Higher education just got cheaper — for one course.National Louis University on Tuesday will offer a Groupon for a graduate-level introduction to teaching course, officials said.With the Groupon, prospective students can save nearly 60 percent on tuition for the single, three-credit course and earn credit toward a graduate degree, said Jocelyn Zivin, the vice president of marketing and communications for the Chicago-based, private university."There are all kinds of factors in the K-12 world that are really discouraging teachers and people seeking teaching degrees," Zivin said. "We'd like (potential students) to understand what the realities are, whether you are committed to this profession ... and see if you have what it takes."This is the first time an academic university has used the website as an effort to boost student interest, said Julie Mossler, Groupon's communications director.The course, tailored for people with no exposure or experience with teaching, is specifically structured for the Groupon deal and is open to anybody with an undergraduate degree, she said. National Louis will offer the course only at its Chicago campus, 122 S. Michigan Ave."We wanted the course to cover the broad and deep landscape of teaching," Zivin said.Regular tuition for the course is $2,232. Groupon will offer it for $950, officials said. The Groupon will go live Tuesday and will be available until Wednesday or until it sells out. Only 25 slots will be available, and the deal will tip at 15, Zivin said. The class will meet for three hours on Monday evenings, from late September to December.Although the course will count toward a graduate degree, it's only worth three of the 36 credits students need to graduate, Zivin said. Prospective students will need to go through the school's regular admissions process to take further courses."Part of our mission at National Louis, since the university's founding 125 years ago, is to identify people of talent who want to be teachers," she said. "This is an innovative way to deliver on that mission and reach those folks." ||||| A private, Chicago-based institution will be the first to put forth a deeply discounted deal on tuition via Groupon. 
 
 In an effort to bolster interest in its graduate teaching program, National Louis University will offer would-be teachers a Groupon for nearly 60% off tuition of an entry-level graduate teaching course. 
 
 The deal, set to go live Tuesday, will discount the cost for the three-credit introductory course from $2,232 to $950. The offer is open to as many as 25 buyers, who must possess an undergraduate degree to participate. Students will need to complete another 33 credits at full price to earn a graduate degree. 
 
 The deal will tip with 15 buyers and run through Wednesday, Julie Mossler, Groupon's communications director, confirmed. 
 
 "There are all kinds of factors in the K-12 world that are really discouraging teachers and people seeking teaching degrees," Jocelyn Zivin, vice president of marketing and communications for National Louis, told the Chicago Tribune. 
 
 The idea behind the deal, she says, is to encourage prospective teachers to "understand what the realities are, whether you are committed to this profession ... and see if you have what it takes." 
 
 The IPO-in-waiting Groupon, on the other hand, sees this new genre of deal as an experimental step in the right direction, whether it tips or not. 
 
 "This is… an opportunity for our subscribers to take the first step toward what could be a new career," Mossler says. "National Louis joins an innovative list of merchants who were the first in their industry to experiment with collective buying power, and do it on Groupon." 
 
 Image courtesy of Flickr, swanksalot
– Is Groupon the future of financial aid? Probably not, but National Louis University is taking the site for a spin, offering prospective grad students almost 60% off its introduction to teaching course, the Chicago Tribune reports. The course is specifically designed for Groupon, and assumes students have no prior teaching experience. It’s open to anyone with an undergrad degree, but if students want to take more courses they’ll have to go through the normal admissions process. “There are all kinds of factors in the K-12 world that are really discouraging,” the school’s VP of marketing says. “We'd like (potential students) to understand what the realities are, whether you are committed to this profession ... and see if you have what it takes.” The Groupon deal goes live today: It offers the $2,232 course for $950 and will run until tomorrow, or until 25 people sign up, according to Mashable. Once students complete the class, they'll have three of the 36 credits they need for a degree.