LERN/Univ. of South Dakota online M.A. in Educational Administration

[SDO]

Emphasis in Adult Education. It is regionally and NCATE accredited. 33 credit hours. $195 per COURSE (not per credit hour) for the 15 credit hours of LERN courses. The 18 credit hours from USD are at $400.05 per graduate credit hour for out-of-state tuition. No resident courses are required. (LERN is the Learning Resource Network and they partner with USD and 5 other public universities that make up the Electronic University Consortium of South Dakota for this degree.)

It also says, "Please contact LERN at info@lern.org to find out more about credit for LERN courses if you are not enrolled in the USD M.A. program," so there may be a chance to get these $195 graduate courses transferred to degree programs at other schools. That equates to $65 per credit hour for graduate credit!

More information is available at LERN / University of South Dakota Masters Degree Program

Hope this helps someone.

[KayV]

Great find! I wish they had a doctorate for $195/ course too. Oh well.

[sanantone]

Me too. Right now, I'm looking at Valdosta State University because it's the cheapest, online, RA doctorate I can find.

[Tedium]

That excites me even, and I have no interest in teaching. Or do I? :p

Seriously, though. It looks like a really interesting program.

[IrishJohn]

The costs for the LERN courses are more than just $195. Only 5 1-credit online LERN courses are $195 each. The other costs are:

Tuition Costs
For LERN courses. 2012-2013 rates are:
$745.00 for Program Planning taken as on online program.
$995.00 - $1,295 for the June Institutes (plus travel, lodging and meals)
$195 each for online courses.
For all LERN education, transcript and credit fee of $40 per credit hour.

Note that 2 seminar courses are required on-site, costing $995-$1295 (not including expenses), and only 1 can be taken at a time possibly requiring 2 trips to complete. Note also that these prices may differ now since those on the link come from the previous school year.

Still, all told one could finish this MA from an RA state school for around $12,000 or so which isn't too bad.

[IrishJohn]

One more thing to keep in mind:

Persons who do not seek admission to the USD M.A. program may have a LERN transcript established based on their LERN education. It is not policy of USD to transcribe grades for students who are not accepted into the USD M. A. program as degree candidates. Please contact LERN at info@lern.org to find out more about credit for LERN courses if you are not enrolled in the USD M. A. program.

[IrishJohn]

Just wanted to let everyone know that I double-checked on this yesterday and LERN now offers all of its courses/seminars for the program online. The total cost for USD/LERN courses is still about $12,000 ($7,500 for USD / approx. $4,000 for LERN). This seems like a great deal, especially since 15 of the 33 credits are through LERN (seems like VESI). I'm giving this one serious consideration when I finish the MA in History I'm currently working on. They're sending me some new information about the changes so I'll post them when I get it all.