Before they wiped out college tuitions costs back in Ireland in 1996 the cost of doing a an excellent CS degree in UCC (http://ucc.ie) was about 2000 Irish pounds (about $2800 at the time) a year for 4 years.

If you were wanted to do medicine it was a whopping $5000 or so a year over about 5 years.

There were lesser hidden costs (200 for a registration fee kind of thing) but thats about it.

We considered that outlandish at the time.

The costs of the US education system baffle me on a daily basis.

However I don't see online courses as the way to go. Most people don't complete them.