|
« AAUP Homepage
|
Price Tag for Distance Education
Jim Farmer
To the Editor:In his article, "Being There Is What Matters," in the September–October issue, W. Allen Martin wrote that the "cost of distance education must be enormous because no one will say what it is." I have found, however, that colleges are quite willing to share cost data if these data are available. A study for the Arizona legislature, Preliminary Cost Methodology for Distance Learning, actually gives investment costs, operating costs, and break-even class size for several methods of distance education offered at Arizona community colleges. The study also cites cost data from other colleges and universities.
Often, the costs of distance education are, as Martin implied, included in other non-distance-education budgets and not reported in the costs of distance delivery. In the United States, faculty members who contribute months of effort to create distance education offerings have borne most of the cost of course development. Interviewing distance education officials can help to identify these contributions and other expenditures not included in the published cost data.
The data available show that it is difficult for any one institution to bear the course-development costs or to achieve the class size that would make distance learning comparable to the costs of classroom instruction. My company estimated Open University’s investment in course materials at $500 million (U.S.); Open University officials say the actual amount is closer to $1 billion (U.S.) for its three-year degree programs. Jim Farmer
Instructional Media + Magic
|