How to offer a correspondence course
 

Hi Gordon,

Great post! I was particularly interested in your info about Robert Coller and ICS.... It makes me wonder,

Why do correspondence courses appeal to people?

I don't really know the answer (I guess you'd need to do a survey, or find one which has already been done), but here are a couple of guesses.

My guess is that probably one of its appeals over a regular sit-in-the-classroom type of course is that it is SELF-PACED. So you can do it whenever you have the time, as fast or as slow as you like. But that's not it.

My guess for the second appeal is that, unlike with other info-products, you can get FEEDBACK by doing the assignments etc., which you then send in to be graded. This leads to the following observation.

I think these two things, that they are self-paced, and that you can get feedback, puts them somewhere in-between a standard info-product and a standard sit-in-the-classroom type of course in terms of their benefits. (And thus in a class by themselves.)

What do you think?

As I said earlier, these are just guesses, so if anyone knows more about this area I'd be very interested in the feedback.... But what do you need to offer such a course?

It seems to me that what you need to offer a correspondence course are an info-product (divided into several lessons), plus some assignments and the facilities to grade those assignments and send them back (so the student can get feedback on their work). Is that it, or is there more to it?

(I've never done a correspondence course, maybe I should enrol in one just to find out!)

- Dien Rice

Re: How to offer a correspondence course
 

Dien/Gordon:

I think this (correspondence course) is an idea with huge potential. Why? In addition to reasons mentioned, universities are now offering on-line courses and even degrees. I know because I began an online MBA program a few years ago at the University of Colorado (fully accredited). I took three classes then dropped out due to family and finances.

I checked yesterday and tuition has risen to $400 per credit hour ($1,200 per course). Ouch! The University of Maryland (my alma mater) now also offers a fully accredited online MBA at $500 per credit hour. Double OUCH!

The point is that they could not charge these rates if they didn't have people standing in line to pay. BUT, I don't really wanna pluck down that kind of cash right now (and I'm sure many others are the same way); so there is a niche there wating to be filled by informal courses.

I would love to take one or more such courses; I am also interested in getting into it from the owner/instructor side.

Very interesting subject - I hope my insights are useful!

Tim Spencer

The big business of education!
 

Hi Tim,

> I think this (correspondence course) is an
> idea with huge potential. Why? In addition
> to reasons mentioned, universities are now
> offering on-line courses and even degrees. I
> know because I began an online MBA program a
> few years ago at the University of Colorado
> (fully accredited). I took three classes
> then dropped out due to family and finances.

> I checked yesterday and tuition has risen to
> $400 per credit hour ($1,200 per course).
> Ouch! The University of Maryland (my alma
> mater) now also offers a fully accredited
> online MBA at $500 per credit hour. Double
> OUCH!

> The point is that they could not charge
> these rates if they didn't have people
> standing in line to pay. BUT, I don't really
> wanna pluck down that kind of cash right now
> (and I'm sure many others are the same way);
> so there is a niche there wating to be
> filled by informal courses.

> I would love to take one or more such
> courses; I am also interested in getting
> into it from the owner/instructor side.

> Very interesting subject - I hope my
> insights are useful!

Tim, I think you're right....

I met with my two brothers for lunch today, and brought up this topic of correspondence courses. We had a nice discussion about who WE thought would be interested in this kind of thing....

(Again, it would be nice to do a survey of WHO takes correspondence courses, but without that, I'm happy to take some guesses to start with!)

We theorized that one class of people would be those who wanted to do a university degree, but didn't want to spend the kind of money that many universities charge....

Another class of people might be those who wanted to do some "recreational" learning. That is, they wanted to learn mainly to expand their mind, or fill their time.... I suspect that perhaps this might be a growing area among retirees, who (I've read) sometimes have trouble filling in their time after they've retired from working.... Some retirees love to take courses.

I'm not sure who else.... It would be nice to get some stronger data. But I guess the best way to get data is to start a course and find out for yourself.... :)

Thanks Tim, though, for sharing your experiences! It can sure cost an arm and a leg to get an education sometimes....

I agree with you, I think the idea of correspondence courses offers a whole new lucrative angle of info-product to provide for info-product entrepreneurs. Education is big business and indications are that it's just going to get bigger!

- Dien Rice