Students taking online course sections are charged a $100 fee on top of the normal cost of the class.
The course fee provides funding for instructor training, equipment and updates for technology, according to Janice Thorpe, director of the online program for the Department of Communication.
“It pays for our instructors to take training, to become trained on how to teach and design online, because an online course is very different than an in-person class, and it should be, so it trains our instructors how to design good online courses that will give a student good learning experiences,” Thorpe said, adding that the training also provides equal access opportunities for students with accessibility needs.
Compared to the cost of online courses at CU Boulder, the UCCS online course fee is more cost-effective. The CU Boulder Continuing Education Online Credit tuition is assessed at a single per-credit hour rate in addition to on-campus tuition fees and begins at $499 per credit hour for undergraduate students and $744 per credit hour for graduate students.
Instructors are provided with formal training for online course design, design with accessibility in mind, online facilitation and quality assurance through the Teaching Online Program at the Faculty Resource Center.
Each course in this program focuses on complying with the HB21-1110 Colorado accessibility law and online course standards defined in the UCCS OSQR rubric to ensure quality assurance. Web accessibility is emphasized and ensures the website design allows for students with disabilities or impairments to easily access the content.
Thorpe explained how course structure, learning objectives and major assignments have to remain the same regardless of modality according to federal law, but that student-instructor communication is approached differently for online courses.
“By law, the learning objectives and the major assignments for those courses, regardless of how they’re offered, have to be the same … but, outside of that, there’s a lot of leeway to have,” Thorpe said.
The Teaching Online Program and HB21-1110 have also helped instructors and students transition more seamlessly into online courses after COVID-19 forced a transition from in-person to an online structure.
“It was just a major pivot. It was like you had to slam on breaks and turn left immediately, because we didn’t have a choice, and so that was a real struggle for faculty and for students. That’s not what they signed up for, it’s not what the faculty signed up for. They were not trained,” Thorpe said.
Adjusting to this shift for students and instructors due to the pandemic required adapting to an unfamiliar course modality, Thorpe said.
Online programs allow students to access their education in a means that best suits their lifestyles and learning objectives in an all-encompassing way across the traditional and non-traditional student population.
Students can find additional information about tuition and online course fees on the Bursar’s website or by emailing [email protected].
Photo by Emilio Takas on Unsplash.