Ways of reducing the cost of online and blended courses in post-secondary education

Posted on by Paul Bacsich
Group of five people sitting around a table in a bright office, engaged in discussion. One man with grey hair and glasses is pointing at a laptop while others listen and smile

Summary

I am delighted to be attending and speaking at the ALT-C 2025 Conference taking place in Glasgow on 23-24 October 2025. I will be leading a workshop on my current favourite topic: how to reduce the cost of teaching in higher and further education, particularly in the context of digital, online and blended learning. The session is scheduled for Friday 24 October, 12:00–1:00 p.m., and I’d love for you to join the discussion.

Glasgow has become a regular destination for me recently due to family commitments, even though I’m based in Sheffield. It’s been both nostalgic and surprising to revisit my old West End haunts from my teenage and student days—though I can’t quite get over the current prices of food and drinks!

Full Title of Workshop

Ways of reducing the cost of developing, teaching, assessing and updating online and blended courses in further and higher education institutions

Background

In the next ten years in several advanced economies socio-economic factors (low growth, the drive to Net Zero, aging population, rising healthcare needs, rising mental health incidence, rapidly rising defence budgets going up to 3.5% at least) will mean that government budgets for further and higher education will not rise much in real terms. The problems are particularly acute in the UK but found in other countries, and not only the US. Some other countries try to maintain a discreet silence (in English) – but we know who they are.

Our workshop invites participants from post-secondary institutions (higher and further institutions in UK parlance) to help their institutions save money while maintaining or even enhancing quality of delivery and student experience, for all online and blended courses (which soon will embrace all courses). Such techniques will benefit all institutions in all countries, even those which at present fund their post-secondary sector more generously. 

Recent announcements from the United Nations also indicate that delivery of online courses is of relevance to SDGs across the whole world and in particular the Global South.

While theories and methodologies – such as lean development, agile production, OER/OEP, learning engineering and activity-based costing – have their place in such cost-reduction activities, and AI will in time help, much costing and planning work can be done now by recalling three key points:

  • What traditional experts, providers and agencies discovered many years ago.
  • What innovative private providers and online schools have been delivering recently at lower cost than universities can deliver.
  • What IT consultants currently advise in terms of cloud-based, coherent, integrated online learning solutions.

I will present an overview of methodologies and recent relevant research, then pose the challenge to the assembled delegates. Delegates will then divide into groups.

It may be useful for some groups to be organised by countries/regions (Scotland, Wales, Yorkshire, Flanders, etc.), subsectors (FE or HE) or mission groups (Russell, Coimbra, LERU, etc.)

However, other groups may wish to benefit from a wider perspective (e.g. what Scotland, Ireland or Sweden might learn from each other, or colleges from private providers).

The timetable for the 60-minute session is as follows (times in 2-digit minutes):

  • 00-05   Welcome
  • 05-20   Posing the issues
  • 20-50   Each group works on a task agreed by the group, with facilitators advising where needed
  • 50-60   Group elevator pitches (one slide each) on solutions.

Earlier Events

Versions of this workshop have been run at Online Educa Berlin in November 2024 and at the Online Learning Summit at the University of Leeds in July 2025. Each audience brings its own ‘tone’ and perspectives, thus no two workshops are the same.

Relevant Reading

The workshop draws upon many years of my research into cost-effectiveness of online and distance learning – https://bacsich.org/publications/costs/

See in particular:

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