Gasoline story proposal

Story outline: On-campus classes or online classes?

Subject: Rising gasoline prices change approach to education.

Scope: I will research how rising gas prices in WV have affected Marshall students' decisions to enroll in on-campus courses or online courses. I will also look into how the administration at Marshall has chosen to react to this situation. For example, I will find out if Marshall is offering more online courses and less on-campus courses? Are they increasing tuition prices of online classes because of the demand for them?

Need: With the economic crisis and expensive gasoline prices, students are facing even more challenges as they make decisions about their higher education, and money (or a lack thereof) is a huge part of that process. I will show how and how much these changes to education are affecting students and how they can make an informed decision.

Methods and Sources: A series of interviews would be best for this story. I will interview Marshall students from areas outside of Huntington and see how they decide to handle this situation: do they find that online classes save them money or does the price of online classes' tuition even out to if they had just taken courses on campus and driven to campus throughout the week. I will also interview Marshall students, particularly upperclassmen, to see if they choose to live in the campus residence halls longer instead of choosing to move to an apartment or local rental house to save money on gas. I will also talk to the registrar's office to find information on enrollment and how online class enrollment may have increased, to President Kopp or other administrators to find out if they are increasing the number of online classes offered to students and likewise, decreasing the number of on-campus courses offered and if they are changing or have they changed the pricing of online class tuition in response to rising gas prices.

Presentation: Only one extensive story is expected to be needed. The story will focus on students' choices about whether to enroll in online course work or on-campus course work because of gas prices.

Follow-up: There could be another story about other choices students make because of the price of gas. I touched on whether students would choose to live on or off campus because of it. Maybe that would be appropriate as another story entirely.