Online School Program Costs Lowered Through Investigation Of Grants To Go Back To School Sources
College and university enrollments might be up this fall, but how much students and families spend on back to school supplies has yet to be seen. This is the world of iPads, laptops, netbooks and webcams, a world where textbooks can cost $200 and more a pop. With many students enrolling in online courses as well, products such as these might also be more a part of back to school shopping than they have in the past.
While families in a Fannie Mae public poll voiced in as having to work longer hours and rely on more money from scholarships, grants and other financial monies to pay for college, new technologies are becoming more the standard on 21st century college and university campuses. Likewise, many college and university students are participating in distance learning, by taking courses entirely online or combining online courses with time in the classroom. With distance learning, products such as webcams, mobile devices such as smartphones, iPads and other e-readers might more often be part of instruction.
Americans overall expect to spend some $55.12 billion on back to school shopping, including for students at the K-12 level, according to a National Retail Federation Back to School/College survey. Coupons, sales and promotions are this year more a part of back to school shopping, the National Retail Federation notes. While the average family, by the time the federation’s survey results were released in about mid-August, had completed about 43 percent of back to school shopping, those with college aged children were reportedly waiting for the last minute.
Newspapers and magazines have been focusing on ways to save on the back to school needs for college and university students. An article in the Louisville Journal-Courier even recommended products and pointed students and families toward stores where they can be purchased. The article includes everything from USBs to netbooks, with prices ranging up to $350. E-readers, such as the Kindle, Nook and iPad, might be priced higher. Where the latest Kindle could go for around $380, the Apple iPad website shows that iPads start at $499.
A university in Oklahoma is among those to have announced that it’s testing e-readers as part of instruction for some courses, USA Today reported. With e-readers, some textbooks from sites such as CafeScribe, Wikibooks and CourseSmart show that students downloading them can save around $35 to $70. A downloadable kinesiology textbook on CourseSmart, for example, is available for $45.75, a savings of $68.31, according to the site. On sites such as Valore.com, chegg.com and CampusBookRentals.com, students might buy used textbooks for as low as $1.30, a 99 percent savings, or rent textbooks in the $50 range.
The National Retail Federation survey announcement, in fact, reports that many parents of college students report plans to shop online and at electronics stores as well as at department stores. Since regulations that are part of a Credit Card Act of 2009 apply to many college-aged students, parents might also play a more hands-on role in back to school shopping than they traditionally have. A recent Market Watch report noted that individuals who are younger than 21, as part of the Credit Card Act, are no longer able to get credit cards unless they have co-signers or can prove income that allows them to pay bills as required.
This might come as a relief to some parents as they plan for back to school shopping for college supplies. Many parents might also be combining the back to school needs of their children with that of themselves. Adults returning to college are contributing to the upward direction of college and university enrollments, reports show. Many are going back to school for an education that can help them land jobs; many also are heading back to school as a means of keeping their existing jobs, according to reports. Still others are taking college and university courses for personal reasons. That was the case among parents of K-12 students who, in a distance learning survey, reported taking online courses.
Many college campuses these days employ video and web conferencing and podcasts as part of their instruction, particularly online course programs. This in itself might help adults enhance workplace required technology skills. College students searching for back to college grants information most certainly will employ online technology to do so and may just do this on their new netbook or iPad.