How big is Distance Education?

To go along with the previous post, Stephen Abram also notes an interesting statistic about DE: the U of Phoenix and Western International University are among the top 5 largest US Universities.

Comments

[Iris Gross]

Be careful of equating the biggest with the best solution. My cousin's daughter has been trying to get her bachelor's in Nursing Administration from the University of Phoenix and she told me that she had ten hours left, and it cost $1000/hr. This, for a girl on food stamps. She did tell me that some financial aid was available for her.

Now, I remember screaming because they hiked tuition at the University of Central Oklahoma to about $125/CREDIT hour back in 1992 or '93. If this is what distance learning is to cost, it eliminates any advantage for a lot of people who would have a hard time even getting in the door at that price.

That being said, I'm looking to change careers and get a Master's in Library Science, and would like to be able to do at least part of it without quitting my current job. So, I'm actively looking for at least a partial online solution.

I suppose the bottom line is, spend a good amount of time doing research, and I guess that'll be a good training exercise for a future librarian!