This book provides a comprehensive overview of the organizational models of distance and online learning from an international perspective and from the point of view of economic planning, costing and management decision-making. The book points to directions for the further research and development in this area, and will promote further understanding and critical reflection on the part of administrators, practitioners and researchers of distance education. The experiences and perspectives in distance education in the US are balanced with those in other areas of the world.

Dissecting in detail the arguments underlying the costs and economics of open and distance learning, this text should give the reader an insight and the confidence to cost their own open and distance learning projects.

Online Distance Education: Towards a Research Agenda offers a systematic overview of the major issues, trends, and areas of priority in online distance education research. In each chapter, an international expert or team of experts provides an overview of one timely issue in online distance education, summarizing major research on the topic, discussing theoretical insights that guide the research, posing questions and directions for future research, and discussing the implications for distance education practice as a whole. Intended as a primary reference and guide for distance educators, researchers, and policymakers, Online Distance Education addresses aspects of distance education practice that have often been marginalized, including issues of cost and economics, concerns surrounding social justice, cultural bias, the need for faculty professional development, and the management and growth of learner communities. At once soundly empirical and thoughtfully reflective, yet also forward-looking and open to new approaches to online and distance teaching, this text is a solid resource for researchers in a rapidly expanding discipline.

Systematically analyzes and assesses the costs of information technology for teaching and learning in a series of 14 essays. The essays also explore how the increased use of IT is transforming higher educaiton and how IT can be used in different ways to teach different kinds of problems.

According to Gartner a certain hype of e-Learning was followed by a downturn but eLearning will continue to be an important factor in learning scenarios. However the economic viability of e-learning projects will be questioned with more scrutiny than in earlier periods. Therefore it seems to be a good opportunity to see what can be learned from past experience in costing distance learning projects and what aspects are added by current attempts to measure economic efficiency. After reviewing early research about costing distance learning some more recent approaches will be discussed, such as eLearning ROI-calculators and the concept of total cost of ownership. Furthermore some microeconomic effects referring to localization of distance learning courses are outlined. Finally several unsolved issues in costing distance education are summarized. (Contains 5 figures.).