First of a series of Guest Posts by Jim Farmer in Michael Feldstein's e-Literate. This one picks up on the recently published US Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance report “Turn the Page: Making College Textbooks More Affordable” and examines the way in which (US) HE students use the on-line materials to which they get time-limited access from a text-book publisher through their ownership of the text-book. One sentence jumped out at me:
"In a 1999 presentation to the National Council of Higher Education Programs, an Open University official confirmed the estimated cost for the development of Open University’s media-rich, fully tested, baccalaureate program was US$1 billion."
and my instinct is that some extra zeros may have slipped into the presentation referred to by Jim, unless what is being referred to is the whole or a really substantial proportion of the Open University's entire provision.
Yes Seb, it was US$1 billion. But it did include all of the courses offered for the baccalaureate degree at that time. In 1997 and 1998 Justin Tilton and I had estimated the amount as US$500 million based on an analysis of the OU financial statements. At the NCHELP Conference I was corrected by an Open University official--about the same time OU was considering entering the U.S. distance learning market.
The current estimates for similar learning materials for a 3-unit course in the U.S.--45 classroom hours--is about US$1 million and climbing as faculty and students seek a broader scope of materials.
Similar costs from publishers were provided to the Advisory Committee by Dr. James V. Koch in a commissioned paper "An Economic Analysis of Textbook Pricing and Textbook Markets." (www.immagic.com/eLibrary/FIN_AID/US_ED/A060923K.pdf)
Posted by: Jim Farmer | 04/06/2007 at 14:01
Hmm, I'm obviously undercharging....
Posted by: Mark van Harmelen | 25/06/2007 at 15:41