Funding+&+Costs

=Costs & Funding Strategies=

June 24- Brian Peggy, take a lot at the Context section. I added onto Mary's thoughts about a corporate sponsorship. Since we can create our own context, I think we're able to define what the sponsorship consists of. Thoughts?

June 24 - Peggy
 * Both Mary & Ifeoma mentioned corporate sponsorships/partnerships. Would one of you want to explore that just a bit? Apple and Microsoft. Is that worth finding a bit more information about?

Costs Associated with the New Vision

 * I envision some additional costs that will be associated with the switch to our new vision. Most of these costs will be temporary, for a few years. Examples:
 * General technology infrastructure - as a private school I'd say we already have a committement to a strong technological infrastructure. There may be some funding reallocations necessary, but I don't see this as a new cost as much as an ongoing expense.
 * Hiring additional staff for the transition period. This might be some of our largest costs
 * Design & Development costs. This will include additional members for the project management team. Right now I'm seeing the project management team as being responsible for the development of the online courses themselves. (see Recommendations for what the PM team will be responsible for). The course development team (see recommendations) will include media specialists, possibly web designers (not so much these days), etc. There will always be tweaking & updates required of courses, but the initial years - while the courses move initially into online versions - will require additional personnel.
 * Release time for teachers during course development process. I envision the teachers being key parts of the PM team for course development, acting as the subject experts. I would like to see some release time for them for the 1 year their courses are being developed. This will require hiring some additional teaching staff for the first few years. As student numbers are expected to increase, increased income from tuition will help offset additional faculty costs.
 * Perhaps additional IT and admininstration staff (or reallocation of the duties of existing staff) to develop the web presence for our institution, and develop & administer the online administration components of the school (online course registration, administration of fees, putting all other institution content online).
 * ? Hiring an outside expert for such things as a situational analysis (SWOT - strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). While there a costs in bringing in a temporary expert (for a few weeks?), this could save us lots of money in the end. See Bates (2007; in Bullen & Janes pg 52).
 * Training costs for faculty development. Wilson (2007, pg 126 in Bullen & Janes) talks a bit about this, but he doesn't really need to be referenced for this.
 * New software systems. Our school would already have key software, including productivity tools, student information systems, administration software for the school, etc.
 * for administration - online course registration, tuition & fee payment systems, etc.
 * learning management system such as Blackboard - although a subcommittee will investigate use of open source vs proprietary software

Funding Strategies

 * Part of our vision (?) is that we are moving to online learning is to **increase our target student population**, from local Torontonians (or wherever we are located) to a provincial, national, and international student body. Increasing our student population will **increase our economic outlook** due to increased tuition. (these are discussed in Sangrà, Guàrdia, & González-Sanmamed, 2007, in Bullen & James, pg 287)
 * Bates, Chpt 7, discusses other funding strategies. Since we are anticipating maybe a 3 - 5 year increase in funding requirements for the above mentioned reasons, we can look for shorter term funding opportunites. I'd suggest a subcommittee be formed to investigate various options. Bates lists the following options to consider:
 * **Using external grants for specific technology projects**
 * A good option since these grants are often short-term, which is what we need.
 * Mary (I think?) had suggested partnering with Apple. This would fit here and would be a good option to consider.
 * **Charging student technology fees**
 * Since students already pay a hefty tuition for attending a private school, I don't know if I'd favour this option, although some parents may want to act as benefactors? Sometime for the committee to explore
 * **Increasing general operating grants from government to support the use of technology for teaching**
 * As a private school I don't know if this is a viable option
 * **Reallocating internal funds**
 * Likely yes - this would need to be explored. See Haughey (2007) for some information. For example, moving to wireless laptop access - instead of funding for computer labs & desktop computers. Not cheaper spending, just reallocated. Library - more resources will be found online, less spending on physical books for the library, textbooks, etc.
 * **Centralizing or decentralizing funding**
 * As we are a relatively small, private school and the move to e-Learning affects the entire school, funding for this initiative will remain centralized.
 * **Balancing funding between infrastructure, administrative applications, and educational applications.**
 * As we are a relatively small institution, meaning we might already have a good picture of expenditure comparisons between these 3 areas - I don't know if we need to recommend, as Bates (2000, pg 162) does, that an audit of expenditures in these three areas and compared with their "fitness for purpose" be undertaken. Something to consider however.