Thursday, June 8, 2000

An Online Worksheet Helps Colleges Anticipate the Costs of Distance Education By JEFFREY R. YOUNG For colleges and universities, moving into online education can be an expensive proposition, with many hidden costs, says Brian M. Morgan, director of the center for instructional technology at Marshall University. He's developed an interactive worksheet to help administrators calculate the price tag for creating an online program. The World Wide Web site asks users a dozen questions about their institutional environments and their plans for distance education. Among the questions: "Does your institution already have a server in place to host online courses?" "What do you estimate that the percentage of growth rate will be for online courses at your institution?" The site then generates a spreadsheet with cost and revenue projections for the first seven years of the online program. Users can easily change variables and get new estimates to see how different scenarios might play out. Be warned: The site says it provides only rough estimates, and should not be used to make final budget decisions. Before entering the site, users must read a disclaimer noting: "If you rely on the information on this site, you are responsible for ensuring by independent verification of its accuracy or completeness." Mr. Morgan created the site as part of his master's thesis in technology management at Marshall, which he completed while serving as director of the instructional-technology center. His project represents more than a year of research into the costs of distance education, he says, and his thesis is also available on the site. "I hope administrators will take a look and realize that it's not an easy task to offer online courses without planning ahead," he says. As part of his research, Mr. Morgan took a close look at his own university's distance-education effort, which he says was not as well planned as it should have been. Mr. Morgan was not involved with planning the effort, though he did help choose the software used to deliver the courses. "We rushed right out and got some courses up quick" without even developing a policy on how professors would be compensated, he says. "It really hurt us," he adds, noting that it was more difficult to change practices in midstream than it would have been to establish a policy at the outset. Nevertheless, Mr. Morgan adds, the university has developed a successful online program. Jan Fox, vice president for information technology and chief information officer at Marshall, says the university was quick to develop policies for its online efforts once they were under way. Although she praises Mr. Morgan for emphasizing many of the points that should be considered in planning online programs, she says his interactive worksheet doesn't take enough factors into account. For instance, she says, it does not consider that the computing infrastructure used for online courses can also be used to enhance traditional courses. Mr. Morgan says that after administrators are presented with a realistic picture of what online learning costs, some colleges may decide not to even bother. The title of his thesis: "Is Distance Learning Worth It? Helping to Determine the Costs of Online Courses." "I think the jury may still be out on that," says Rosemary Carlson, a distance-education consultant and a professor of finance at Morehead State University, in Kentucky. "There is a cost because it is a very labor-intensive effort on the part of the faculty to prepare an online course." Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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