Well, if Amazon sells an electronic book for less money than a print book, that must mean that the e-book is more cost effective! After all, Amazon is one of the most successful business enterprises in the history of commerce!
In this module we learned about classifying media, media equivalence, student, learning hours and implications for various technologies. The variance in cost to produce one student learning hour is staggering, ranging from reading one chapter in a book purchased by the student for $100 (which costs the institution nothing but faculty time to select the reading) up to $90,000 US to produce one hour of TV. I was intrigued by Moore and Kearsley’s comment (1996, p. 5) which states “Provided the medium is well chosen and functioning effectively, it plays a minor role in affecting the learning experience.” Sorry guys, but I disagree with that! If you break your leg and stay in bed for 6-8 weeks, your leg will heal. If we give you a walking cast and a scooter, your leg will still heal in 6-8 weeks, but with far more enjoyment. I believe we need to include that intangible quality as well.
I understood all the terminology and equations/graphs used in this module. An important take-away message is even if a media is expensive, with distance education it can be used to spread the expense over a vast number of learners. And when you through in the entertainment value I seem to prize, it could be very cost effective and efficient!
I enjoyed this module – it was concrete and made sense. I can visualize how emerging technologies will fit into this module and perhaps further increase cost effectiveness, such as podcasts. The CostEr was quite helpful and I can see how it would be beneficial in designing a course!
Moore, M., & Kearsley, G. (1996). Distance education: A systems view. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
In this module we learned about classifying media, media equivalence, student, learning hours and implications for various technologies. The variance in cost to produce one student learning hour is staggering, ranging from reading one chapter in a book purchased by the student for $100 (which costs the institution nothing but faculty time to select the reading) up to $90,000 US to produce one hour of TV. I was intrigued by Moore and Kearsley’s comment (1996, p. 5) which states “Provided the medium is well chosen and functioning effectively, it plays a minor role in affecting the learning experience.” Sorry guys, but I disagree with that! If you break your leg and stay in bed for 6-8 weeks, your leg will heal. If we give you a walking cast and a scooter, your leg will still heal in 6-8 weeks, but with far more enjoyment. I believe we need to include that intangible quality as well.
I understood all the terminology and equations/graphs used in this module. An important take-away message is even if a media is expensive, with distance education it can be used to spread the expense over a vast number of learners. And when you through in the entertainment value I seem to prize, it could be very cost effective and efficient!
I enjoyed this module – it was concrete and made sense. I can visualize how emerging technologies will fit into this module and perhaps further increase cost effectiveness, such as podcasts. The CostEr was quite helpful and I can see how it would be beneficial in designing a course!
Moore, M., & Kearsley, G. (1996). Distance education: A systems view. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company.