The goals of the course is to enable the student to be a competent partner in the process of setting up and managing economic aspects of distance education, both on institutional level as well as on course level (i.e. with regard to media choice).
At the end of the course students should have achieved the following objectives. The student
Bates, A. W. (2000). Managing Technological Change: Strategies for College
and University Leaders. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Rumble, G. (Ed.). (2004). Papers and debates on the costs and economics of
distance education and online learning (Vol. 7). Oldenburg: Bibliotheks-
und Informationssystem der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg.
Rumble, G. (1997). The Costs and Economics of Open and Distance Learning.
London: Kogan Page.
NOTE:
Rumble (1997) is out of print. The new edition is not yet available. The most
important chapters will be made available online.
Rumble, G. (Ed.). (2004) will be available at Missouri Bookshop
In general, journal articles and papers referenced in this Syllabus will be supplied online.
It is strongly recommended that students purchase the Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association (4th Ed.) and that they pay particular attention to these pages before, during and after the writing of any Assignments.
As noted below, the ability to write to APA standards is a Graduate School requirement. |
This course is only offered in the online mode. Students must be prepared to:
The 150 hours workload during the course consists of:
To the final grade of this course both, assignments, and participation to the conferences will contribute:
During the first week a number of issues will have to be addressed: Students will be introduce each other and will be given an outline of the course setup.
However, we proceed soon to the course content. What is the rationale behind the unprecedented expansion of education? Education can be seen as an investment with very real returns to the individual as well as to society as a whole. Individual demand rises and there seems little reason to discourage it. But trying to satisfy a mass demand for education, giving the scarcity of resources, leads to the question of the most cost-effective provision of education. Distance education seems to fit this bill. Using rational production techniques, including division of labor and the application of media and technologies, distance education may be seen as being capable of emulating the success of industrialized manufacture of high quality consumer goods.
This relation between the core theory of economics of education which suggests to view education as an investment ('Human Capital Theory'), the historically unprecedented worldwide postwar expansion of education, and the emergence of distance education sets the scene for the questions of this course.
In the second week students will be asked to do some group work. Students will collaborate to explore the expansion of education using the GED database. While this group work is not graded, participation is strongly recommended since it will allow students to become acquainted with the use of Excel spreadsheets required in the first assignment.
Management issues and objectives:
Required reading:
Perraton, H. (2000). Introduction: golden goose and ugly duckling, Open
and distance learning in the developing world (pp. 4-9).
London: Routledge.
Schultz, T. W. (1961). Investment in human capital. American
Economic Review, 51, 1-17.
Additional reading:
Psacharopoulos, G. (1995). The Profitability
of Investment in Education: Concepts and Methods: World Bank.
Peters, O. (1994). Distance education and industrial production: a comparative
interpretation in outline. In D. Keegan (Ed.), Otto
Peters on distance education: the industrialisation of teaching and learning (pp.
107-127). London: Routledge.
Group task
At the end of module 1 students are to complete a group
task. The task will not be graded and affects the final grade only through its
contribution to the 25% of participation rating (cf. Grading above).
Special emphasis is given to the issues like capital costs, overheads and cost attribution of joint products.
Objectives:
Required readings:
Rumble, G. (1997). The Costs and Economics of Open and Distance
Learning. London: Kogan Page.
Assignment
At the end of module 2 students are to submit an assignment
that contributes 25% to the final grade.
This module applies cost analysis to distance education institutions. Using 'cost per student' and 'cost per graduate' as an proxy indicator for cost-effectiveness we will examine the method of analyzing institutional cost-effectiveness. We review case study evidence for the claim of distance education being a cost-effective means of educational provision.
Management guidelines to monitor the cost-effectiveness of distance education are suggested.
Objectives
Required readings:
Rumble, G. (1997). The Costs and economics of open and distance
Learning. London: Kogan Page.Rumble, G. (Ed.). (2004). Papers and debates
on the costs and economics of distance education and online learning (Vol. 7).
Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg.
Rumble, G. (2003). The competitive vulnerability of distance teaching Universities
(1992). In G. Rumble (Ed.), Papers and debates on the costs and economics
of distance education and online learning (Vol. 7, pp. 67-88). Oldenburg:
Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg.
White, V. (2003). Responses to Greville Rumble's article 'The competitive vulnerability
of distance teaching universities'. In G. Rumble (Ed.), Papers and debates
on the costs and economics of distance education and online learning (Vol. 7,
pp. 89-92). Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg.
Mugridge, I. (2003). Responses to Greville Rumble's article 'The competitive
vulnerability of distance teaching universities' (1992). In G. Rumble (Ed.),
Papers and debates on the costs and economics of distance education and online
learning (Vol. 7, pp. 93-96). Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg.
Keegan, D. (2003). The competitive advantages of distance teaching universities.
In G. Rumble (Ed.), Papers and debates on the costs and economics of distance
education and online learning (Vol. 7, pp. 107-117). Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg.
Rumble, G. (2003). The competitive vulnerability of distance teaching universities:
a reply. In G. Rumble (Ed.), Papers and debates on the costs and economics
of distance education and online learning (Vol. 7, pp. 103-106). Oldenburg:
Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg.
Rumble, G. (2003). Competitive vulnerability: an addentum to the debate (1998).
In G. Rumble (Ed.), Papers and debates on the costs and economics of distance
education and online learning (Vol. 7, pp. 107-117). Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg.
Additional reading:
Laidlaw, B., & Layard, R. (1974). Traditional versus Open University teaching
method: A cost comparison. Higher Education,
3, 439-468.
Levin, H. M. (1995). Cost-effectiveness Analysis. In M. Carnoy (Ed.), Internation
al encyclopedia of economics of education, (pp. 381-386).Oxford:
Pergamon.
Assignment
At the end of module 3 students are to submit an assignment
that contributes 25% to the final grade.
Module 4 addresses the issue of costing technologies. After some methodological consideration on how to cost educational technologies and the introduction of 'cost per student learning hour' as a measure to facilitate cost comparison, we classify media in two major categories. In the first category we place 'resource media', which are unidirectional and can be replicated as objects, e.g. books, cassettes, CD-ROMs. They are more likely to generate economies of scale. Communication media, in the second category, link a student and a teacher/tutor and are less prone to generate scale economies.
Netbased education (e-education, distributed e-learning) integrates the different types of media often by unified Learning Management Systems (LMS). But it makes a big difference in terms of cost structure if digital media emphasize the information processing aspect of ICT (type-i, e.g. CBTs) or the communication aspect (type-c, e.g. asynchronous seminars).
Objectives
Required readings:
Bates, A. W. (1995). Technology, open learning and distance education. (pp.
33-60) London: Routledge.
Rumble, G. (2004). The costs and costing of networked learning. In G. Rumble
(Ed.), Papers and debates on the costs and economics of distance education
and online learning (pp. 139-162). Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem
der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg.
Rumble, G. (2004). The costs of providing student support services
(2001). In G. Rumble (Ed.), Papers and debates on the costs and economics
of distance education and online learning (Vol. 7, pp. 163-174). Oldenburg:
Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Carl von Ossietzky Universität
Oldenburg.
Rumble, G. (2004). E-Education: Whose Benefits, whose costs? In G. Rumble
(Ed.), Papers and debates on the costs and economics of distance education
and online learning (Vol. 7, pp. 119-138). Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem
der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg.
Whalen, T., & Wright, D. (1999). 'Methodology for cost-benefit analysis
of Web-based tele-learning'. The American
Journal of Distance Education, 13(1), 25-43.
Additional readings:
Bishop, T., & SchWeber, C. (2001). UMUC's Online
MBA Program: A case study of cost-effectiveness and the implications for large-scale
Programs': Sloan Foundation.
Bates, A. W. (1999). Calculating the costs of teaching with technology, Managing
technological change: strategies for college and university leaders
(pp. 122-152). London: Routledge.
Hülsmann, T. (2002). Costs without camouflage: A cost-analysis of Oldenburg
University's two Graduate Certificate Programs offered as part of the Online
Master of Distance Education (MDE) - A case study. In U. Bernath, Rubin, E.
(Ed.), Reflections on teaching and learning in an online master program -
a case study (Vol. 6). Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der
Universität Oldenburg.
Hülsmann, T. (2000). The Costs of open learning: a handbook. Oldenburg:
Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Carl von Ossietzky Universität
Oldenburg. (Chapter
1, Chapter
2, Case
study 1, Case
study 3, Case
study 9)
Assignment:
At the end of module 5 students are to submit an assignment that
contributes 25 % to the final grade.
Digital technologies may be exploited fully for teaching and learning only if they are fully integrated in the operating of the institution. Institutional structure and technological innovation may be at loggerheads. This may pose substantial management challeges. For Tony Bates the challenge may be moving towards a post-Fordist organization. Not in all contexts a 'mega university' would be the best model. Cohorts of learners increasingly look for specialized offers. E-learning, which keeps courses in digitally documented formats, facilitate re-usability and customization. Scope may prevail over scale.
Efficiency however is not only about managing internal organizational processes but also external aspects of cooperation and competition. It may be useful to buy in and adapt courses, operate under a franchise model or develop models for sharing or jointly developing content. We look at various institutional models of creating network efficiencies.
Part of the issues (especially those of managing internal change) are discussed in Bates (2000). Case studies of efficient models of cooperation are provided.
Objectives