Reaping the benefits of the web

Taking University of Memphis courses from a computer rather than a classroom may take less mobile effort, but is significantly more costly.

Online courses are about $20 more than on-campus courses. Comparing a course load of 15 credit hours, students taking only online courses pay nearly $1,500 more each semester than on-campus students.  The comparison amount increases significantly with each added online hour.

Online students have access to perks including free admission to University of Memphis sports games, though they don't pay the fee on-campus students pay to fund those incentives.

According to Jeannie Smith, assistant vice president for finance, the increased tuition is due to a $100-$102 per hour fee started in 2008 and is tagged onto online courses. It funds the "infrastructure, development and delivery of these courses," she said.

Professor Thomas Hrach teaches online classes in The U of M journalism department. He said the courses take a great amount of effort from professors because all work has to be completed prior to the start of school.

"From an instructor's point of view, there is more time spent prior to the start of class but less time after the class starts. An instructor's time is worth something, but whether it is worth a $100 more I can't say," Hrach said.

Data shows that last semester 1,870 students solely took online courses and 3,985 enrolled in both online and on-campus courses.

The 15,236 other students who took no online classes paid an $82.50 program service fee per hour instead of the online fee. This program fee is a combination of a debt service fee, general access fee, facility fee and student activity fee, mandatory of all students who enroll in any campus courses.

The difference is the program service fee cuts off at six credit hours, but online students continue to pay $100-102 for every hour after six, even up to 18.

Dan Lattimore, vice provost for extended programs, said the decision was made before his employment at The U of M, and he isn't sure why there isn't a cut-off for online courses.

He pointed out that at six credit hours, on-campus tuition is actually $23 higher than online tuition.  A fee chart on The U of M's website shows this is the only case where tuition on-campus is more than that online.

 "The (tuition) difference comes when you get above six credits because on-campus fees are only assessed for the first six hours. Online fees continue no matter how many credits you take," Lattimore said. "It gets more complicated than that… Graduate hours are also assessed a little differently in RODP for example."

Bobby DeMuro, 25, lives and works full time in North Carolina but takes six graduate-level online hours at The U of M and 12 hours at other schools.

"I only compared Memphis' online tuition with online tuition of other schools and it's extremely competitive," DeMuro said.  "Besides, I find that the expense is completely offset by my ability to remain at home and work full time at my full-time salary and level."

Kelli George, 41, senior history and anthropology double major, takes both online and on-campus courses. She is skeptical about the online fees.

"I really dislike the extra fees since that cuts into my financial aid refunds. I think it is just a scheme for The University to keep money back from the financial aid refunds," she said.

Even though online students don't pay the program service fee, which includes the student activity fee, they have had access to its perks, such as free admission to all University games and on-campus activities.

"Access should be granted to only those students who pay the program service fee, however due to previous system limitations, this access could not be limited," Smith said. "We are now able to limit access to only those students paying … however, we are currently allowing access in the current term while a team studies implications to both students and the institution."