{"581852":{"#nid":"581852","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"An Online Education Breakthrough? A Master\u0027s Degree for a Mere $7,000","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJulia Melkers, associate professor in the School of Public Policy,\u0026nbsp;was referenced\u0026nbsp;in \u0026quot;An An Online Education Breakthrough? A Master\u0026#39;s Degree for a Mere $7,000\u0026quot; by\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003EThe New York Times \u003C\/strong\u003Ewith regards to her research on Georgia Tech\u0026#39;s online master\u0026#39;s program in computer science.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EExcerpt:\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cblockquote\u003E\r\n\u003Cp class=\u0022story-body-text story-content\u0022 data-para-count=\u0022498\u0022 data-total-count=\u00223698\u0022\u003EThe on-campus program enrolls only 300 students or so, nearly all top students from other countries. It isn\u0026rsquo;t easy to find room for more. Lecture halls and classrooms are expensive, and competition between departments for space is fierce. The online program has nearly 4,000 students, the large majority American. Many have organized study groups in their home cities. At that scale, there is almost always someone else online, day or night, to talk to about a thorny problem in machine learning.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp class=\u0022story-body-text story-content\u0022 data-para-count=\u0022446\u0022 data-total-count=\u00224144\u0022\u003EThe combination of a prestigious department, traditional degree and drastically lower price was something new in American higher education. Joshua Goodman, an economist at Harvard, decided to\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.hks.harvard.edu\/publications\/workingpapers\/citation.aspx?PubId=11348\u0026amp;type=WPN\u0022\u003Estudy the program\u003C\/a\u003E, along with Julia Melkers from Georgia Tech and Amanda Pallais from Harvard. They were interested in whether Georgia Tech was simply recruiting students who would have enrolled elsewhere \u0026mdash; or if the program was creating something new.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFor the full article, read\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/09\/29\/upshot\/an-online-education-breakthrough-a-masters-degree-for-a-mere-7000.html?_r=1\u0022\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"28513","created_gmt":"2016-09-28 18:56:33","changed_gmt":"2016-09-28 20:36:37","author":"Daniel Singer","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"Extension of Self","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/09\/29\/upshot\/an-online-education-breakthrough-a-masters-degree-for-a-mere-7000.html?_r=1","dateline":{"date":"2016-09-28T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2016-09-28T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"478231":{"id":"478231","type":"image","title":"Julia Melkers","body":null,"created":"1450285200","gmt_created":"2015-12-16 17:00:00","changed":"1475895230","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:50","alt":"Julia Melkers","file":{"fid":"204127","name":"juliemelkersweb.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/juliemelkersweb_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/juliemelkersweb_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":53244,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/juliemelkersweb_0.jpg?itok=T9BhHPgW"}}},"media_ids":["478231"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}