Argues that the return-to-scale concept is important in explaining to more advanced students how production structures underlie costs. Reviews Christopher Ross Bell's graphical analysis, contending that its argument suggests a variable-returns-to-scale function rather than one exhibiting decreasing returns to scale. Explores classic views and the…

This paper presents a complex, hybrid, method of cost analysis of online courses, which incorporates data on expenditures; student/course enrollment; departmental consumption/contribution; space utilization/opportunity costs; direct non-personnel costs; computing support; faculty/staff workload; administrative overhead at the department, dean, and…

The first part of this paper discusses two principal forms elaborated upon in previous literature for describing the relation between per pupil operating costs and school enrollment size. The first of these forms indicates that average per pupil costs decline up to a point as enrollment increases, reach a minimum, and then rise with further school…