Colleges are looking for ways to cut costs, and most students now own laptops. As a result, many campus technology leaders are taking a hard look at those brightly lit rooms with rows of networked computers, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to maintain. More than 11% of colleges and universities are phasing out computer labs or…

Resource allocations, in terms of funds, people, facilities, and the delegation of appropriate authority to formulate appropriate policy, for research and development and implementation of computer-assisted instruction are discussed in this paper. A description and justification of CAI as a technology is included. The need for incorporating a…

A brief overview of how computer assisted instruction came into wide use and its present cost effectiveness as an instructional tool. (HB)

CAI can pay by choosing a market where a decrease in training time or an increase in student-teacher ratios can be translated into lower over-all costs to the system. This situation obtains when CAI is used for the education and training of professionals, children with learning disabilities and others whose instructional needs cannot be met by the…

In the slightly over twelve years since its inception, computer-based instruction (CBI) has shown the promise of being more cost-effective than traditional instruction for certain educational applications. Pilot experiments are underway to evaluate various CBI systems. Should these tests prove successful, a major problem confronting advocates of…

A study of the feasibility of charging real money for computer time used for academic, as contrasted with administrative, computing is presented. It is concluded that despite the problems of an in-house charging system, change to a real-money system is not justified in a small institution in which simpler financing can be accomplished. (MSE)

This case study describes a project to design a performance support system that incorporated an electronic performance tool, computer-based training, and paper-based deliverables that resulted in lower development costs and improved job performance. Highlights include audience analyses, cost analysis, creative resource allocation, and feedback…

The software and courseware developed on the campuses of a big system such as The California State University and Colleges (CSUC) might be the nucleus of a computer network to deliver cost-effective lessons to the students on all campuses. This paper describes the methodology by which small Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) systems could be…

Because each country and each instructional option provides a speical case requiring its own particular analysis, the purpose of this paper is not to provide a cost-effectiveness or cost-benefit analysis of new instructional media, but rather to provide improved information concerning costs of instructional television and radio so that the…

This analysis of the cost-effectiveness of the University of Delaware's own PLATO system discusses the initial expense of acquiring the system, decreases in unit cost as number of users increased, capital investment in hardware, expenditures and funding sources, comparisons of actual and projected costs, and benefits of individualized instruction.…

Scenarios depicting both positive and negative alternative futures were prepared to serve as a source of ideas in this study of ways to improve education with less money. Included in this third volume are (1) a disaster scenario based on piecemeal, reactive solutions; (2) a scenario based on applications of "big media"; (3) a scenario…

Scenarios depicting both positive and negative alternative futures were prepared to serve as a source of ideas in this study of ways to achieve better schools for less money. Included are (1) a disaster scenario based on piecemeal, reactive solutions; (2) a scenario based on applications of "big media"; (3) a scenario based on individualized…

Responding to a critique of their earlier article, authors Levin and Meister, joined by Glass, attempt to clarify some of the issues and to correct implicit misunderstandings in the critique, while detailing the application of cost-effectiveness to educational interventions. Twenty footnotes are appended. (IW)