Last week I wrote about 21 Cheap Online Masters offered in conjunction with edX and Coursera. I was wondering why our community isn’t talking more about these programs. In a follow-up post, I speculated on how some universities were able to drive down the prices of online master’s programs and the campus conversations that would allow this model to spread.
On Twitter and in the comments, my posts have been pushed back. The main objection is that I am only focusing on universities offering low-cost master’s degrees in conjunction with edX and Coursera, while ignoring the existence of a much wider set of affordable online master’s degree programs.
@4humanities tweeted, “There are fully online options for less than what you see on these two platforms. Take the first two degree examples, for example, and you can easily find programs for less elsewhere,” and provided the following links:
So, are the $10,000 to $40,000 online master’s degrees that universities are offering in partnership with Coursera and edX really anything different? Don’t we talk so much about these degree programs because they’re not worthwhile?
What looks different from my list of 21 online masters degree programs is the type of schools that are represented. Coursera and edX partner schools are research universities with global brands. A master’s degree from these schools is a rare commodity, highly valued in the market.
Another differentiator, as far as I can tell, is that the online master’s degree programs on my list are significantly more affordable than other degree programs offered by these schools.
Across higher education, institutions rely on master’s programs to keep their finances running. Unlike undergraduate programs, most schools do not practice tuition reduction for their master’s degree. The amount of financial aid available for masters students is small compared to undergraduate students.
Many schools rely on tuition fees from master’s programs to offset losses due to tuition reductions in their undergraduate programs. There are now three times as many master’s degrees awarded each year as there were in 1970. Today, for every five undergraduate degrees awarded by universities, two masters are delivered.
What if professionals seeking a master’s degree decide that an online degree from an institution with a recognized global brand is preferable to a traditional master’s degree from a known university in the region? How will majority colleges and universities that are both reliant on income from master’s programs and not considered “elite” survive when those tuition fees start to migrate to a few well-known schools?
My list of 21 low cost online masters degree programs from top universities should inspire all kinds of questions.
Why are they so cheap? Looking at the prices, it’s hard to believe that these programs generate a lot of excess revenue. I would bet that their price is pretty close to teaching costs. It appears that these schools pursue a mission of providing access, as opposed to generating revenue, and design these online programs around financial sustainability rather than generating revenue. But that could be wrong.
The other question concerns quality. What is the quality of these programs?
Low-cost degrees from unbranded programs can be quite excellent. The quality of a graduate program – including an online program – depends on the degree to which the educational model is relational as opposed to transactional. A relational educational model emphasizes intense interactions between well-supported educators and skilled, well-supported students.
Can a relational model of teaching and learning survive scaling up?
This assumes, of course, that the top universities’ online programs offered in conjunction with Coursera and edX (and on their platforms) are designed to scale. I guess these programs are not running out of space. In other words, they can accept as many qualified applicants as possible. This eliminates the main bottleneck of elite universities, the mismatch between demand and supply.
The existence of low cost masters degrees from what we consider to be high cost universities should be a big story. It seems like something new and something different. Definitely something different from the low cost online degree programs that are already on the market.
How can we understand the quality of these Coursera and edX programs, compared to existing low-cost online master’s programs?
What should our measure of quality be? Are we thinking about the power of the diploma on the job market? Or are we looking at the quality of the learning experience?
What risk do low-cost online master’s degree programs from world-brand universities pose to all the other schools that depend on master’s degree programs to balance the books?
What advantage do Coursera and edX have over other players in online program management, as these platform companies can possibly bring the same strengths to university partnerships (funding, expertise) in addition to the huge number of students (between 20 and 30 million) already on their platforms?
Who seeks to empirically answer these and other questions about the rise of branded, low-cost online mastery?
