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
Preface II
The two papers that follow represent work within the Neurobiology Research Theme of the University of Kansas Medical Center. The research programs of the Center recognize that mental retardation is not only a biological condition but also a behavioral and societal condition requiring interdisciplinary collaboration from several flelds for effective progress. Accordingly, our research themes include a mix of behavioral and biological projects that focus on areas such as language and communication disorders, intervention and treatment strategies, risk factors, neurobiological processes and cellular and molecular aspects of early embryonic development. Our Center’s neurobiology research theme emphasizes basic research and includes work on animal models of brain pathology and disease, neuronal plasticity and mechanisms of brain injury. Emphasis is on interdisciplinary approaches aimed at understanding not only the relevant cellular and molecular events but also the manner in which these events alter the organization and function of brain systems underlying motor, sensory and cognitive behaviors. The paper by Dr Fechtel and colleagues that follows describes work on a promising rodent model of spina bifida that should enable examination of cellular and molecular processes underlying the failure of neural tube closure. Neural tube defects are among the most common of birth defects; their prevalence world wide ranges up to lO/l,OOO live births. In addition, neural tube defects contribute greatly to perinatal loss. For the first time, the work from our Center on this model holds the promise of testing fundamental molecular hypotheses about the origin neural tube defects. The paper by Dr Levine and colleagues presents some of their recent findings on the twitcher mouse model of globoid cell leukodystrophy (Krabbe’s disease). Globoid cell leukodystrophy is a demyelinating disease of infancy caused by deficiency of the enzyme galactocerebroside Beta-galactosidase. The disease is characterized by progressive spasticity and blindness and is invariably fatal. One of the unique aspects of this study is the application of Fourier Transform Infrared Microspectroscopy to measure the distribution of a specific chemical (psychosine) throughout the brain. This is a powerful approach that not only provides information about the content of specific chemical substances in the brain but also provides this information with high spatial resolution never before possible.
Drop-Outs at the Open University
The year 1979 marks the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Open University. During this period it has come to be recognized as one of the major innovations in higher education in recent years. The Open University set out to attempt to solve the problem of drop-outs which had been a source of criticism for other distance education institutions in the past. To a large extent it has been successful in reducing drop-outs to an acceptable minimum. The importance of its success for other institutions which teach at a distance, both in Australia and overseas, is discussed. Caution is expressed about the lack of unanimity in terminology in studies of “drop-outs” and the danger of using “drop-outs” in comparing one institution with another.