Two FAQs: How Much &

How Long?Lawrence C. RaganDirector of ID&D, Penn StateWorld Campus

Bill CorriganDirector, Distance Learning DesignUW Educational Outreach

Copyright Lawrence C. Ragan and Bill Corrigan (2001). This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

Session Overview

• Review two support models for the design, development and delivery of instructional materials in an online teaching and learning environment

• Compare and contrast methods of project budgeting, time tracking, and resource management

• Compare and contrast project management timelines and troubleshooting

ID&D Support Unit

WC Food Chain

Academic Programs

Instructional Design &

Development

Student Services

Penn State’s World Campus ID&D

• A faculty support unit for the design & development of instructional materials delivered in a variety of distance learning formats:

– Independent Learning (200 print-based/tech enhanced)

– World Campus (150 tech-based, print-supported)

Penn State’s World Campus ID&D

• Instructional design (7)

• Instructional technology (5)

• Editors (print designers) (5)

• Graphic artist (2)

• Publications/Production specialist (5)

• Multimedia producers (2)

• Researchers (2)

• Management (4)

Development Support Relationship

• Service Unit

– Faculty member: content and pedagogy

• ID&D Unit

– Instructional design

– Project management

– Distance education methods/pedagogy

– Technical services

– “other”

How much will this cost?

Rationale for Budget Model

• Desire to quantify course development resources

• Desire to better account for dollars w/Academic unit

• Needed to control costs (place parameters on faculty)

• Desire for University buy-in/support

• Desire for benchmarking data

Changing University Dynamics

• Some academic units w/ID&D resources

• WC needed to be able to serve more course dev. projects

• Hold WC as cost accountable

Starting Point

• Categorized ID&D process (10 major steps)

• Identify tasks/function

• Assigned time per task

• Developed rates based on time tracked data/function and number of staff assignable

Centralized vs Assignable Costs

• Centralized: must be accounted for in budgeting and cannot be accomplished by outsource unit

• Assignable: can be performed by outsource unit

ID&D Centralized Services

• Five Steps

1) Course project management

2) Integrating course content into LMS

3) Course set-up in LMS

4) Administration to get course open

5) Course revisions (2nd time offerings, repeat offerings, major revisions)

ID&D Assignable Functions

• Five Steps

1) Instructional design

2) Instructional materials development

3) Course materials production

4) Instructional materials management and administration

5) Course revisions

Course Type Breakdown

• Not all courses are created equally

– Basic- primarily text

– Enhanced- a single media model

– Multimedia- multiple delivery media

Staff time per project (hrs)

• Instructional Designer

• Instructional technologist

• Editor

• Graphic Artist

• Print Producer

• Production Specialist

150

50

80

39

20

20

Course Costs (ID&D Produced)

• Basic Model: $30,705

• Enhanced Model: $35,767

• Multiple Media: $42, 913

• Excludes faculty payment, marketing, student services and tech support

Revision Management*

• Developed budget model with reduction of time for second and then subsequent offerings

• Second offering: as much as 1/2 original

• Subsequent offerings: 1/3 original

*highly dependent upon course

How long will this take?

Factors Affecting Development Time

• How many faculty involved (multiple faculty=> more time)

• DE experience of faculty

• Complexity of content

• Amount of external software/resources

• Faculty work load management

Development Cycle (theory)

• Two semester process

Content Generation&

Pedagogical Model

January-May

Course Development

& Implementation

June-August

CourseDelivery

September

Development Cycle (reality)

• Two semester process

Content Generation&

Pedagogical Model

January-May

Course Development

& Implementation

June-August

CourseDelivery

September

Development Time (Reality)

• Typically plan on a 1 year cycle

• Consider back-up plans

• Practice good project management (communications)

• Be flexible

Greatest Challenges

• Content on time

• Faculty commitment

• Revision management

Slides available from

www.personal.psu.edu/lcr1