvard and MIT (now) offer courses online. "It's a whole new world."
     Across the state, a growing number of the 112 community colleges have notified accreditors that more than half their lower division courses could be taught online.
     A report by community colleges Chancellor Jack Scott last year reported nearly 18 percent growth in distance education enrollment in 2008, to nearly 500,000 students.
     Proponents of online instruction tout many benefits, including more overall class participation and singular attention by professors.
. . .
     While virtual instruction can potentially save the community college district in classroom costs, administrators say it costs upward of $500,000 a year in licenses to use online learning software.
     Another downside, some say, is that computer classes require too much discipline from students, especially those prone to procrastinate or drop courses when they study online.
     Then there is the general criticism that computer course work simply cannot recreate the unique dynamic of a traditional classroom or campus life. Some online students have complained they feel isolated and virtually on their own.
     Online students, on average, also don't do as well as their face-to-face classroom counterparts, according to the LACCD. An average 58 percent of purely online distance learners earned a C or better last year, compared with 68 percent of regular class students. The dually enrolled students did slightly worse. In addition, up to 10 percent more students who study online fail to complete their classes.
. . .
     The University of California has also jumped on the online bandwagon. Last month, its regents agreed to develop an Internet-based undergraduate degree program that will save money and expand access to tuition-paying students.
. . .
     Nothing tells the story of how popular the courses have become better than the numbers. More than 4.6 million students across the U.S. studied online in the fall of 2008, a 17 percent jump over the previous year, according to a Sloan Survey of Online Learning….

Rent-a-book concept arrives at UC Berkeley (Oakland Tribune)

     UC Berkeley students may have a tough time finding a room to rent before classes start Aug. 26, but they won't have any trouble renting another back-to-school staple: textbooks.
     The Cal Student Store now allows students to rent select course texts for the semester, a less-expensive option that can save students nearly half the cost of new books and offers a significant savings over even used books. Most students spend about $1,000 a year on textbooks, according to campus figures.
     "I'm renting this textbook because it's cheaper," said second-year student Natalie Fakhreddine, who plans to major in business. "It's easy to do."
     For her and other economics students, the rental program means "Free to Choose" by the late Milton Friedman is $6.75 to rent, compared with $15 if purchased new or $11.25 used.
. . .
     A 600-page text on social psychology, for example, costs nearly $140 new and $104 used; it rents for $62. A 1,200-page introduction to astrophysics is $172 new, $129 used, and $77 to rent.
     Students can treat the rented texts just as they would books they buy: they can write notes in the margins and use highlighter markers on them, said Jeff Deutsch, director of the Cal Student Store.
     "Normal wear and tear is fine," he said, "which is a great feature for those using the books."
. . .
     The bookstore has about 3,750 different books in stock, and more than 30 percent of these titles can be rented. "The percentage is going up as we add titles," Deutsch said.
     Cal's Rent-a-Text program is being offered in cooperation with Follett Higher Education Group of Oak Brook, Ill., which manages more than 850 bookstores in the United States and Canada. Other Bay Area campuses that rent books include Saint Mary's College in Moraga, the University of San Francisco, Cal State East Bay and Stanford University.
     In a test program at 27 schools, including one Sacramento, students saved close to $6 million over two terms, according to information from Follett. The company projects the program could help students at more than 700 schools save more than $130 million in the 2010-2011 school year, and it expects to rent more than 3 million books nationwide.
     "In the pilot program, just less than half of students with the rental option do it," said Elio Distaola, director of campus relations for Follett. "That is more than 40 percent choosing to rent rather than buy."
. . .
     "It's reached a point where it's become a barrier for some students to buy them," Distaola said.
. . .
     Some students say the decision to rent or buy depends on the subject matter. "I'll rent a book if it's not in my major, like for an anthropology class," said Aerial Chen, an architecture student who just started working at the bookstore.
     "It really depends on the course," said Serena Quiroga, a fourth-year student from Colombia. "I'll probably rent a book, if it isn't for my major but is for a required class."Other foreign students, though, say they prefer to buy certain textbooks at lower prices overseas and have their family members ship the texts to them. This way, they can keep the textbooks and pay less than they would in the United States.
     Not all students looking to save money have such an option. Many, though, can order digital books online. Digital or electronic books are generally cheaper than new and used textbooks.
     "I hope that e-books are a fad," said Anthony Rodriguez, a third-year student majoring in intellectual history. "I like to read books and to keep them."
. . .
     "[Book rental is] an interesting concept, sort of like being back in high school," he said. "You get the book at the beginning of the term and then have to return it. But I probably wouldn't rent one except for math or a class I didn't like. (The rental) option doesn't let you build up your library, and that's what I want to do while I'm in school."….

From UC, Cal State fee hikes add to student debt (OC Register)

By the numbers

     In the past decade, UC’s undergraduate student fee has tripled, from $3,429 in 2000-01 to $10,302 this year.
     In the past decade, Cal State’s undergraduate student fee has nearly tripled, from $1,428 in 2000-01 to$4,230.
     In the past year, UC’s undergraduate student fee has risen by $2,514, a 32 percent increase.
     In the past year, Cal State’s undergraduate student fee has risen by $204, a 5 percent increase.
     The average annual cost for an undergraduate living on campus to attend a UC school is estimated to be$26,985 in 2009-10.
     The average annual cost for an undergraduate living on campus to attend a Cal State school is estimated to be $17,983 to $23,476 in 2010-11.
     The average annual cost to attend a four-year public college in the United States was $13,424 in 2007-08, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The average annual cost for a four-year private college was$30,393 nationally.
     The average loan amount for a full-time undergraduate was $8,000 annually in 2007-08, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Nearly 53 percent of all full-time undergraduates took out a student loan in that year.