An Architecture for the Delivery of E-learning Courses

Abstract

In distance learning, production processes are used to create courses for delivery to many hundreds or thousands of students over several years. One of the most powerful drivers for the use of e-learning in distance learning is an economic one, following the well-established economics of the publishing world—courses can be created once and delivered many times. Although each delivery incurs costs, these are marginal and more than covered by the fees and subscriptions paid by the material’s consumers. In this way, over time, high initial production costs are first recouped and subsequently exceeded by revenues, yielding course profit. Substantial initial costs can be justified by informed market forecasting and used to invest in high-quality learning experiences which might otherwise be impossible to finance.