OMD/MPII/MP Paper II Project Numbers

Project Numbers
[[Media:WE_Project_Numbers_V2.0.ods]]

Project Numbers
Course development (including significant course revision) varies significantly among institutions: whether it is a credit or continuing education course; a bachelor’s level or graduate level course; the extent to which it incorporates pedagogy, media and participatory learning approaches; the knowledge and subject matter expertise of the course writer; the quality and standard of the educational institution.

As Derek Chirnside of the University of Canterbury, in Christchurch, NZ. Puts it: “How long is a piece of string?”

Assumptions

 * The linear ADDIE Model of course development:
 * Needs Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation
 * Full course development - Master’s level course of 120 credit hours (12 weeks).
 * A good set of learner outcomes
 * Depends on the preparedness of the lecturer, and whether s/he has access to educational materials and/or resources
 * Additional Requirements:
 * Educational design, course structure, pedagogy
 * Technical support – creating web pages, cropping images, etc.
 * Typing
 * Writing / editing / proofing

Other

 * In general, 10-20% of courses are revised annually; some institutions will do up to 60% (Source: Derek Chirnside, University of Canterbury, NZ)
 * 5% of courses get completely redeveloped due to a change in curriculum, etc.

Fixed Costs

 * Buildings, computers, furnishings and other amortized costs
 * Administrative and support staff costs.
 * Computing equipment, software, security and Internet costs
 * Debt-servicing

Model 1 - Consultant

 * Average cost of course development - $25K, time 2-3 months
 * Average cost of course revision for - $10K, time 1 month

Model 2 – College/University Employee
Not including Benefits

Bundled Time for One (1) Course Development
(for College/University Employee)

Savings via Collaborative Peer Production

 * Estimated 30 per cent increase in performance. Based in interviews with folks who have used WikiEd as a peer production platform, the 30% increase in performance was discussed, and the original time estimates. Thus, 30% of time was deducted from the original time amounts Randy Fisher 18:49, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Total # of Lecturers @ Institution
700

Total # of Courses @ Institution
1200-1600 courses (depending on definition of course)


 * Assuming, conservatively 10% of courses need significant course development / revision per year: 1200 /1.10 = 120


 * Number of courses needing development /revision X traditional course production= 120 x $5,411.93 = $649,431.82


 * Assuming 10% of total staff of 700 pursue (70 employees) wiki skills training at $50 per employee = 70 X $50=$3,500


 * Notes:
 * 1) Actual time-to-train staff not factored in for assignment. A 5-day course = 45 min. per day. Some people do it on personal time, in gaps between work activities.


 * 1) There is actually no cost for training outlay, as it is covered in the Hewlett grant. However, an individual institution may wish to have specialized onsite training for its people, and there is a cost to that.
 * 2) Another element, is the use of a community facilitator, to design/build and facilitate the community of practice around the project.

Savings from wiki course production

 * Number of courses needing development /revision X peer (wiki) production= 120 x $3,788.35 = $454,602.27

Net Savings per year (10% of courses, conservative estimate)

 * $649,431.82-$454,602.27 = $194,829.55 annually - training costs ($10,500) = $184,329.55

Return-on-Investment

 * 28 per cent, per annum.

In developing these Project Numbers, I interviewed several educators who have used the wiki, with the questions(s):


 * Have you used the wiki for content development?
 * To what extent, in terms of percentages, has using the wiki increased your productivity?

All of the people I spoke to, said that their productivity increase was >30%. Derek Chirnside, at the University of Canterbury in NZ, said:
 * once specific techniques - such as bucketing (i.e., placing content in specific buckets that correspond to other course development activities) are mastered, the number could much higher, up to 50%.
 * higher gains could be realized if a development team with a critical mass of five (5) people were involved in a wiki production project.
 * this content repurposed and reused for: http://www.wikieducator.org/Value_Proposition