Overview of Module 2

Well, there wasn't much participation in this part of the module and that was due to everyone focusing on Assignment 1. Let me tell you, math is definitely NOT my strong suit. Instead of me asking for help, I soldiered on thinking that I could tackle it by myself. Well that was a major mistake! I didn't fail the assignment but getting a C on an assignment in grad school is definitely a no-no.

I think if I had participated in the conference discussions, I would have understood the assignment better. The first part of the module discussed how you go about creating a budget for distance education and listed a method called "the ingredients approach" which I found to be rather interesting. You start by deciding the type of course to be developed, the activities to be done within the course, the materials needed, how many students are to be enrolled, etc and then you determine the costs for each.

At first glance this may not seem like a hard task but when you really get into designing the course those costs begin to add up. How do you determine what is definitely needed and what is not? What should the average distance education class cost or is that only determined by the content being studied? So many more questions come to mind that it adds more to the mix making creating a budget rather time consuming. Impossible? No. But you have to have a good grasp on the essentials of course design or else you'll be lost.

The module then progressed to classifying costs by determining if they were direct or indirect costs. The professor listed direct costs as those things pertaining to developing and teaching the course while indirect costs pertained to operating costs and costs that were fixed and those that were variable.

These topics were to lead us to success in our first assignment. When I was completing the assignment it seemed a hard task but after it was completed it seemed so simple. It's amazing how when you're too close to something you can't make see it clearly until you step away. I guess I should have stepped away before submitting it! But I have learned my lesson for the next time around, I will make sure to ask my professor for clarification on anything because that is what they're there for. In fact, the instructor is one of those "ingredients" in course design and one that should be sought as a primary source.