Over 2000 and 2001 the Flexible Learning Advisory Group (FLAG) funded a program of 9 research projects related to the implementation and use of online learning and delivery. This research has been managed by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research, the principal research and evaluation organisation for the VET sector in Australia.

Summaries of this research are being published in the LearnScope Virtual Learning Community once a week between 4 September 2002 and 6 November beginning with the article What the FLAG research says about online learning published on September 4.

This week we look at Summary 2 - The Cost Effectiveness of Online Learning. This study points to the difficulty in accurately determining the cost effectiveness of online delivery although evidence collected suggests online delivery is more likely to be more expensive than conventional approaches. On the positive side it is more likely to deliver better learning outcomes and levels of learner satisfaction.

The Cost Effectiveness of Online Learning

Report title and author: Online delivery in the vocational education and training sector: improving cost effectiveness (R Curtain)

Project outline:  Using a series of six case studies Curtain examined the cost effectiveness of a range of online programs, compared with traditional approaches to delivery.

The report has been published.

What the research has found

Costing online delivery
It is hard to get a true measure of the cost of online delivery compared with traditional approaches. Cost estimation models are in their early stages of development, the necessary data and information may not be readily available, or organisations are unwilling to disclose the costs of their activities for confidentiality reasons.

Costing models need to recognise that online delivery involves different and sometimes additional tasks and skills for teaching and other staff (answering student emails, helping them with software or hardware problems).

The cost-effectiveness of online delivery
Most online courses cost the same or more than traditional courses, but were generally more effective in terms of levels of student satisfaction. Only two of the six case studies emerged as being lower in cost but more effective compared with traditional approaches.

All the case studies noted that development costs were significantly higher than those for a traditionally based course, especially in the development of learning resources.

Recurrent costs for mixed online delivery could be double or more than that for face-to-face delivery alone. Online delivery to remote locations may also be more expensive than traditional distance education practices because of the cost of resource development, the greater level of interaction made possible by the technologies and the additional levels of support that may be required. However, student satisfaction levels are on a par with those for
classroom-based programs.

In relation to classroom-based mixed-mode delivery:

• where there is low interactivity and heavy reliance on content, courses tend to be high in cost compared with traditional classroom instruction and low on effectiveness in terms of student satisfaction

• where there are high levels of interactivity using the internet and pre-existing webbased
  resources, the costs are often lower or at least not greater than traditional classroom instruction and students rate effectiveness more highly

Strategies for improving cost-effectiveness of online programs

These include:

• Identifying the range of new work roles required by online delivery and assign work on the basis of the required developmental skills. This may involve innovators mentoring other staff to increase and disperse the pool of available expertise.

• Redesigning work processes to change how student support services are delivered, for example, using lower cost personnel to deal with relatively simple help-desk queries and integrate ‘back office’ systems for managing student enrolments, payment processes and other student services as well as tracking student progress. This could occur within one institution or across partner organisations.

• Having instructors use automated response systems to reduce the time spent on dealing with individual queries, or making use of synchronous discussion groups to make it easier for students to help each other and take the pressure off the instructor. This is not cost shifting but sound learning practice.

• Investing in improving the effectiveness of up-front costs incurred during resource and program development by adopting organisation-wide solutions, especially courseware production systems which permit cross-media publishing from a common document.

• Developing standardised educational technology packages (for example, hardware/software, learning, service support, online content and internet services).

• Issuing regular newsletters to students which deal with FAQ information and other things students need to know.

• Developing good basic instruction materials coupled with quality facilitation by the instructor, rather than fancy resources with lots of features and high levels of multimedia presentations.

• Improving or maintaining effectiveness by maintaining good levels of contact between instructors and students. Keeping contact points constant—using a single person with whom students can develop an on-going relationship rather than chopping and changing between a range of support teachers and other staff.

• Where appropriate, having assessment available online so that students could complete learning tasks when it suited them and at their own pace.

Tap markets that were previously beyond geographical reach – for example, the technologies may enable students to be attracted from around Australia and even overseas.

Further information and, as they are published, a full report on this national strategy project is available at: http://www.ncver.edu.au/online.htm

This topic page also allows you to:

• Access other work published by NCVER in relation to on-line learning

• Conduct a search on published material in the field using VOCED, the UNESCO/NCVER international database for technical and vocational education and training research

• Link to other sites related to on-line learning

NCVER will be running a series of face-to-face forums on this research in all states in November and December 2002. Watch their site for details at  http://www.ncver.edu.au