Plans for online classes hit a bump after the UC Online Instruction Pilot Project failed to secure enough outside funds.
The UC hopes to make 29 online classes available to students by the end of 2012. This plan was approved by the Academic Senate last year, with the condition that all funding would come from external sources, such as private foundations and federal agencies, said Ann Karagozian, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the UCLA representative of the UC-wide Academic Senate.
So far, the project has received only one $748,000 grant from the Next Generation Learning Challenges program, falling far short of its estimated cost of $7 million, Karagozian said.
The project now intends to take out a $6.9 million loan from the University of California.
The loan, which essentially acts as a line of credit for the project, must be paid back in seven years, said UC spokesman Steve Montiel.
Revenue generated from tuition from non-UC students taking the online classes will pay back the loan, said Christopher Edley, the dean of UC Berkeley’s law school and the leader of the project.
For UC students, there will be no extra cost for taking online classes. They will pay the same amount of tuition as they would for in-person classes, Edley said.
“These are designed to be the same quality as courses offered for UC students,” Edley said. “They will be taught by UC faculty and graduate students.”
The Academic Senate has followed the funding changes with concern because it requires the program to make a profit, Karagozian said. This may influence the types of students the pilot will target to gain back the money in tuition, she said.
Several milestones have to be met soon to ensure continued support from the UC, said Daniel Simmons, chair of the UC Academic Senate.
This includes a market-based study on the financial feasibility of the project, Simmons said. He added that the UC Office of the Provost will be monitoring the milestones closely.
“It’s not really clear what would really trigger pulling the plug,” Simmons said.
Wendy Brown, a professor of political science at UC Berkeley and the co-chair of the UC Berkeley Faculty Association, said she is concerned the agreement that the pilot made with the Academic Senate to fund the project externally has been broken.
“$7 million could go to a lot of other places,” she said.
She said the current funding plan of the project exploits non-UC students by using their tuition for online classes to pay back the loan.
Brown also said she was concerned UC students will be forced to take most of their lower division classes online in the future. This would degrade the quality of their education, while they would still have to pay high tuition, she said.
Edley responded to the charges by saying the online learning pilot’s classes will be worth their price to non-UC students.
The online classes will be approved by the Academic Senate and will be official UC courses, Edley said. They will cost more than regular extension courses because they will give UC credit, which students can use to finish a degree or to transfer to a UC.
Some online classes will be available to UC students starting next fall, Edley said. The pilot will open up the classes to non-UC students in the fall of 2012.
No money has been drawn from the loan so far because the project is still applying for external grants from both private and public sources, including the National Science Foundation, Montiel said.
When money is drawn from the account, it will be financed by money borrowed from investors, such as companies or institutions, he said.
Loans from the Strategic Investment Program are only available to UC-wide programs that improve administrative efficiency, save money or generate revenue, he said.
“The expectation is that this money will be paid back,” Montiel said, “It is start-up money, seeding a project, and it is not intended to support anything long-term.”
With reports from Devin Kelly, Bruin senior staff.