I hope I'm not interrupting your classroom with this blog, but it's quite possible.  A recent survey found that one out of every five students is enrolled in an online course.  While it's an impressive stat, I can't say I'm surprised. 

This very blogger took three online courses during her college career, the first of which was mandatory for my major, and only offered online.  I have to admit, I felt slightly cheated.  No, I'm not against online learning, but I felt it should be an option, not a requirement.  I enjoyed going to class (mostly…) and felt that if I was expected to learn, I should be given adequate time and space, and not the virtual kind. 

That was then.  This is now. 

After being pushed into the online learning world, I quickly realized there were some major benefits. 

Assignments were posted with deadlines, like any class.  The difference was that I never sat in a classroom thinking I could be making more progress on my own.  There was no busy work, because there was not an allotted time that educators had to fill with activities.  The virtual classroom was always open.

So, instead of sitting in a classroom and learning, I sat in my dorm room thinking about which channel to flip to or what the dining hall was serving for dinner.  And therein lies the tricky part of online learning—it can be easily neglected.

Although online classes may seem like the easier alternative, they can require more organization and time management for students.  They do provide freedom, but it's the freedom of when you will take the class, not freedom from class altogether.  Students must control the distractions. 

It took me a while to learn that lesson, but other students seem to be catching on—quickly.   The Boston Globe predicts that the rapid growth of online learning will continue to increase, due to the economy.  When unemployment rates are high, continuing education is a natural alternative to joblessness.  And where better to continue education than from the comfort of your own computer.

How about you?  Have you benefitted from online courses?  Do you prefer a chalkboard to a computer monitor?  Do tell.  This message board, like the virtual classroom, is always open.

Exactly how high is a "high drop-out rate"? Brace yourself, this is a big one: In the United States, 50% of engineering students drop out or switch to a non-engineering major each year. 

What's up with that?

In India, 450,000 students graduate each year with engineering degrees. In China, 300,000. In America? 100,000.

Again, I echo, What's up with that?

The reasons behind the high drop-out rate are debatable. My pal, Peter, offered some insight. Yes, I used the word 'pal'.  

Peter noted that at his school, it's apparent that Engineering students have a much heavier work-load than students pursuing other degrees. Maybe the green eye of envy gets the best of the overworked engineering students, and they wander.  

At schools where engineering is a major major, such as MIT and Olin, the dropout rate is significantly lower. The heavy workload is the norm.  No envy. No wanderers. 

Another factor, proposed by my pal Kevin, is the difficulty of required courses that have little to do with students' actual engineering interests. 

Students often have to wait until their final year of study to really delve into their chosen field. Until then, schedules are booked with seemingly (though maybe not actually) irrelevant, yet time-consuming, courses.   

What's the future of Engineering? According to BusinessWeek, Engineering is the new Investment Banking. In an economy that has no room for new investment bankers, graduates that once had their sights set on Wall Street are turning to engineering jobs, instead. Will this affect the drop-out rate? You tell me.

Calling all students--  Engineering and otherwise. Why do you think the engineering drop-out rate is so high? And what should we do to fix this problem?

Not to say that school isn't still exciting. I'm sure that for some of you, the daily routine of tasks and tests is just lovely. But I'd venture to say that many of you—most of you—have had to deal with the most dreaded assignment of all, a sure sign that fun and games are over: the group project.

Teachers assign group projects for a number of reasons. For one, it's less assignments that they have to grade, an important consideration when class sizes at large universities are in the triple digits.

And maybe group projects do help. 

>  Wait, they prepare you for the real world??

Alas, the debate as old as group projects themselves. Do group projects teach the skills that you will need in the real world?

Yes.  And No.

yesandno.

yesandno.

Of course sometimes it's not so easy. Coworkers are busy, sick, unavailable. For those times, let's just hope the difficulty you face pales in comparison to the group projects of November 2008.

What's your opinion? Are group projects worth the hassle? Share your success stories and horror stories. And let's meet here at the same time next week.

You won't catch a break with tuition – as state budgets get tighter, public universities will receive less funding which leaves them little choice in the matter. Textbook companies won't find the answer in slashing prices, either.

What will be sacrificed in the educational space are supplemental resources such as one-on-one tutoring, private test-prep courses and classroom materials like solutions manuals.

For the cash-strapped student (aren't we all?) cost-effective alternatives are still out there.

Here are some tips for staying afloat. Drum roll please…

1. Go to the Library

Remember that big building that was pointed out during your campus tour? Try going inside. You'll likely find free internet access, copies of course textbooks and a warm place to study. Talk to the librarian, and you may discover that your library has access to online resources such as encyclopedias and newspapers – resources that don't always come free.

2. Find the Freebies

Plenty of Web sites provide access to their resources at no cost. You've already found Cramster.com, so you're on the right track.  Searching for tips, coupons, and freebies?  Try bargainist.

3. Go to Class

You're paying for it! And in a tough economy, it's important to be a competitive candidate when you graduate and seek employment. I know, I know, the snooze button is calling your name. But going to class will pay off. I promise.

4. Connect to Classmates

…and share your textbooks. Facebook applications like Courses 2.0 allow students to view class rosters and connect to classmates. Textbook prices can be outrageous, so find some friends, split the cost and share the book. As a bonus, you've found yourself an instant study group amid the book-sharers.

5. Go Green

Have you felt the effects of our current economy? Do you have an awesome money-saving tip? Share your wealth (of knowledge, that is)

College panel recommends placing less importance on SAT and ACT scores

Some people enjoy standardized tests. The lack of open-ended responses. The comfort that there is only one correct answer. The cute little corresponding bubbles.

I'm not one of those people. Give me an essay, or even a fill-in-the-blank test, and I'm as cool as a cucumber. But give me a multiple-choice, standardized test and I'm as rotten as a mushroom (no offense to the fungus lovers, but I'm not one of those people, either.)

Luckily for people like me, a shift away from standardized tests may be in the works, at least in the realm of some college admissions offices. 

Earlier this fall, the National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC) released this report, recommending that college admissions place less emphasis on standardized testing and more emphasis on high school achievement and curriculum.

(If you're like me, you don't like mushrooms …and you don't want to read the whole report. Here's an article that provides a good summary)

In addition to the problems with the test itself, the panel found that even test-prep courses provide unfair advantages. The private courses, funded not by schools but by students and/or their parents, leave those that can't afford to take them at a disadvantage.

I didn't take a test-prep course. I'm not actually sure if I could have afforded it or not. At the time, all I knew was that I was not willing to sacrifice my Saturday mornings. Maybe my SAT score suffered, but my weekends sure didn't.

Back to the point- will we see a change in the college admission process?

Some universities have already made SAT and ACT test scores optional, including Wake Forest University. 

But it's hard to say if other universities will follow suit. Some argue that without the SAT, admissions offices would have to rely on less reliable standards such as GPA, which can vary in inflation from school to school.

Only time will tell how many universities adhere to the panel's recommendations.

In the meantime, what is your opinion? 

Would you like to see a decrease in the importance of SAT and ACT scores? Would you still take the standardized tests, for your own personal satisfaction? Did your standardized test score help or hurt your college admission process? 

On this test, there's more than one correct answer :)

 Well, some Boston-area students that attended CollegeFest did just that.   Four Cramster.com team members, including myself, made the trek all the way from Pasadena to Boston to meet some of our users.

It was great to meet you. All of you. Thousands of you. I talked to so many students that I woke up the next day with a raspy voice and a sore throat, and it was worth every subsequent throat lozenge.

I recently graduated from college.   I miss it. Dearly. When I heard of an event called "CollegeFest", my ears perked up and I immediately jumped on the bandwagon. 

I expected a party. I was right.

For two days I mingled with college students. I met students that love Cramster. I introduced students to Courses 2.0.  I pretended I was still a student myself.

No, I didn't lie and tell anyone I was in college, but I allowed myself to reminisce.   And now I'm sharing too much.

Back to the point. CollegeFest was awesome. Cramster is built upon the principle of a community, and I got to meet some community members first hand. 

I'm gonna let that fact sink in.

Sunk?  Good. It's strange that the very devices created to keep us connected are creating mass personal disconnects (or, as I like to call them, MPDs).

A few important notes:

The study was conducted among traveling executives. Arguably, these people are away from their spouses more, and therefore need some sort of digital help to stay connected to said spouses.

Given their situation, their reliance upon PDAs is (maybe) more reasonable. But that they would choose that device OVER their spouse is still disheartening (and weird, when you think of the logistics of a romantic relationship with an electronic device… but let's not go there).

I am forced to wonder how the results would differ if this study were given to, say, high school and college students: 

Would you choose your PDA (let's go one step further and include social networking applications like Facebook) over actual physical interaction with friends and loved ones?

It's tough. Personally, I'll choose the real deal over a profile any day. But if I were to give up Facebook altogether, I'm afraid my personal relationships would suffer and wither away.

Alright, alright, maybe that's a bit dramatic, but if Facebook is really the new Outlook, then it is replacing the address book, social calendar, and friendly communication space.

So how do we keep the PDA from becoming an MPD?

A call to arms:

I'm not going assert that everyone should flush their PDAs down the toilet and delete their Facebook accounts. That's just plain unreasonable. And mean. And frankly, hypocritical.

Instead, I am encouraging each and every thumb-texting, social-networking human being to do a little more.

Make it personal.

On Facebook, take advantage of the multitude of free applications that allow you to learn more about each other. If you're in a huge lecture class, use an application to find your classmates and make a connection that you may be too shy to otherwise. (We're partial to Courses 2.0).

A wise man once told me that girlfriends are expensive. I asked him whether he'd ever met my textbook.

"This 300-page beaut," I said, "costs 200 dollars."

Suddenly a date to the local movie theatre or ice cream shop didn't carry the same weight. I felt like I'd shattered a world view.

Textbooks stare inflation in the face and never blink. And unlike with most college "expenses," students often feel they don't have a say in the matter.

But a movement is starting – albeit very slowly – to lighten the load on students' wallets every fall and winter.

On a congressional level, there is the The College Opportunity and Affordability Act, passed in February, which among other things forces publishers to sell "bundled" items separately and fully disclose prices to professors before inking a deal.

And on a less-bureaucratic level, there are alternative textbook purchasing options sprouting up all over the place. Check out the following three options, including our recommendations for each:

Now if you plan to keep your textbook after you finish the class, renting probably isn't for you. But let's face it: Almost all of us have visited our school's "Book Buyback" tent only to find out that our 185-dollar textbook is now worth 5 bucks. Renting can get you out of this situation.

2. Cheap Textbook Buying

Yes, "cheap" and "textbook" can go together in the same phrase. Check out Campusbooks.com if you are looking for used textbooks at reasonable prices. Old standbys Amazon.com and Half.com can also deliver the goods.

The key when using this option is to plan in advance, and plan well. As a rule of thumb, you don't want to buy expensive books before attending the first class (unless your professor has explicitly told you that you'll need a certain book or two). When ordering online, you'll have to account for shipping time; so make sure you aren't stuck without a book two weeks into class and facing a quiz the next day. Be prepared to order right after your first class.

3. Textbook Borrowing

If you're looking for the most economical option, you've found it. If you can, find a friend or peer who has taken your class before and ask to borrow the book. Offer to buy them dinner or get them football tickets in return. And if you don't know of anyone offhand, use Cramster's Facebook app Courses 2.0 to facilitate the process (you can enter the textbooks for each class you list).

Really though, some enterprising student should start a business on his/her campus that pays fellow students a flat rate to be a "lender" and then charges "borrower" students a certain amount per book to rent for the semester. Seriously. Do it and let me know how it goes. Maybe we can be partners.

What strategies to you follow to save money on textbooks? Have a favorite Web site you go to? Do you think government can really rule against big business and noticeably lower prices? Post a comment below!

Recently it seems like everywhere you turn there is some reminder telling you to go green. But have you changed your ways? Has your school?

These are green times. The radio informs you about the cash-saving, environment-saving wonders of the Prius or Civic. The TV lets you watch those squiggly light bulbs tell you that switching to environmentally friendly light bulbs is like taking thousands of cars off the road. Man, if only change were always this easy.

I don't know about you, but I've seen the "quick green fix" thousands of times—and no offense, but personally I'd rather get back to Grey's.

I mean, don't get me wrong, going green is something everyone should do, even if it's just a small conservation gesture here and there. But this hubbub makes me wonder—with all these reminders about going green, do you and the people you know actually do anything to help the cause?

Advocates of green living sure make you think that your friends all just hopped off a Greenpeace boat. You don't live green? You must still use VHS, too.

I have a few friends that are recycling enthusiasts (never use plastic bags, separate bottles from trash, refuse to get into an SUV), but the rest? Well, let's just say they love their big Suburbans and definitely couldn't tell you what the three Rs stand for (reduce, reuse, recycle, baby!).

But all shtick and sarcasm aside, there are little things we can do to live a greener life. With the new school year right around the corner, several sites are helping us out:

At TheGreenGuide.com you can greenify yourself for the new year with EcoWriter pencils and "Simple Shoes."

At RedApplesSupply.com you can buy… green apple school supplies. Looks like the green craze has even caused some identity crises.

So, go on – walk to your friend's apartment instead. Pick up some empty plastic bottles on the way and toss them into the recycling bin. And if you're really ambitious, buy school supplies made from recycled materials. A small amount of effort is worth staving off Al Gore for a little while longer.

Does your school take any measures to be green? Would you pay extra for green school supplies? What are some simple tips you have for the rest of us to do our part?