How Much Does it Cost to Offer a Mature Online Course?

(or… Why it is hard to tell you how much it costs to offer a mature cost online?)

-Ann H. Taylor, Ph.D., Assistant Dean for Distance Learning
College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Penn State University

Administrators frequently ask a common question when reviewing budget plans for online programs: How much does it cost to offer a mature online course? The assumption is that once an online course has been developed and offered a few times (i.e., it is mature), it’s “done.” With development costs out of the way, one might think that the costs for ongoing delivery would be more-or-less limited to the compensation provided to the instructor. But what’s the real answer to this important question?

It depends.

Asking “How much does it cost to offer a mature online course?” is like asking a friend “How much will the annual expenses be for my new car?” Before your friend can answer, she will need a lot more information, such as:

  • What make/model are you getting? Is this more like a Chevy Cruze or a Maserati?
  • What features does it have? Is it the basic model or the XLE?
  • How many passengers does it carry? Cargo van? 2-seater? 15-passenger van?
  • What type of power/fuel does it run on? Gas? Hybrid? Electric? Biofuel? Diesel?
  • How many miles will you put on it? Couple of miles a day? Two-hour commute?
  • What other costs will you incur while driving, such as “extras” to support your long-distance drives (tolls, snacks, audiobooks, Sirius radio)?

Then there are the unanswerable questions, like:

  • Will you have any accidents this year?
  • What is going to break unexpectedly?

Just as vehicle maintenance costs vary widely, the costs to support the delivery of an online course—even a mature one—vary widely. Courses are often quite different in terms of their learning design, their technical complexity, the level of “self-sufficiency” of the instructor, the number of students supported, the amount of teaching/grading assistance needed, future-proofing of the content and the technologies used in support of the content, etc. No two courses are the same. Compare, for example, the following scenarios that range from lower to higher support needs:

A “low tech” graduate seminar-style course that enrolls 15-20 students that is led by the same very self-sufficient instructor each time.

A course that has been offered many times whose instructor wants help “taking it to the next level” in terms of enriching the teaching and learning environment (e.g., increase student engagement, provide more formative assessments of student learning, incorporate new pedagogical strategies based on the latest research).

A “mega” Gen Ed course that is designed to serve 1,000 students per offering by incorporating several TAs and a complex, semi-automated grading system that requires several hours of programming effort each semester.

A lower-division course that is routinely assigned to a graduate student who is new to online teaching, requiring pedagogical and technical support throughout the semester.

A large enrolling course led by a beloved-but-busy instructor who needs ongoing support to train the course’s ever-changing TAs and to take care of all course set-up needs.

In many institutions, academic departments pay course instructors a pre-determined, set amount of compensation to teach an online course (or such teaching is considered “on load,” i.e., part of their normal teaching duties). Recognizing that teaching online differs greatly from face-to-face teaching—and that quality is the key to student retention—it is increasingly common for institutions to provide instructional design support for both the development and delivery of online courses. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, instructional design expenses are often based on actual effort expended based on the needs of each course and its instructor(s) in order to reflect the fact that support needs vary widely (as illustrated in the examples above).

For example, in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State University, members of the Learning Design Team from the John A. Dutton e-Education Institute collaborate with instructors to support the delivery of the college’s online courses. Each month, members of the Learning Design Team report an estimate of the level of effort they expended during the previous month for each online program and course they support. That level of effort is then used to determine that individual’s salary distribution for the month. For example, if a Learning Designer reports spending approximately 1 day a week supporting the courses in Program X, then 20% of their salary for the month is charged to that program’s budget. In this way, program and course budgets are only charged for time actually spent on their support. As a result, a course’s instructional design support expenses can range from $1,500 per offering to more than $5,000.

What learning design support is needed?

To ensure high quality delivery of online courses, there is a standard level of support that needs to be provided each time an online course is offered. Quality assurance is essential online education when the next institution is just “a click” away! In the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, the Learning Design Team routinely:

  • Provides accurate, up-to-date course information to Penn State World Campus (Penn State’s online delivery unit) to enable course registration to begin
  • Monitors the course offering schedule to make sure course offering information is current for each semester
  • Maintains current course information in an administrative course database
  • Reviews syllabus policies to ensure they are current and align with college and University requirements
  • Checks all links and scan course for outdated content
  • Works with the instructor to ensure that the syllabus, instructor welcome, and announcements communicate expectations for how often the instructor will log in to the course, engage with students, and answer questions
  • Checks to see if there are any confidentiality holds on any students, and notify instructor of any such holds exist
  • Reinforces and supports the college’s Best Practices and Expectations for Online Teaching (See https://facdev.e-education.psu.edu/node/252)
  • Provides continuous pedagogical and technical support to both the instructor and students to ensure a satisfactory learning experience for all

If the instructor is new to the course and/or online teaching, additional standard support must be provided to:

  • Ensure new instructors are enrolled in OL 2000: Effective Online Teaching and OL 3000: Accessibility in Online Teaching (professional development courses required for new online instructors)
  • Guide the instructor in the effective pedagogical use of Canvas (the University’s learning management system) and Drupal (the college’s content management system), as well as all relevant course technologies
  • Ensure the instructor has undergone and passed FERPA training
  • Orient the instructor to course, including content, activities, and assessments
  • Take care of course set-up needs (e.g., copy the course over from previous offering, adjust dates, update all material, and merge sections as needed)

There are also additional levels of support that can factor in, depending on the course/instructor/students. Members of the learning design team provide this support upon request of the lead faculty member and/or the course instructor. Examples include:

  • Taking care of course set-up needs (e.g., copying the course over from previous offering, adjusting dates, updating all material, and merging sections as needed) for instructors that require extra assistance,
  • Training TAs and graders
  • Providing instructors with reminders particular to their course offering, including information on signing up for specialized software, “publishing” and “unpublishing” the course in Canvas, updating the course calendar and announcements, merging sections, etc.
  • Helping the instructor address and provide solutions for any challenges that arose in previous course offerings, including addressing information reported on formative course assessments
  • Ensuring that content updates align with course objectives, best practices for online education, and program goals
  • Apprising the instructor of Canvas updates and support any related needs
  • Helping the instructor to address special requirements for any students who receive learning support from the University’s Office of Disability Services (e.g., providing extra time on tests, arranging for an audio version of a text, closed-captioning for live videoconferencing sessions)
  • Assisting with the handling of academic integrity violations, student disruptions, or complaints if they arise
  • Monitoring sections on the Digital Learning Cooperative through the drop/add period, making sure that all campus sections are merged appropriately
  • Assisting instructors with any other issues that arise unexpectedly!

To maintain course quality, online courses and programs also need periodic (i.e., occasional, not every time the course is offered) support. Members of the Learning Design Team provide this support in consultation with a program’s lead faculty member. Examples include:

  • Proofreading all course materials to ensure content remains error-free
  • Providing a full accessibility review to ensure the course still meets the University’s minimum accessibility standards
  • Reviewing relevant Google analytics to determine use of course materials and identify possible needs for revision
  • Pulling and creating reports/requests from the administrative course or program database
  • Updating Drupal versions and user interfaces in order to provide students with the most modern, easily-navigable user interface and to handle mandatory security updates
  • Providing lead faculty with program-level marketing materials
  • Creating, updating, and enhancing program databases to assist with advising, rollout management, and student progress-to-degree
  • Creating, updating, and enhancing program websites that are used to communicate requirements and other information to current students
  • Assisting with program assessment activities
  • Updating courses to account for changes in University-level administrative systems
  • Engaging in research with faculty partners in order to inform pedagogical practices

What do you drive?

So the next time someone asks you how much it costs to offer a “mature” course online, remember – “It depends.” The costs to support online courses are not that different than they are for face-to-face courses—it is just that we typically don’t think about the time and resources we expend beyond the actual classroom instruction. As Benjamin Franklin so aptly put it, “time is money.” We forget about the costs associated with keeping course materials up to date, providing well-maintained classrooms, staffing department offices to support students, providing sufficient IT support, heating and cooling, professional development programming targeted at improving teaching, visits to the campus “center for teaching excellence” to seek advice and collaboration, etc. As online and face-to-face course delivery continues to blend together, one can hope that we will simply focus on providing resources to instructors to support teaching and learning regardless of where that teaching and learning takes place.


Posted May 21, 2018