Funding and Spending: What Price Distance Education?.
This paper explains methods of handling information about real costs to develop a model that is then used to forecast future costs of specified distance education activities and to obtain funding for these activities. It is addressed to anyone concerned about acquiring and spending money in distance education--managers of systems and institutions, department heads, and people interested in the actual costs of activities. The paper takes the approach to funding distance education that involves identifying characteristics costs of distance education and funding it on the basis of costs. It explains methods of handling information about real costs, including variable and fixed costs and student numbers, to develop a model used to forecast future costs of specified distance education activities and to obtain funding for them. The procedure of building a bridge between the accounting system and funding costs analysis is described, a process that involves using allocation keys and a cost classification. (YLB) *):c****************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * i******************I.AA:c****.AAA****************************** 9th Annual Conference Distance Education Association of New Zealand Palmerston North College uf Education 18 20 June 1993 Funding and Spending: What Price Distance Education? Ormond Tate Director and Allan Hiiri Manager Finance and Operations The Correspondence School U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office p Educationat Research and irnpronement EDUCATONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER IERICI This osd.tument *S Peen reprodoced as received born the Person or oroanizalmn onoinatirto C Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction Quality POntOInlWO opimons stereo in this docu ment do riot necessarily represent official OERI poidOn or POhCO 2 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) FUNDING AND SPENDING : WHAT PRICE DISTANCE EDUCATION? Authors: Ormond Tate, Director, and Allan Hiiri. Acting Manager Finance and Operations The Correspondence School Wellington, New Zealand Introduction This paper is addressed to anyone concerned about getting and spending money in distance education, e.g. managers of systems and institutions, heads of departmentsand people interested in the actual cosis of activities. It may be of interest to governmentofficers and financial institutions concerned with allocating funds to distance education, e.g. for human resource and national development The paper follows a commonsense pragmatic approach. It is based on a two-year analysis of the costs of operating the New Zealand Correspondence School in an effort to establish an appropriate formula and process for the government to fund the school for adult continuing, secondary, primary, special and preschool distance education. It explains methods of handling information about real costs to develop a model which is then used to forecast future costs of specified distance education activities and to obtain funding for these activities. Costs and Funding Distance education is usually in the context of conventional face-to-face education and cost comparisons arise between the different forms. Governments in countries faced with meeting educational needs that outstrip resources such as buildings, equipment, number and quality of teachers, and finance are interested in both costs and quality of distance education. There are many types and forms of distance education differing in purpose, size, scope, media, entry requirements , levels and students so that it is difficult to compare costs between them or with conventional education. Articles by Snowden and Daniel, Rumble and Perraton deal with costs of distance education, mainly at tertiary level. There appears to be little information available about funding mechanisms for distance education. Possible Approaches Possible approaches to funding distance education include: Viewing distance education as an alternative method of delivering education and funding it on the same or a similar basis to conventional education, e.g. student numbers, hours, etc. As face-to-face education increasingly incorporates distance methods and blends with it, this approach eventually may be the simplest or most appropriate. Identifying characteristic costs of distance education and funding it on the basis of costs. Part of the appeal of distance education to planners is potential economies in delivering education. Governments and administrators may favour funding based on analysis of actual costs. This paper takes the second approach. It is asserted that funding for distance education should be in terms of specific services bought or of outcomes purchased by the funding agency. Two important aspects are level of funding and yearly changes in funding factors that affect funding levels. The first approach may find favour with distance educators in large institutions with
The Economics and Management of Small Post-secondary Distance Education Systems
After reviewing previous work on the economics of distance education, which has been based on the large scale operation of the U.K. Open University, the economics of smaller systems are analyzed. It is shown that models used in conventional education are unhelpful and a new cost model based on the functions of course development and services delivery is described. This model is then employed, using data from Athabasca University, to explore the importance of factors such as course life and institutional costs. It is then used to examine the economic impact of policy alternatives such as changes in ratio of student numbers to credits offered and in the mix of programming of the institution. The second part of the paper argues the thesis that small distance education systems require tighter management than conventional institutions. It examines the four main activities of management: planning, organizing, leading and evaluating in order to highlight areas of administration requiring special attention.
The General Theory of Relativity
THE WORD “SPECIAL” IN “SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY” means that the theory is restricted to those frames of reference for which the law of inertia holds, that is, inertial frames of reference.* Einstein sometimes referred to them as Galilean frames of reference. At first glance, it does not seem reasonable to expect that the principle of relativity can be extended to non-inertial frames. The reasons are fairly obvious. The principle of relativity that we have been using states that the laws of physics have the same form in all frames of reference to which the principle applies. In other words there should be no way to determine by an experiment which of two frames of reference is in motion relative to the other.