What are the budget and resource allocation issues in distance education?

Budgeting involves making certain that adequate funds are available to meet program goals. Often a first step in preparing budgets is to determine the break-even point based on prospective enrollments and on projected expenses, including salaries for instructors and support staff, compensation for site facilitators, mailing costs, telecommunications charges, and, for technologically mediated courses, equipment purchases and maintenance. Most of the important distance education institutions are publicly funded, but there are many that are run as private businesses. The role of profit in the education system is an issue for policymakers.

Management must decide (or at least create a system in which employees decide) what courses to produce, guided by the mission statement and by needs, usually determined by market research or public policy. It must then ensure and allocate adequate resources for:

• Course design
• Course development and delivery
• Learner support
• Administration.

Here, adequate resources usually mean a full range of recorded and interactive technologies and such specialists as instructional designers, media producers, content specialists, instructors, and learner counselors.