The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning · 2014 · 94 citations · 18 references
EducationEducational TechnologyHigher EducationDistance EducationOnline Higher EducationOnline TeachingCost Structure AnalysisDistance LearningEducation Cost AnalysisHigher Education FinancingOnline LearningOpen LearningCourse Cost AnalysisEducational Cost EfficiencyHigher Education Cost AnalysisHigher Education ExpenditureLearning CostsResource Requirements AssessmentStudent Cost AnalysisUncontrollable Costs
Higher education faces alarmingly high costs, prompting concern about MOOCs’ impact and a need to document their development and delivery resources, yet publicly available rigorous cost data are scarce. The study aims to identify institutional resources needed for MOOC development and delivery through interviews and to demonstrate cost‑analysis methods that enable future cost‑effectiveness comparisons with other education modes. The authors conducted interviews with 83 stakeholders to identify required resources and then applied the ingredients method to calculate MOOC production and delivery costs at four institutions. MOOC costs range from $38,980 to $325,330 per course and $74–$272 per completer, lower than regular online courses, indicating greater cost‑effectiveness, though effectiveness should guide decisions and the benefits support rational resource allocation for learners and taxpayers.
<p>Given the ongoing alarm regarding uncontrollable costs of higher education, it would be reasonable to expect not only concern about the impact of MOOCs on educational outcomes, but also systematic efforts to document the resources expended on their development and delivery. However, there is little publicly available information on MOOC costs that is based on rigorous analysis. In this article, we first address what institutional resources are required for the development and delivery of MOOCs, based on interviews conducted with 83 administrators, faculty members, researchers, and other actors in the MOOCspace. Subsequently, we use the ingredients method to present cost analyses of MOOC production and delivery at four institutions. We find costs ranging from $38,980 to $325,330 per MOOC, and costs per completer of $74-$272, substantially lower than costs per completer of regular online courses, by merit of scalability. Based on this metric, MOOCs appear more cost-effective than online courses, but we recommend judging MOOCs by impact on learning and caution that they may only be cost-effective for the most self-motivated learners. By demonstrating the methods of cost analysis as applied to MOOCs, we hope that future assessments of the value of MOOCs will combine both cost information and effectiveness data to yield cost-effectiveness ratios that can be compared with the cost-effectiveness of alternative modes of education delivery. Such information will help decision-makers in higher education make rational decisions regarding the most productive use of limited educational resources, to the benefit of both learners and taxpayers.</p>
18