Can schools use technology to cut the costs of teaching? I’m one of three consultants consulted by the Chronicle of Higher Education in an article answering that question.
My opening gambit: “Over all, technology usually does not help reduce instructional costs. Only if we take advantage of open access can we really cut institutional costs.
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(Actually, I do mention a few other ways, that are unpopular.)
Reblogged this on Logorrhea.
I really don’t see how it can. I’m not convinced at all that we showed there can be cost reduction through the first round of CIC courses. I think that was a pipe dream.
I like your separation of the cost of teaching from the institutional perspective from the cost paid by the student. Open educational resources reduce the student’s costs, but not the institutions’. Flipped classes do not cost the institution less to provide, but if they increase student success and increase four year graduation, they can reduce the costs paid by the student. Sharing of lecture videos across institutions may not decrease an institutions’ instructional costs (it may actually increase them), but at a research institution, for example, eliminating duplicative instructional prep it could allow faculty to recapture that time for research and mentoring. Economically we tend to think of technology’s impact as making things more “efficient” (units per time per cost). Our economic models aren’t so good at capturing the gains that technology makes in enabling new things that weren’t practical without the technology.
Good points.
It’s allied to the vexed question of technology and productivity.
Hm. Maybe I should follow up on this with another post.
“This content is available exclusively to Chronicle subscribers”. Can you provide more than your tantalizing hint above?
Yeah, “Do Paywalls Reduce the Cost of Sharing Ideas” …. The Chronicle of Walled Ideas BAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHD
I’m torn by situations like this. There’s a lot to appeal, with the Chronicle being widely read. But it’s gated.
It’s like publishing in many scholarly presses.
Reblogged this on My Educational Technology Blog: A Place of Resources and Tools for Educators.
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