Provision of Higher Education Act May Force Schools to Spy on Online Students

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:24:00 GMT

Language in the bill, currently before Congress, to re-authorize the Higher Education Act could lead distance-learning institutions to use home-monitoring devices to police their students who take courses online, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (“New Systems Keep a Close Eye on Online Students at Home,” July 25, 2008).

The provision, contained within a single paragraph of the 1,200-page bill, is intended to prevent students enrolled in online programs from cheating. The clause requires providers of online postsecondary programs to prove that the person submitting the online classwork is the student who’s actually enrolled.

Hearing no objections from Congress to the provision, a handful of online colleges are now testing home-monitoring systems that authenticate online test-takers through fingerprinting, watch students in their homes via webcams, and record key strokes on students’ home computers.

Some colleges claim one chief advantage to these types of devices: Students will no longer be required to travel to a distant location where a proctor can oversee them taking the test in person. Instead, students will be able to take tests online in the comfort of their own home, with an installed approved monitoring system acting as an on-site proctor.

A few administrators, however, are concerned that these new technologies, which will are managed by third-party vendors, may not adequately safeguard students’ privacy. “This is taking a step into a student’s private life,” said Rhonda Epper, co-executive director of Colorado Community Colleges Online. “I don't know if we want to extend our presence that far.”

Debates about privacy and institutional intrusions aside, there may be at least one upside: The provision could bring online degrees a greater reputability since the schools would be verifying that their graduates had actually completed the coursework, said John Ebersole, president of Excelsior College, an online institution in Albany, N.Y.

“If it raises confidence and credibility in the eyes of regulators and traditional educators,” Ebersole said, “it’s worth it.”

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Financial Aid Wars: Democrats and Republicans Try to Outdo Each Other

Student Loan Girl — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 16:20:00 GMT

It has been the hot topic in the news for the past couple months and on my blog, so we all should know by now that the 110th Congress is controlled by the Democrats. Why is that big news? Because 2007 is the first year the Democrats have controlled the Congress since 1995.

Surprisingly, the hot-button issue in this new Congress has been that of postsecondary education. In an attempt not to be outshone when it comes to middle-class issues, the Republicans also have rallied behind higher education initiatives. The end result has become something of a power struggle.

According to a Feb. 13, 2007 article written by Arthur M. Hauptman titled “Missed Opportunities on Financial Aid” that appeared in Inside Higher Ed:

“With support for postsecondary education now a hot political topic, federal politicians from both parties are engaged in a tug of war to see who can outbid the other in providing more financial aid to students and their families. House Democrats, as part of their ‘first 100 hours’ agenda, pushed through a bill to cut interest rates in half for some new borrowers. Democrats in both the House and Senate followed up by proposing the first increase in the Pell Grant maximum award in several years. The White House, not to be outdone, has now proposed more than a 10 percent increase in Pell Grants as part of its fiscal 2008 budget package and more increases down the line, all to be paid for by reduced lender profits and cuts in other federal student aid programs.”

Who Wins, Who Loses?

Hauptman, a public policy consultant who specializes in higher education finance issues, reported:

“More importantly, the Democrats’ plan helps the wrong borrowers. The interest rate cuts are limited to new borrowers in the subsidized student loan program, who, by definition, already qualify for federal interest payments while they are in school. As a result, they are precisely the students who least need the assistance in the near term, because the federal government is already paying the interest on their loans (which also means there is no net cost to the government while these borrowers remain in college, since it is already responsible during that time for making all interest payments to lenders). In this scenario, the students’ benefit from lower interest rates and the new cost to the government will occur only when repayment begins at least several years from now.

“By contrast, the House-passed legislation provides no help for the millions of borrowers who are currently having trouble repaying their loans because of high debt levels and/or low incomes. It would have been much better if the House had sought to help these borrowers, for example, by allowing them to consolidate all their federal student loans into a single loan repayment schedule when they leave school and begin repayment. This expansion of existing consolidation provisions would greatly simplify the student loan system by allowing borrowers to refinance their student loans once they leave school.

“Or the House could have sought to expand the largely underutilized income contingent provisions that give borrowers the option to repay their loans on the basis of their income once they complete their educational program. Rather than provide postponed help for new borrowers, these two changes would provide immediate relief for millions of borrowers who need the help now. And these two changes could actually save the government money rather than add to costs if they were financed directly by the federal government rather than having the loans continue to be held by the private sector which demands federal payments over the life of the loan.

“Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the newly restored chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, seems to understand this problem. He has emphasized the need to expand income contingency for borrowers who need help with their repayments and in moving toward greater reliance on direct loans as a way to cut government costs. Hopefully, he can persuade his colleagues in the Senate to provide some real repayment relief to borrowers rather than the cosmetics offered by the House. Otherwise borrowers with repayment problems will be out of luck for another several years until the politicians turn their attention back to this issue.”

Politics over Policy?

The bottom line is that there is a true gap in the funding of higher education in the United States, one that is making access to college difficult for low-income students and burdening many students with major financial debt. Hauptman hopes, “greater rationality will prevail as the House legislation and President Bush’s budget proposals wend their way through the legislative and appropriations process, with the end result being that assistance will be directed to the millions of current and future borrowers who really need repayment relief now from their student debt burdens, as well as the millions of students and families who continue to need help in paying for their education.”

There are financial strategies that students and their families can employ to help ease the burden of college debt. Parents should look into taking advantage of PLUS loans, which are federal loans that can be used to pay up to the full cost of college (including tuition and living expenses) at a low interest rate. Another option is federal student loan consolidation. By consolidating, students and/or their parents can lock in at a low fixed rate, take advantage of lender benefits, and extend the term of their loan WITHOUT prepayment penalties.

The student loan advisers at NextStudent are helpful and knowledgeable about student loans. They are a trusted source in getting you the appropriate information about your student loan consolidation, student loan options and helping students get the college financing they need. Go to www.nextstudent.com for more information.

Be sure to tune in next Thursday for my next blog on student loan advice.

Student Loan Girl

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Student Loan Blog : Postsecondary Education

Provision of Higher Education Act May Force Schools to Spy on Online Students

Financial Aid Wars: Democrats and Republicans Try to Outdo Each Other