Charge the same to go online? Yeah, that would be inflation.

Maybe it would be cheaperto go online, we will see.

All online classes I've taken cost the same or more than traditional classes.

Welcome to 1999.

I started a graduate program in online teaching. After two classes I quit. It seems to me that online classes are really just expensive, convoluted ways of providing education that could be done for less money and with less hassle as regular correspondence classes (enhanced by email and chat rather than the old written correspondence). I think they've just found an expensive, techy way to provide correspondence courses, and thus be able to charge thru the nose for it (compared to correspondence). I took two correspondence courses in college (biology from the University of Kentucky) and New Testament (from Texas Tech). I took them both to avoid the bible-thumpers who taught the (required) classes on my campus. Neither one cost more than $100 (so maybe $300 after inflation today). The online classes seem to involve a lot of make-work designed to make the classes appear to be demanding when really all they are is time-consuming nonsense.

Time consuming nonsense, yes I agree. Except, I have taken some math and chemistry online and those were pretty good. I had to take exams on campus.

The teaching software was excellent, since I could go back again and again for things I didn't "get". IIRC this was pre-calculus algebra.

What I hated was the requirement to post a certain number of times each week to the class bulletin board. Most people just posted "me too" type things. If someone had already said what I had to say, or if I didn't have anything to say, I saw no reason to have to come up with something to say just to meet the minimum requirement. Supposedly this simulated class discussion, but far from it.

A friend took his graduate degree from Alabama's synchronous program. He had to be at his computer while the class was being conducted back in Tuscaloosa. He could see and hear them and vice versa. Now that seems like a worthwhile way to do it. However, schools, especially the for-profit mills, are making a fortune doing this worthless asynchronous classes. They pay the "faculty" peanuts and they in turn provide very little instruction as everything has already been "designed" by an instructional designer.

The diploma mills like U of Phoenix love this format. No need for brick and mortar, and the companies who pay employee tuition get a bulk discount.

How is it possible they haven't been doing this for at least 10 years?

What UC, and others, are failing to realize is that the barrier to entry for an online class is very small. If expert-in-their -field professors realize how easy it is to set up a wiki and a private youtube channel, they may be looking for a way to capture that enormous income stream themselves.

I wonder if they're going to do it in house or look for a private company.

[sarcasm]I hear Higher Ed Holdings, I mean Academic Partnership is a wonderful company with a great product....[/sarcasm]