Dive Summary:
- Professor Direct, a new service run by StraighterLine, allows professors to set the price of their online courses, as well as how much time they devote to "amenities" like office hours, online tutorials and responding to students e-mails.
- StraighterLine's courses are described as "ultra-affordable" online, self-paced introductory courses, and a handful of colleges accept the courses for transfer credit.
- Instructors offering courses on Professor Direct set their own sticker price as long as it's higher than the company's base price--for example, if a base price is $49 and the instructor's sticker price is $50, the course is offered for $99 and the professor gets that $50 for every student who signs up--with students paying a premium for more professor contact or "branded" professors.
From the article:
Professors typically don't worry about what price point a course will sell at, or what amenities might attract a student to pick one course over another. But a new online platform, Professor Direct, lets instructors determine not only how much to charge for courses, but also how much time they want to devote to services like office hours, online tutorials, and responding to students' e-mails. ...