The REAL Cost of Online Courses
(A live PBS satellite event)
Thursday, February 26, 2004
2:30 - 4:00pm
1916 Room
E.S. Bird Library
Cost is not just a matter of dollars and cents. Discover the hidden costs
of creating online courses "on the cheap," how to calculate
the true costs, the resources needed to develop effective online courses,
and ways to control costs without degrading quality.
"Thanks, but we already know our costs," you may say. But in
the same way that developing and teaching courses online requires new
paradigms and methods, "costing" methodology for online courses
also requires new approaches.
Colleges and universities understandably want to compare the costs of
online and face-to-face instruction, but the way budgets are often built
and tracked may make it difficult to know all the real costs.
To make the most of your resources--and achieve your goals--you must
understand the true costs. Whether your institution is new to online courses,
wants more accurate financial data for the online courses it already offers,
or needs tips on how to spend its distance education dollars more effectively,
this teleconference will help you discover and understand the true costs
and make more informed decisions.
You'll examine:
- ways of calculating fixed and variable costs
- methods for reducing fixed costs
- the impact of "unbundling" instructor functions
- the importance of scalability
- ways the "learning curve" can be a cost factor in converting
traditional courses to an online format
- why poor course quality and low retention rates can be a major cost
Panelists
Katherine Cobb is President of the Brevard Community College Virtual
Campus in Cocoa, FL, where her responsibilities include overseeing the
creation and implementation of over 300 online courses enrolling over
9,000 students each year.
Brian Finnegan plays a key role in evaluating, budgeting for and supporting
instructional technologies to be used in online and other courses at all
34 public colleges and universities in the University System of Georgia.
Dennis Jones played a major role in the development of the Technology
Costing Method, which is widely recognized as the most authoritative approach
to establishing and analyzing the costs of distance education courses.
The teleconference is cosponsored by Syracuse University Library and Faculty
Computing and Media Services.
William La Moy Offers Gallery Talk on Fine Press
Books
Thursday, March 4
4:00pm
6th Floor Gallery
E.S. Bird Library
On Thursday, March 4, 2004, at 4 p.m. in the sixth-floor gallery of E.S.
Bird Library on the SU campus, William La Moy will offer an introductory
talk and guided tour of the exhibition titled Paper-Type-Image:
Elements of the Fine Press Book, which is currently on display in
the Special Collections Research Center. According to La Moy, fine press
books are collaborative productions "in which the individual components
have a unity that overcomes their disparateness." His selection of
primarily recent works from the Center's holdings includes books to which
local artists contributed, among them printers Michael and Winifred Bixler
of Skaneateles, and the Library's conservators, Peter Verheyen and Donia
Conn. The exhibition can be viewed Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
through March 26, 2004.
La Moy joined Syracuse University Library's Special Collections Research
Center on December 1, 2003. Previously, he was James Duncan Phillips Librarian
and director of publications of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.
He has been involved in large-scale scholarly editing projects, including
the catalogs of the Harvard-Yenching Library and The Yale Edition of Horace
Walpole's Correspondence. La Moy holds a B.A. in English language and
literature from Yale University and an M.S. from Simmons College Graduate
School of Library and Information Science.
CONTACT
Mary Beth Hinton
Syracuse University Library
315-443-2130
mbhinton@syr.edu
March Peer to Peer Library Dialog
Wednesday, March 3
Noon - 1pm
1916A Room - E.S. Bird Library
Join Yuming Tung, Head of Syracuse University Library's Information Systems
Division, and SU Library systems staff, for a Peer to Peer discussion
entitled: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about the Library's
Network and Computer System...But Were Afraid to Ask.
Stop by for a brief explanation of the servers and computer networks
we use at SU Library everyday, followed by discussion of topics such as:
What are the Pros and Cons of Decentralized vs. Centralized Computing?
Why the Different Configurations for Public vs. Staff Workstations? How
are we Responding to Viruses, Security Holes and Spyware? Which Specific
New Technologies are Impacting Academic Libraries and Campuses Most (e.g.,
wireless networking, etc.)
Those interested in reading more about this topic are also welcome to
review the following online articles:
- Bradley Mitchell's "About" page on Wireless/Networking
http://compnetworking.about.com/
- Crawford, G & Rudy, Julia A. (2003). Fourth Annual EDUCAUSE Survey
Identifies Current IT Issues. EDUCAUSE Quarterly, 26(2), 12-26.
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0322.pdf
- Canadian Broadcasting Company (2003, July 23). Beware Using Public
Computers.
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/07/23/Consumers/Internet_030723
Peer to Peer Library Dialog is a staff initiated program of monthly discussion
about trends and current topics of interest in librarianship. Send comments
or questions to Michael Pasqualoni mjpasqua@syr.edu
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