{"id":955,"date":"2012-04-30T17:44:06","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T17:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/glencora\/?p=955"},"modified":"2014-05-22T15:46:46","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T15:46:46","slug":"the-17500-computer-science-degree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/glencora\/2012\/04\/30\/the-17500-computer-science-degree\/","title":{"rendered":"The $17,500 computer science degree"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Update: the tuition for this program has been changed and now amounts to about $30,000.\u00a0<\/strong> Sadly.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/eecs.oregonstate.edu\/new-computer-science-degree\">Our department has announced a new, entirely online, bachelor&#8217;s degree in computer science<\/a> which can be completed in one year. \u00a0Given that we are a public university, this translates to a $17,500 degree*.<\/p>\n<p>I will admit, when I first heard the idea I did not have very good thoughts about it. \u00a0My negative thoughts included<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>one year? yeah right!<\/li>\n<li>what about programming languages, theory of computation, AI, etc.?<\/li>\n<li>are we designing ourselves out of jobs? (courses will be administered by non-tenure-track instructors)<\/li>\n<li>how will standards be maintained?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But then, I got to hear the details. \u00a0First, it is a post-baccalaureate degree. \u00a0So, students will already have a bachelor&#8217;s degree, and will have need to meet OSU&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/oregonstate.edu\/admissions\/basic-admission-requirements\">post-baccalaureate admissions standards<\/a>. \u00a0They will likely be more mature and perhaps working as they study. \u00a0I&#8217;m also glad to see that they are cautioning that completing the degree in one year would be a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/online-degrees\/undergraduate\/computer-science\/course-structure-diagram-1yr.pdf\">very intensive, full-time schedule<\/a> and include <a href=\"http:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/online-degrees\/undergraduate\/computer-science\/course-structure-diagram-2yr.pdf\">two<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/online-degrees\/undergraduate\/computer-science\/course-structure-diagram-3yr.pdf\">three-year<\/a> plans of study.\u00a0 The degree is intended as a second degree, so all optional classes in CS are not mandatory. \u00a0Of course, this must ruffle some feathers as many courses that are required for graduation in our regular 4-year, first-degree program are not required by this post-bacc degree. \u00a0(I&#8217;m glad algorithms made the cut.) \u00a0As a post-bacc degree, we will still \u00a0have the usual cohort of students seeking a CS degree straight out of high-school. \u00a0Finally, it seems there is a consensus to require 2 proctored exams per course and, at least for the first few years, the assignments and exams will be the same as in the on-site classes.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been thinking more generally about online classes and online degrees and <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/glencora\/2012\/02\/29\/student-depression-large-classes-and-online-classes\/\">their social implications<\/a>. \u00a0One <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/glencora\/2012\/02\/29\/student-depression-large-classes-and-online-classes\/#comment-368\">commenter<\/a>, pointed out some very valid points of the benefits of online education, that I have to agree with. \u00a0This degree provides an opportunity for the un- or under-employed to retrain for less than the cost of a new car. \u00a0The flexible schedule and location of the online classes will allow non-traditional students to study when they can, at the pace that they can. \u00a0I&#8217;m excited to see who will complete this program and from where they study. \u00a0I&#8217;d like to see a concerted effort to recruit women to complete this degree to perhaps counter the gender imbalance in our on-site program.<\/p>\n<p>So, this coming fall, I will be converting my undergraduate algorithms class into an online class in time for a Winter 2013 release. \u00a0I&#8217;m excited to do this** and I&#8217;m sure I will have plenty to say about it in the fall.<\/p>\n<p>* ~$15,000 for tuition (in- or out-of-state) plus additional expenses, such as textbooks (~$50 per course), a compatible laptop or computer (~$600), graduation fee ($300) and 2 proctored exams per course (~$30 each).<\/p>\n<p>** And very glad that my department treats this course development as one class-worth of teaching assignment.<\/p>\n<p>*** If you have questions about the program, please contact the program director directly at <a href=\"mailto:PostBacCS-online@oregonstate.edu\">PostBacCS-online@oregonstate.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Update: the tuition for this program has been changed and now amounts to about $30,000.\u00a0 Sadly. Our department has announced a new, entirely online, bachelor&#8217;s degree in computer science which can be completed in one year. \u00a0Given that we are a public university, this translates to a $17,500 degree*. I will admit, when I first [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3747,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[106206,106190,3514],"class_list":["post-955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-online-classes","tag-tcs","tag-undergraduate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/glencora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/glencora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/glencora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/glencora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3747"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/glencora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/glencora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1131,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/glencora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions\/1131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/glencora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/glencora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/glencora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}