Title: On Distant Education Cost Issues
Abstract: Many Universities are offering a
growing
number of distant education courses as a mean to increase quality of
delivery.
It is often seen as a way to decrease the learning cost. Most of the
literature
has argued that the interest of E-learning is withdrawn from the less
cost
for attendance (transport cost and time savings for both students and
teachers). This paper argues that the cost issue is only part of the
story. First, it
is a much more complicated matter than a simple accounting estimation.
It
involves technical choices for example between investment in authoring
or
expenses on tutoring. It is an important issue for emerging countries
which
are in need to set up a distant education strategy. They may invest
large
amounts in authoring sophisticated virtual courses without optimizing
their
use. Second, what should be expected from E-teaching is the better cost
benefit
balance. In many cases, for example, E-courses are more expensive than
face
to face class. But, E-courses may help achieving better internal
efficiency
of the system. Third, positive results from E-learning are helped by
change
in pedagogy, not only by communication technology. Finally, the
analysis
in the paper, based on real cases drawn from Tunisian teaching
experience,
points out critical institutional and actors behavior issues related to
conducting
innovation and technology changes in this field. The paper conclusion
gives
some crucial conditions which help optimizing distant education
implementation
in emerging countries.
Author: Lotfi Bouzaïane