Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Telelearning: A Case Study ...

student society fees. Similarly, the range of costs reported for the textbook may have
resulted from some students including library expenses in this category and/or some
students not buying the textbook.
Table 12 is provided for comparative purposes and indicates what the minimum
student expense would be if students only paid for tuition, and the textbook. As shown,
the OISE graduate students are required to pay a minimum of $790.00.
Table 12
Minimum Student Expenses
Type of Cost Amount
Tuition $740.00
Textbooks $50.00
Minimum Cost 8
$790.00
Students were also asked "Who pays for the above costs?" and were asked to
estimate the amount that is paid by the following: "myself (or a family member)",
"employer", "institution offering the course", and "other (please specify)". Table 13
illustrates the results of this item.
Table 13
Distribution of Who Pays for the Research Methods Course
Who Pays Number of Mean Costs Standard Range
Students ($) Deviation ($)
Myself 10 784.63 457.10 82-1375
Employer 4 780.33 36.69 738-803
Institution n/a n/a n/a n/a
Other (grant:
$2000)
1 n/a n/a n/a
Ten of the fourteen students paid for their own costs. Amounts ranged from $82 - $1375.
These statistics are calculated without the inclusion of one individual who expensed
$3200 for per diem and another person who paid $2000 for a computer upgrade. Only
four students reported that their employer paid for this course. Amounts ranged from
$738 - $803. These statistics were computed with the exclusion of one individual who
reported paying $1700 for tuition.
Two additional questions were asked of students regarding costs: 1. "Taking this
course in this delivery method costs less than other methods of delivery." and 2. "This
course is not worth the money it costs." These items were rated on a 5 point Likert type
scale with 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. Table 14 illustrates the student
response to these questions.
8 Assuming the purchase of the textbook.
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