Online Classes

Online Classes

I am after my online classes this morning. I snapped awake at dawn and started grading essays, 40 of them, as soon as I could open my eyes after swallowing a quart of hot coffee. As usual, my stomach started gurgling like an old fashioned percolator, but I didn’t really have the attention to spare because one of the discussion group members at a Yahoo forum I subscribe to for online classes asked the following question (and I am paraphrasing for those nitpickers in the audience):

“How will students pay for online classes?’

That is a damn good question. See, students do not get a discount for attending college online classes. They pay the full freight, and the full freight is very high these days. I have read that tuition for institutes of higher education goes up at double or more the annual inflation rate. That’s some hike every year!

Online Classes: The Wherewithal?

Do you notice I’m asking a lot of questions in this post? In fact, I just asked a question to ask a question. No one seems to have any answers about the economy these days. I use to think I was the most clueless person on the planet in terms of how money works, and I took some comfort in the idea that there must be a herd of very smart people driving the American economy because if it were up to me, we would be in the mess we are in right now.

Well, much to my surprise, it turns out that there isn’t a herd, even a small herd, of people much smarter than myself running things. Nope. It looks like people like me are running things, and people like me, a witless, educated writer trying to make a very small living by teaching online classes and not doing a very good job of it at that since I’m dead broke and soon, apparently will be even deader broke, if I can write it that way, because if there really isn’t any money in the banks, then there won’t be any money to loan students who want an education.

Online Classes: Is This How They End?

It could be that no matter how many promises the federal government makes about raising the cap on the amount of money a student can borrow in order to pay for an education, there might not be any money to loan out.

Goodness, I can promise to cover loans all day, but when it comes time to actually hand over the cash, it can’t happen because there isn’t any cash to hand over.

Further, if students can’t borrow the money to pay for tuition for distance education because there isn’t any cash to loan, then how many classes will simply disappear off my class schedule?

I haven’t held a long-handled shovel in years, and at my age, being one of those aging baby boomers without two nickels to rub together, I doubt I would actually be able to shovel dirt or concrete for any length of time without experiencing a heart attack, and I sure don’t want a heart attack because I don’t have any health insurance, primary or supplemental, because I’m just an adjunct instructor teaching online classes.

I have one online graduate class I’ve been teaching since July 2005. As of today, I am being paid the same money I was paid back in July 2005. How much less can I purchase in terms of good and services today than I could in July 2005?

Makes one think again about the problems of online classes.