Got a Coupon For That College Course? Marketing Gimmicks Come To Higher Ed

"A decade ago, it would have been hard to imagine a college handing out coupons or running limited-time offers," notes the education site EdSurge. "College was something you applied to get into, and entered with a seriousness of intent to complete."

But now, writes long-time Slashdot reader jyosim.... As online education has become mainstream, new providers have moved to the same marketing tactics as selling any widget. Especially upstart providers like Udemy, Coursera and edX. In some cases the courses are offered by well-known universities partnering with those companies.

Students sometimes buy courses when they're on sale intending to take them, but then never get around to it. It's the academic equivalent of signing up for a gym membership in January in the burst of new-year's-resolution optimism and then rarely going to work out.


Udemy's algorithm "favors courses with more students," points out EdSurge, "so professors have an incentive to encourage bulk registration" (during periods when courses are free or discounted). And the stakes are high. 19 instructors made more than $1 million last year, Udemy's CEO notes.

And a result of this competion, he adds, is that a whopping 63% of their top 1,800 courses had been updated in just the last 90 days — "to make the content better and better over time so they get more views and they make more money."

EdSurge adds: To some academics, the trend is a long-predicted impact of commodifying higher education that will lead students to view college as less about a relationship with an instructor and more about the attainment of a fixed set of knowledge for as low a price as possible...

Online education has brought new marketing practices that emphasize the student as a customer. Whether that ends up helping accessibility (through lower prices) or diminishing quality and how seriously students take the learning process, or a mix of both, is still up for debate.

You know the old game

[Opportunist]

First one's free...

Re:

[Opportunist]

Me? Nah. I live now in a country where education is (almost... about 500 bucks a semester to discourage people who went for pepetual studying for the benefits) free. The net effect is that everyone and their dog tries to get a degree, which in turn means that universities test mercilessly. You drop out? Good. One less dead body to haul about. Some courses have dropout rates near 90%.

In other words, what gets a degree here is GOOD. "Top 10% of all people" good.

...or the other trick

[Roger W Moore]

"Try our course in Relativistic Economics, comes with a no study guarantee and at least 50% off*"

* guarantee only applies to your grade

Re:

[Opportunist]

I signed up for some Heisenberg course. Problem is that I somehow can't figure out when the lectures are, either I'm not on time or I'm in the wrong lecture hall...

Splitting hairs on the definition of "discount"

[Anonymous Coward]

Coupon, discount, scholarship...it's all the same thing.
When you get a "scholarship" from a school, they're essentially just discounting the regular price...but calling it a "scholarship" makes it sound more impressive.

Re: Splitting hairs on the definition of "discount

[Malays2 bowman]

And yet the word games never fail.

Honestly, if you called it a "college coupon", how many people would go for it?

Re:

[Ostracus]

The Wolf of wall-street called money "fun coupons".

Since when is udemy

[rsilvergun]

Or any of these boot camp scams considered higher education? I'm pretty sure if you're asked to put down what college you went to in an online job application and you put udemy you're going to get removed by the automated system for not having a real degree.

None of this is to be snobbish. You don't need a degree to be a code monkey but you do need a degree to not get replaced by an H1B.

Re:

[Nrrqshrr]

Hence the question: What does a degree offer that a crap bootcamp course off Udemy doesnt? After all, that same company looking to get as many H1Bs as possible isnt worried about quality or long term investments in their employees.
If they're the kind that will replace you with an H1B on the first excuse, they're the kind that will hire code monkeys off Udemy just to tick boxes and get the crappiest product possible out as fast as possible.

Re:

[Ostracus]

Hence the question: What does a degree offer that a crap bootcamp course off Udemy doesnt?

A physical building with actual equipment one can use. e.g. chemistry, physics, etc, etc. For everyone else it's the hope that their work-at-home habits carry over to a digital degree.

For one, It gets you past the HR filters

[rsilvergun]

but also it tells an employer you're stable enough to make it through a 4 year degree, and that you've taken some moderately advanced math courses.

But honestly if we're gonna go any further than that we need to start deconstructing our neo-liberal / neo-feudal capitalist system, and I can tell by your tone and timber that you ain't gonna like that...

Re:

[codeAlDente]

On one hand, TFA is just an advertisement for a website that wants to become a gateway to these online classes. On the other hand, the cost of getting a real degree isn't just rising financially - there is now a social cost to students with unacceptable thoughts which reduces intellectual growth. Moreover, many of these classes at brick-and-mortar universities are basic commodities taught by adjunct professors, who all make the same crappy salary. It's at least somewhat interesting that the online system is

Re: Since when is udemy

[guruevi]

Since they typically partner with Universities, you can put down the âoeuniversity of â¦â on your resume, their certificates include the name as well.

Higher education and diplomas are largely a scam anyway, there is nothing you learn different in Harvard vs Florida Community College. So get a degree from Harvard through Udemy or CourseRa, put Harvard on your resume.

And guess what, people really donâ(TM)t care about your credentials after your first job, often they donâ(TM)t car

Seriously?

[NFN_NLN]

> Especially upstart providers like Udemy, Coursera and edX.

Is this what passes for "Higher Ed" now?

Let me check the newspaper

[0vi_king]

Yes, but you have to buy 12 at a time. And they are mostly just sugar.

"College was something you applied to get into"

[NicknameUnavailable]

lol, no. It was always something you paid your way into - except for the peasants - they applied to become sex partners of the people who bought their way in, and paid for the privilege.

McEducation

[rantrantrant]

Looks like US higher Ed is going the same way as its food has done. Welcome to McEducation! It's mentally nutritious, honest!

Got a Coupon For That College Course?

[Athenamoore]

These are new times. There are even more opportunities for students, like various discounts. Not long ago, I found out that there are services like https://edubirdie.com/assignme... [edubirdie.com]. This service consists in helping students with assignment writing service, that is, helping them do any homework for a fee. It is effortless and sure that your assignment will be done on time. Plus, there is plenty of time for other work.