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Technology Fees in 2009?

Posted on December 3, 2008 by barrydahl

I continue to be amazed that we in higher ed continue to think of technology as something extra, something not assumed and expected, indeed something that we need to charge separately for. Maybe that made sense in 1990 (but that’s only a maybe). It doesn’t make any sense in 2008, 2009, or anytime else in the future. In fact, as each year goes by it makes less and less sense to charge something special (extra) for technology.

Typical line items on a student invoice (YMMV):
Tuition: 3 credits X $140 per credit =            $420
Technology fee: 3 cr. X $10 per credit =         $30
Total cost (except for all those other fees) = $450

I’m not proposing that we forgo revenue. Lord knows that really isn’t an option. What I am proposing is that we simplify what the cost of attending college is. Like this:

Tuition: 3 credits X $150 per credit =            $450
Total cost (except for all those other fees) = $450

I think it is embarrassing that we treat technology as something extra. It is expected that we have technology available to all campus stakeholders in various different ways. Kinda like safety, which we are also expected to provide throughout the campus in many different ways (security guards, fire alarms, non-slippery surfaces, clean air, etc.). Sort of like knowledge and intelligence, which we are expected to provide at no extra charge (that’s a joke, son). Sort of like drinking fountains and rest rooms.

How would this look for a student invoice?

Tuition: 3 credits X $100 per credit =             $300
Technology fee: 3 cr. X $10 per credit =           $30
Safety fee: 3 cr. X $10 per credit =                   $30
Intelligence fee: 3 cr. X $10 per credit =           $30
Rest room fee: 3 cr. X $10 per credit =             $30
Bullshit fee: 3 cr. X $10 per credit =                $30
Total cost (except for all those other fees) =  $450

As absurd as the invoice above may appear, it’s not that different from the invoice that we actually do give to students with numerous line items that are added onto the cost of tuition to determine the total cost of attendance (TCA). In technology we are always concerned about the total cost of ownership (TCO). Aren’t students equally concerned about their total cost of attendance? Shouldn’t we be much more transparent (and far less stupid-looking) by telling the student up front what their TCA is?

To make it worse, the technology fee doesn’t cover the cost of technology used on campus. It covers about half the cost of technology (at my school), and that’s a pretty generous (the real number is lower) estimate in that I’m not including some of the difficult costs such as basic IT infrastructure (fiber networks, etc.) So, technology fee is a misnomer. We should call it “Half of the Technology Fee,” or more accurately “Part of the Technology Fee.”

Take a look at the special invoice above with all the extra line items. Remind you of anything? Is it starting to look at all like your phone bill? Don’t you love how the phone company (and cable company and a few others) nickle and dime you to death with all their add-ons to their basic service cost? Don’t you? Do we in higher ed really want to be like the phone companies?

Name one other industry where technology is considered to be an extra, an add-on, something that you have to pay extra to get. Options on a new car are something that you decide to pay for or not. You can opt out if you don’t want to pay for that sun roof. Sun roofs aren’t expected, they are extra – but you have a choice. Do students have a choice whether they pay the technology fee? Can they opt-out if they don’t want to use any of our technology? “No thank you, I’ve brought my own!”

Grab your crystal ball. Do you think we’ll still be charging extra for technology as a line-item addition on student invoices in the year 2020? What about 2050? Maybe green space will be so rare by then that we’ll charge for blue skies, picnic tables, and green grass. Don’t laugh, we charge for technology in 2009 and that is pretty laughable.

In closing, you might be wondering where this rant came from. Actually, I’ve been on it for a few years now, but nobody else seems to really care about this issue. What brought it to mind now is a seminar session yesterday about charging specific student fees related to the costs of developing and delivering distance learning courses. You can expect a rant about that in the near future.

CC Flickr photo by Neubie

Filed under: Computing, Higher Ed | Tagged: , | 9 Comments »

Second Life Presenters – Get a Clue

Posted on October 28, 2008 by barrydahl

I attended a couple of terrible conference sessions recently. The topic of interest was higher education uses of Second Life.

Before I get into the SL portion of this rant, let me start with another pet peeve. One presenter introduced herself and immediately followed with “By the way, I hate PowerPoint, but it’s the best way show something.” Translation: I don’t know whether it is the best way to “show something,” but it’s the only way I know how. She proceeded to use PPT in one of the classic examples of Death by PowerPoint with slides that were nothing more than her lecture notes (for her benefit, I assume) and a few poorly made screen shots of empty spaces in SL.

Also within the first five minutes she said, and I quote, that she has “dabbled in Second Life.” That’s exactly what I was hoping for – a one-hour presentation from somebody who has dabbled with the topic at hand. Whatever possessed her 8 or 9 months earlier to make a conference proposal about using SL? Possessed does seem to be the proper term.

She went to talk about how they were building a teaching and learning environment within SL. She said their goal was to create a place with a PG rating, to provide a safe place for the students to interact. She admitted that they had no safe guards in place, but that they would ban people if they caused trouble. She said they really haven’t had any trouble yet. I pointed out that griefers rarely hang around uninhabited spaces within SL. That’s just not much fun for them. I’m not positive that she knows what a griefer is.

The whole topic of appropriate behavior was basically brushed aside. Regarding the monitoring of student behavior in SL, she said, “We don’t monitor them in first life, so why in Second Life?” Excuse me, but we do monitor them in FL when they are in our learning environments – we just don’t continue to monitor them (much) after they leave our campuses or networks. For the record, I’m not too concerned with monitoring student behaviors in SL either, but I am concerned when people just make inaccurate statements in order to not deal with the question at hand.

There were two things of which she seemed particularly proud. They have built a classroom in the sky and another one underwater. “You can do whatever you want in this flying classroom,” although she gave no examples of what those things might be. “You can show your PowerPoint on the screen under water. Oh boy, that’s what we’ve been missing from a quality education. I’ll grant you that it sure would be more difficult to show your PPT under water in first life, so this sounds like a great opportunity for someone to show their underwater basket weaving slideshow while actually (OK, not actually, but virtually) under water. Yes, technology enables us to do fabulous things.

I was troubled by the screen shots that never showed any avatars on their educational island. I asked how much the space was getting used. “I believe they are using it, but I’m not really sure. I’ll be using it this week for the first time myself.” At that point, 25 minutes into the presentation, I decided that I needed to leave the room before my head (especially my mouth) exploded. So, I did. I wish I could report out on the last 35 minutes, but right now all I’ve got is yada, yada, yada; blah, blah, blah.

Along with a couple of lousy presentations, I also saw a good one. Here the presenters were actually using SL, including one presenter who was back in New York state and was presenting and commenting in world. Not only was it far more effective to use SL as the presentation platform, but we actually had presenters who knew what they were talking about, who have taught real live students in SL, and who can give some concrete examples of useful things that can be done in world. They admitted to some of the lame things that they had tried, and took credit for some of the cool things that they have created. If you’re looking for some of the good examples of how higher ed is using SL, take a look at SUNY Live or search in world for Monroe CC. This presentation was really quite outstanding.

CC Flickr photo by Hiro Sheridan

Filed under: Conference, Higher Ed | Tagged: | 6 Comments »

LSC in Top 10

Posted on October 19, 2008 by barrydahl

The Center for Digital Education and Converge magazine have selected 31 community colleges as outstanding examples of technology delivery in higher education. The fourth annual Digital Community Colleges Survey identifies and spotlights colleges that provide a high level of service to their students and faculty through information technology.

Lake Superior College has been selected at #10 for mid-sized colleges (between 3,000-7,500 students) in the U.S.

The survey examined areas of technology ranging from online admissions, student access to transcripts and grades, information security and infrastructure, to weather and campus security alerts and online library capabilities. Some of the factors that most likely set us apart from some of the schools include our online enrollments (25% of total enrollment), our uses of Web 2.0 technologies including school-branded blogs and wikis, and our efforts at green computing procedures.

The goal for next year is to move higher on the list.

Filed under: Computing, Higher Ed | Tagged: | 2 Comments »

Teaching with Technology Conference

Posted on October 13, 2008 by barrydahl

Minnesota State University, Mankato will be hosting a one-day conference titled Teaching with Technology. Friday, November 7, 2008 at the beautiful Mankato campus. I have the pleasure of participating throughout the day.

At their website you can view the rest of the sessions during the day and register to attend. This is a free conference. I am very much looking forward to participating.

Filed under: Conference, Higher Ed | Tagged: | Comments Off on Teaching with Technology Conference

U of Phx Two-Year School Making Gains

Posted on August 21, 2008 by barrydahl

I wrote this and then forgot to post it. Here it is, better late than never.

I attended an e-learning strategy meeting on 6/16/08 at the MnSCU system office. In attendance were various representatives from throughout the system of 32 campuses, as well as union leaders and system staff. Part of the conversation centered on comparing and contrasting MnSCU to the University of Phoenix. There seemed to be wide agreement about how U of Phx caters to a very different student than we do, and that we are there to educate the masses and the masses can’t afford the price at UofP and similar for-profits. This article at Inside Higher Ed is a step toward calling that point of view more of a myth than a reality. There are 100,000+ students at the 2-year arm of Phoenix (called Axia) paying $325 per credit hour – largely because the Axia way fits their lifestyle better (2 classes at a time for nine weeks). The idea that we are the ones serving the underserved is challenged by this statement, “Phoenix, much like community colleges, has built a reputation for serving a diverse pool of students who are otherwise underserved in higher education.” To top it off, they (Axia) have only been in business since 2004 – so they probably haven’t really found their market share yet. Not everything in the article is all rosy for Axia, that’s for sure, but a couple of the traditional higher ed types who are quoted in the article sound downright foolish when they talk about how the students attending Phoenix/Axia just probably don’t know about the public higher ed opportunities in their communities. These people have their heads seriously buried in the sand.

Filed under: Higher Ed | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off on U of Phx Two-Year School Making Gains

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