Evaluating the Cost Effectiveness of Online and Face-to-Face Instruction

Online instruction is gaining an increasing presence due to the benefits associated with it, including the ability to consolidate education and training across geographical and time constraints, and the claim by many that online education and training is cost efficient. This paper provides a relatively concise and useful history of online learning, and a discussion of issues to be faced by the professional who intends to move the education and training environment online in response to the current academic and business environments. It presents a cost matrix tool by which the costs of online education and training can be tabulated and/or compared with the costs of the traditional education and training medium.