Economies of Scale: How Institutions Can Achieve Cost Reductions in Online Education

It is a well-known fact that Higher Education in the USA at the moment proves to be very heavy on the pocket forcing many students into debt even before they begin their professional lives. According to a CNBC report, the average American graduates with 37K$ in debt, and this can easily go up to 50K$ if a student opts for an above-average institute. If we look at just the last decade, college education costs have easily doubled. Coupled with external costs that come in the duration of the 2-year or 4-year course, we find that college education is swiftly proving to be too expensive for the common folks.

To combat this, the colleges started to go online with their courses hoping that the costs would come down and higher education could be more accessible to the majority of the students. The major cost contributor in an in-person institution is the cost of amenities. In theory, the elimination of brick-and-mortar buildings in online education should have brought down the costs but things didn't go quite as planned.?

If we were to believe the article published by Forbes , it would give us a clear picture of how online education is proving to be more expensive than traditional colleges. Learning infrastructure costs coupled with administrative overload and marketing efforts, the costs rack up alienating the students for whom the online way was supposed to be a sigh of relief.?

The cherry on top of this entire cake is a study from Georgetown that estimates that 65% of all jobs will require more than a high school degree in today’s workforce. The rising costs and the demand for a college degree to get a decent job in the market are pushing students into more debt and depriving those who cannot afford it.

To truly progress as a society, the most important step is democratizing education and making it available to more and more students. Online education is already on a path to solving this problem and with optimizations to its core functions can easily achieve lower costs and attract a wider chunk of learners.?

Following are the areas where costs can significantly be brought down.

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These freely available resources, ranging from textbooks to multimedia content, can significantly reduce the need for expensive proprietary materials, thereby driving down costs for both the institution and students.

Physical textbooks, course materials, and handouts incur printing and distribution expenses. By adopting digital resources, institutions can significantly reduce costs associated with printing, shipping, and storage. Moreover, digital content is easily updated, ensuring students have access to the most current information.

Most resources such as standard LMS come with a hefty down payment even if your student count is at zero. Apart from these standard solutions, there are a lot of leaner solutions available in the market that can scale up as your student base increases. Opt for these systems and there you have a cost-efficient course that’s bound to attract more students.

Interoperability is the magical bridge that lets all your plug-ins communicate with each other. When this happens, it significantly brings down the human effort required to manually upload and download data for each tool. Thus easing up the admin load.

AI is a powerful tool available at our fingertips to automate many tasks that would have otherwise consumed a huge chunk of man-hours. Following are some of the ways AI can be utilized for your online course.?

• Content Creation: AI can prove to be your best resource for creating content of different types such as literature, images, and video content. Of course, human expertise is needed to edit this content and make it suitable for student consumption but it can optimize your team’s effort.?
• Admin support: A huge army is needed at the backend to solve student queries and answer repetitive questions regarding the course. Deploy an AI chatbot to do this job for you.
• Assessment Generation Tools: Smart tools that ensure quality assessments and fair grading can be of great help to lighten the load.
• Automated student insights: A tool that can help you identify student weaknesses and help them with targeted support.

Technological integrations might seem daunting at first, but don’t ignore their capabilities. Talk to experts at UpThink to find out which solutions can help you.

Digital platforms provide valuable data insights into student performance, engagement, and preferences. By analyzing this data, institutions can make informed decisions about resource allocation, directing funds toward strategies that yield the highest returns.

Embracing online education means breaking down geographical barriers. Institutions can tap into a global pool of students without the need for additional physical facilities. This expansion can lead to increased enrollment numbers, resulting in higher revenue streams and a more diversified student body.

Craft courses with scalability in mind. By designing modular content that can be reused across various programs and adapted for different student cohorts, institutions can achieve significant savings on content development and updates.

By implementing these strategies, educators, and institutions can create a sustainable model that aligns with the changing landscape of education, where students receive a high-quality education that is both accessible and affordable. Thus democratizing it in the process.?

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