On the Internet, a university without a campus | Hacker News Reader

On the Internet, a university without a campus

iht.com

10 pointsph0rque8 comments

This is very similar to the (eventual) grand vision I had for ezLearnz, a project I worked on for a while. What is interesting is the revenue model: $15-$50 for enrollment to a given course, and $10 to $100 for the exams. (I assume this is on a per-course basis.) With my project, we were considering a $9.99/month tuition, regardless of the number of courses one takes or how long it takes to finish a given course.

That is an interesting business model. Because my oldest son is in the Stanford University EPGY Online High School

http://epgy.stanford.edu/ohs/

at the moment, I'm curious about the social model of the online college even more than I am about the economic model. The article refers to

http://www.cramster.com/

as an example of a successful online community. I get the impression that any online education provider will be successful or not largely to the degree that it builds a student community (and, for minor learners subject to compulsory instruction laws, a parent community too).

> I get the impression that any online education provider will be successful or not largely to the degree that it builds a student community (and, for minor learners subject to compulsory instruction laws, a parent community too).

Very much agree. One feature we thought up was (partially) refunding tuition fees for those students who create content to help fellow students (or those a class/chapter/unit behind them).

One feature we thought up was (partially) refunding tuition fees for those students who create content to help fellow students (or those a class/chapter/unit behind them).

That's a very interesting idea. I've been looking for learning environments that encourage learners to be collaborative rather than cut-throat competitive.

Why is it a good idea to charge the 2B+ people around the world earning $2 a day the equivalent of a week's wages to enroll in a class and the equivalent of a month's wages to take a test?

A relatively equivalent question to ask is why does my University costs are equal to nearly 1.5x the Avg US yearly salary?

It's an investment, like property, that can't easily be foreclosed on.

From another article, this is the website of the venture: http://www.UoPeople.org

Does it have to be a non-profit?

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