VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1, 1999
Editorial
Institutional Restructuring: Is Distance Education
Like Retailing?!
Michael G. Moore
Articles (for abstracts,
click here)
I Know My Instructional Technologies: It's These Learners That Perplex
Me!
Mauri Collins
Methodology for Cost-Benefit Analysis of Web-Based
Tele-Learning: Case Study of the Bell Online Institute
Tammy Whalen and David Wright
Dimensions of Educational Transactions in a Videoconferencing
Learning Environment
Yau-Jane Chen and Fern K. Willits
Theory and Distance Education: A New Discussion
Michael Simonson, Charles Schlosser, and Dan Hanson
Interview
Speaking Personally with Jeff Livingston
Don Olcott, Jr.
Book Review
Mega-Universities and Knowledge Media
by Sir John S. Daniel
James H. Ryan
EDITORIAL
Institutional Restructuring:
Is Distance Education Like Retailing?!
Michael G. Moore
With the collapse of local geographic monopolies in educational provision resulting from the rapid distribution of Internet-based forms of distance education, established providers of education and training services are compelled to look for ways of protecting their existing spheres of influence. They are also discovering the possibility of recruiting new student populations beyond their traditional constituencies in what is becoming a global market in educational services.
Fulfilling the promise of the most enthusiastic free-market economists, the threat of external competition is reinforcing the trend of the past decade for institutions to abandon long-established restrictive practices and embrace a self-concept of suppliers of services to customers. In conjunction, there is also a vigorous trend among most institutions to evaluate the quality of the programs they provide, to evaluate their delivery systems, and to make modifications in an attempt to provide the best learning programs possible within their resource constraints. As they attempt to hold on to their learning-market share, there is intense pressure on policy-makers and administrators to evaluate their institutional business strategies or, in many cases, to consciously devise a business strategy for the first time.
What are these business strategies? Perhaps we can understand them and some of the strategic issues now being considered by distance education providers by comparing them to other service industries-in retailing, for example. Using the retailing model, we may perceive suppliers of distance education as choosing among the following strategies: 1) the distance education superstore; 2) the distance education chain store; 3) the distance education boutique; 4) the distance education cooperative; 5) corporate alliances; and 6) the distance education consultancy.
The Superstore
In retail banking, the superstore would be analogous to the large international
bank, Citibank, for example, or in retailing consumer goods, Wal-Mart.
These are businesses that provide a wide range of goods or services to
a very large market, passing on to the customer the benefits of their
bulk purchasing power and resources for large scale production and distribution.
By extensive use of computer-based customization techniques, they are
able to emulate personal service for a large number of customers over
a wide area, nationally and globally. The superstores of distance education
are what are referred to as the mega-universities, most of which are national
open universities with more than 100,000 students. In these superstores,
management's sole responsibility is the design and delivery of courses
for distant learners. Their business strategy is based not only on the
price advantages of economy of large scale production and distribution,
but also on the quality advantages of division of labor. Thus the work
of content specialists, course design specialists, and media specialists
is aimed at providing content for delivery through a wide range of media.
This content is supported by the activities of learner groups and individual
learners assisted by specialists in interpersonal interaction and learning.
By investing heavily in design, delivery, and learner support, with cost
amortized over large numbers of consumers, the educational superstores
can guarantee uniform, high quality courses at very competitive prices.
A high quality 150-hour course can easily cost $1 to $2 million, with
annual maintenance costs doubling that figure. Currently, some of the
leading distance education superstores, such as the British Open University,
Athabasca University, and the University of Queensland, are beginning
to market directly into geographic areas previously controlled as monopolies
by older, long-established, local suppliers.
The Specialty Store
The specialty store's business strategy is to identify and dominate a
niche market. Like the superstore, it invests in high quality production
and obtains economies of scale by marketing over a wide area to a large
customer population. The difference is that it offers only one product
or a limited range of products. A financial retailing analogy might be
Schwab or Payne-Weber, or in other parts of Main Street, Kinko's Copies
or Starbucks Coffee shops. In distance education this strategy is seen
in the University of Phoenix, which provides primarily business courses
to an affluent market sector of some 40,000 students whose average age
is thirty-four years and years of employment is thirteen.
New York University (NYU) recently announced that it will be the first major academic institution to create a for-profit subsidiary, known as NYU Online, to facilitate Internet delivery of courses that focus on real estate, finance, and information systems management. NYU estimates that it needs investments from the private sector totaling $20 to $30 million. More than a thousand other corporate universities, including the IBM Global Campus, Motorola University, Sun Microsystems University, and the WorldBank's Economic Development Institute, focus on a limited range of subjects. Specialty stores that provide for a blue-collar market are those represented by the Distance Education and Training Council, private distance teaching schools, each of which provides courses in such niche markets as tourism, gemology, truck driving, and beautician training.
The Boutique, "Mom-and-Pop" Stores,
and Convenience Stores
The hometown bank, locally owned proprietary jeweler, and late-night convenience
store offer a considerable range of products. They generally employ lower
levels of technology than larger firms, but claim to offer more personal
service to a relatively small market in a limited geographic area-albeit
more expensively than the superstore or specialty store.
I wonder if readers would agree with me that this seems to be the business strategy adopted by most of our universities as they try to hold on to their positions as local suppliers of a wide range of courses. The strategy is very labor intensive, and in distance education many instructors are now asked to make their own courses available for distribution over the Internet to a relatively small number of users. This is a fairly easy strategy for a university to adopt; it is far less disruptive of traditional practice to add Internet instruction to the work-load of faculty than to plan the redistribution of labor and technology needed to compete on equal terms with the superstores or specialty stores in the wider market.
In the distance learning boutique, teachers have to work on a wide range of tasks, tasks that in superstores and specialty stores are the work of specialists. These teachers must learn the many skills needed to design and produce distance learning materials, as well as manage interaction with learners as they work with those materials. This is more and different work than in conventional class teaching. At best, teachers have to be trained, paid, and administered differently than in their traditional teaching roles. At worst, in an effort to compete, institutions may put pressure on their labor-the faculty-to work longer hours and accept lower compensation. In other words, in time, boutiques may turn into sweatshops!
The boutique strategy is defensible only if the boutique can capitalize on its name recognition, charge prices comparable to those of the superstore and specialty store, and compete in quality of product. This last task may be increasingly difficult to accomplish in the future since the boutiques and mom-and-pop stores do not have the technical systems, division of labor, or large investment sums available to their competitors. Certainly, when faced with competition from the superstores and chain stores, the boutique strategy could prove foolish if it is used as a result of administrative inertia rather than careful market analysis.
The Cooperative Producer and Distributor
Just as independent retailers may combine their purchasing power to obtain
some of the economies of scale enjoyed by superstores and specialty stores,
so the distance education cooperative is a consortium in which the distance
teaching resources of a nation or state are organized under a management
unit made up of representatives of provider institutions. Each member
of the consortium usually produces one or more courses for use by other
members and, in turn, receives courses produced by other members. Long
established examples of this are the National University Teleconference
Network, National Technological University; the International University
Consortium; and the Teleconference People. The Public Broadcasting System
(PBS) telecourse consortium known as Going the Distance has 475,000 students
enrolled in degree courses through 180 participating colleges, adding
ten new courses in 1998 for a total of eighty-five telecourses. Recently
we have seen new international cooperatives emerging or under consideration,
not only of universities and training institutions, but also of telecommunications
providers, equipment producers and publishers, software developers, assessment
services, credit banks, and library services. The African Virtual University,
launched in 1996 with WorldBank support, now has twenty-seven members-twelve
each in English- and French-speaking Africa and three in Portuguese-speaking
countries.
Corporate Alliances
In a recent trend, the exact shape of which is not yet clear, educational
institutions are entering alliances with corporate partners to obtain
some of the benefits of scale in production and distribution of distance
learning programs. The California State University (CSU) system has partnered
with publishers Simon & Schuster to offer teacher training programs:
Simon & Schuster provides investment funds, and the CSU faculty in
teacher education deliver five courses basic to the curriculum on CSU
campuses and other locations throughout the state. The University of Washington
has entered a partnership with Prentice Hall, and recently, the Warton
School of Management, Sylvan Industries, and MCI have agreed to form a
partnership.
Consultants
Like the independent financial consultant, the accountant, or the attorney,
distance education consultants in design, delivery, and even learner support
provide a very limited product or service, possibly directly to consumers,
but usually to providing agencies. A major organization recently employed
a distance education consultant who, in turn, advised recruiting a television
consultant from England, an in-state production company, two study guide
writers-one from South Africa-independent editors, graphic artists, and
Web designers. Together, with the organization's own content specialists,
they formed a course team for an institution that has no expertise in
distance education and no interest in establishing its own team.
In a national project in Brazil aimed at training a large number of schoolteachers, the Ministry of Education brought together a course team of content experts from more than a dozen universities, contracted with the country's best television company, organized study centers in schools, and employed a college of education for evaluation. With the help of other specialists, the Ministry assembled a team that would work on the project while team members continued their work for other institutions, having no continuing relationship with the Ministry that employs them on a contractual basis. The basic idea here is that a state, nation, or institution does NOT set up a dedicated distance education institution, neither a superstore nor a specialty store, nor does it depend on the voluntary aspect of the cooperative. Rather it uses the power of its budget to draw on the resources of the best suppliers in the market to configure whatever mixture is needed for a particular program or project on a temporary "mix and match" basis.
To make the consulting model effective, the state (or whatever entity) needs a small controlling mechanism-possibly one administrator, but probably a small team of specialists in design, technology, and learner support-to commission, on a contractual basis, the mixture needed for each particular project. The permanent, experienced control team is one part of the system; the other is a significant funding resource. The only way the control team can obtain the quality resources needed on a pro-term basis, guarantee quality, monitor, train, and in every way maximize the resources available, is through the power of its funding. While at present, publicly funded departments are usually those that contract with consultant providers, there is a scenario of future educational provision that foresees the emergence of private, for-profit knowledge companies that will undertake this work, along the lines of the Health Management Organization in the health field. An Education Management Organization would contract with a corporation to provide education to its employees and perhaps even their families. Such a knowledge company would contract with content providers such as faculty members and instructional design and communications specialists and distribute the education within its own proprietary learner support networks.
Conclusion
In considering which business strategy to adopt, distance education institutions
and their faculties must ask themselves the following questions:
- Are we clear and confident about our comparative
advantage? (i.e., What it is that we can supply better than anyone else?)
- Do we have a policy to develop those areas in which
we have an advantage and to drop those activities that distract resources
from them?
- Do we know our current as well as our potential
competitors, particularly those in geographically distant places, and
is there a strategy for responding to them?
- If we adopt a superstore or specialty store strategy, have we put in place the necessary organizational resources and infrastructure?
- If we adopt a cooperative or corporate partnership strategy, who will be our partners, and in which markets will we compete?
- If we consider a consultancy approach, do we have
the budget and administrative core to successfully locate and manage
the resulting virtual course team?
- If we are to compete in the global market with students in different states and countries, do we have an adequate system to support interaction for handling assignments and providing learner support?
- How are faculty and support staff trained for the strategy we adopt? How are they monitored? Do we have a pay and reward structure consistent with a non-traditional strategy?
- Is there a plan for developing an institutional culture that is supportive of whatever distance education strategy is adopted?
It is certain that many new and powerful forces for change exist in distance education, particularly in higher education. What is less clear is just what is the optimum strategy for any institution to ensure competitiveness. The problem is that in spite of the uncertainties, decisions have to be made, or else there is a serious risk of losing market share.
I Know My Instructional
Technologies: It's These Learners That Perplex Me!
Maury Collins
Collins notes that until recently technical support staff in higher education and corporate training has been limited to computer hardware and software. As technology use expands and progresses, Collins mentions that a colleague, instead of being asked to "write, de-bug, and document mainframe computer programs, is now being asked how to get students involved in online group learning projects". Technologists are frequently asked to see to the needs of corporate trainers and faculty advisors in the selection and integration of educational technology instructing and learning.
The author suggests three fields of concentration within adult education that can prepare individuals with technical support skills to make the transition to newer roles of corporate trainers or advisors to faculty in higher education. The three areas are: "introduction to adult education, adult learners and learning, and program planning". Collins believes that the above noted three areas of study, in addition to the technology training and knowledge, will offer a good foundation for this new and growing role of technologists.
Collins found a program planning educational background
invaluable in presenting a Web conference. She notes that this knowledge
is essential to be alert to the "many pitfalls-political, organizational,
and financial-that can be encountered in the planning process".
Methodology for Cost-Benefit Analysis of Web-Based
Tele-Learning: Case Study of the Bell Online Institute
Tammy Whalen and David Wright
There is much positive emphasis on Web-based training in both private industry and the academia arena; as a result cost analysis is becoming ever more important. A lack of literature in the field was the reason why this study was undertaken. The authors developed the costing methodology discussed in this article and it was tested in the Bell Canada case study.
The study by Whalen and Wright hypothesized that "several key design elements that should be considered in costing Web-based training projects". The authors use a case study approach to look at these elements. A thorough cost-benefit analysis is provided by this case study approach which gives the breakeven number of students needed "to recover Web-based course development costs and the return on investment over a five-year period".
Bell Canada is cited as an excellent example of a company
that is now using Web-based learning for employee training as well as
a service product made available to customers who wish to incorporate
distance learning into their own businesses. For both examples the cost
benefit of Web-based training needs to be determined.
Dimensions of Educational Transactions in a Videoconferencing
Learning Environment
Yau-Jane Chen and Fern K. Willits
Distance education has seen dramatic transformation in the last twenty-five years with a vast number of alternative instructional delivery systems that have changed early correspondence courses to "current complex multimedia-based interactions among teachers, students, and computer information sources". In this study Chen and Willits dealt with 121 learners' experiences with videoconferencing; "this study identified the dimensions (factors) constituting dialogue, structure, and learner autonomy in such a learning environment. Exploratory factor analysis using a principal axis factor method" was used.
The instrument used in this study was a preliminary questionnaire which was pilot-tested with a group of 103 videoconferencing learners. The results of this pilot study were instrumental in developing the final questionnaire. The sample involved 202 learners in twelve videoconferencing courses at Penn State University, Spring semester 1997.
The authors note that this study's results provide information
to videoconferencing researchers and practitioners as to what factors
of the educational transition should be high-lighted in videoconferencing
courses. Chen and Willits report "the current analysis suggests that
the concepts of dialogue, structure, and learners autonomy-concepts central
to Moore's Theory of Transactional Distance-are not simple, but rather,
complex ideas in the context of classes taught by videoconferencing".
Instructors' understanding of learners' need for support and collaborative
interaction in addition to independence may serve to heighten the instructing-learning
experience in videoconferencing courses as well as in all instructing-learning
settings.
Theory and Distance Education: A New Discussion
Michael Simonson, Charles Schlosser, and Dan Hanson
The past theories of distance education have come from outside America according to Simonson, Schlosser and Hanson. The evolution of telecommunications systems have powerfully changed the practice of distance education in the U.S., resulting in a singularly American way of proceeding in this discipline. The need for a new theory is apparent. "This theory, called Equivalency Theory" is delineated and compared to past theories used in distance learning. The authors discuss this and several traditional theoretical avenues that have had a strong effect on distance learning.
Distance education is a diverse environment in which much change is occurring; as a result more than one theory is needed according to Simonson et al. Past theories are fitting for the more traditional model of distance education. "Recent emerging theories based on the capabilities of new interactive telecommunications-based audio and video systems suggest that distance education may not be a distinct field of education". The authors believe that classical distance education theorists must recognize and deal with the variations which new technologies bring to distance education. This changing environment can both challenge and motivate educators and researchers in distance education as they work to discover and present effective means to accommodate learners' needs both here and throughout the world community.
