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Course Planning Tool (CPT)

OVERVIEW

The Course Planning Tool (CPT) is a spreadsheet-based decision-making tool that enables institutions to compare the “before” activities and costs (the traditional course) and the “after” activities and costs (the redesigned course) and demonstrate cost savings. Completing the CPT allows you to consider changes in specific instructional tasks, make decisions about how to use technology (or not) for specific tasks, visualize duplicative or unnecessary effort and complete a cost/benefit analysis regarding the right type of personnel for each instructional task.

Please read this entire document before starting to complete the CPT.

The CPT consists of three worksheets:

  • Instructional Costs per Hour
  • Instructional Costs of Traditional Course
  • Instructional Costs of Redesigned Course

Personnel Costs

The worksheet labeled “Instructional Costs per Hour” is used to determine all personnel costs associated with preparing and delivering the course and to express each kind of cost as an hourly rate.

Traditional Course

The worksheet labeled “Instructional Costs of Traditional Course” is used to determine the costs of preparing and delivering the course in its traditional format. The outcome is the cost per student for the traditional course.

Redesigned Course

The worksheet labeled “Instructional Costs of Redesigned Course” is used to determine the costs of preparing and delivering the course in its redesigned format when it is fully operational. The outcome is the cost per student for the redesigned course.

INSTRUCTIONS

Here are the steps required to complete the CPT and to calculate the savings that result from redesigning a course:

STEP 1 – Identify the categories of personnel involved in preparing and offering the course in its traditional format and in its redesigned format. List them on the worksheet labeled “Instructional Costs of Traditional Course.”

STEP 2 – Determine all personnel costs expressed as an hourly rate. Use the worksheet labeled “Instructional Costs per hour.”

STEP 3 – Enter the hourly rate for each kind of personnel on the third line of the worksheet labeled "Instructional Costs of Traditional Course.”

STEP 4 - Determine how much time each person involved in preparing and offering the course in a traditional format spends on each of the tasks. Enter these hours on the worksheet labeled “Instructional Costs of Traditional Course.” The costs will be calculated by the spreadsheet (multiplying the hours spent on each task by the hourly rates that you entered in Step 3.)

STEP 5 – Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the redesigned course format. Enter the data on the worksheet labeled “Instructional Costs of Redesigned Course.”

STEP 6 – Enter the total number of students for the traditional course and for the redesigned course. Divide the total cost by the number of students to generate a cost-per-student for the traditional course and for the redesigned course.

HOW TO COMPLETE THE PERSONNEL COSTS WORKSHEET

The worksheet labeled “Instructional Personnel Costs per Hour” is used to determine all personnel costs associated with preparing and delivering the course expressed as an hourly rate.

  • If multiple kinds of instructors are involved in the course, use an average salary/benefits and professional obligation for each type/role rather than showing data for each individual involved.
  • Label each column of calculations appropriately--e.g., tenured faculty, instructors, adjunct faculty, etc.
  • See the Portland State University and the Tallahassee Community College case studies as examples of how to show the costs of multiple kinds of instructors.

There are two ways to determine hourly personnel costs:

  • Hourly costs as a percentage of salary (e.g., a faculty member devotes N percent of his/her professional obligation to instruction.)
  • Pre-established hourly costs (e.g., tutors get paid $15 per hour, a professional staff member gets paid $21 per hour--total salary and benefits of $40,000 /1920 working hours.)

Cost as a Percentage of Salary (full-time faculty, part-time faculty, GTAs)

  • What is his/her annual salary?
  • What is the value of his/her annual benefits?
  • What is his/her total salary and benefits?
  • What percentage of his/her professional obligation is devoted to instruction on an annual basis?
  • What percentage of his/her instructional time is devoted to this particular course on an annual basis?
  • What is the dollar value of the faculty member’s time that is devoted to this course?

Example:

  • Faculty member’s annual salary = $67,000
  • Faculty member’s annual benefits = $22,538
  • Faculty member’s annual salary and benefits = $89,538
  • Professional obligation expectation = 50% devoted to instruction
  • Percentage of time devoted to this course = 50% (faculty member teaches one course per semester, two courses per year.)
  • Dollar value of the faculty member’s time devoted to this course = $22,385 (50% devoted to instruction = $44,769; 50% of instructional time = $22,385.)
    (If the same faculty member taught two courses per semester, the dollar value of his/her time for this particular course would be $11,192 and so on.)
  • Number of hours devoted to course preparation and delivery

    Display the hours for a single instructor by type. Use the expected number of hours rather than attempting to calculate the actual number of hours. Reason: most institutions have a rule-of-thumb expectation. By using this expectation, we avoid the “self-reporting” problem. Establishing this rule-of-thumb expectation as a framework also encourages faculty members to be more realistic when estimating time associated with specific instructional tasks on the traditional course and redesigned course worksheets.
  • Contact hours for course – th e number of in-class contact hours .
  • Out of class hours – most institutions have a rule-of-thumb expectation of something like two hours prep time for each hour spent in class. This number will change when additional tasks like supervising TAs are included.
  • Total hours - total contact hours + total out-of-class hours.
  • Cost per hour - dollar value of the faculty member’s time devoted to this course/total number of hours spent on the course.

    NOTE: The number of hours (in-class plus out-of-class) on the Instructional Costs per Hour work sheet and the Instructional Costs of Traditional Course sheet should correspond. The number of hours from the first sheet will be multiplied by the number of personnel involved on the Traditional Course worksheet and on the Redesigned Course worksheet (see below.)

Pre-Established Hourly Costs

  • Professional/Support Staff

    Professional/support staff members typically have an institutional expectation for the total number of hours they are expected to work per week. The “$ per hour” is either the staff member’s hourly wage or his/her annual salary/number of hours per year. Please list each type of professional staff by title.

HOW TO COMPLETE THE TRADITIONAL COURSE AND REDESIGNED COURSE WORKSHEETS

  • Enter the hourly rate of each type of personnel in row 3. (To derive these costs, use the spreadsheet labeled “Instructional Costs per Hour.”)
  • Label each column of calculations appropriately--e.g., tenured faculty instructors, adjunct faculty, etc.) in the top row. Add other columns as needed.
  • Include the number of each type of personnel involved in the course in parentheses next to the label in the top row--e.g., Full-time Faculty (4), Adjunct Faculty (10).
  • Column 1 lists the tasks associated with preparing and offering a course. Insert additional categories if needed. Do not delete tasks—just leave the hourly cells blank.
  • Enter the number of hours spent by each personnel category on each task in columns C, E, G and so on. Insert additional columns if needed.
  • The spreadsheet will calculate the total cost for each instructional task.

Definitions

I. Course Preparation

Assumption: There are four major activities associated with preparing the course: curriculum design, materials acquisition, materials development, and preparation/training of instructional personnel.

Some courses will involve only some tasks—i.e., do not expect to fill in every cell. If you need to add categories, please insert them as needed after carefully considering the definitions below.

A. Curriculum Design and Development

Curriculum design and development includes all tasks associated with planning the overall structure of the course such as.

  1. Learning objectives or outcomes – what will the students know or be able to do if they successfully complete the course?
  2. Course design/sequencing – (i.e., the course syllabus) - what are the major topics/learning activities of the course and how will they be sequenced?
  3. Evaluation criteria and methodology – how and on what basis will the student learning be evaluated?

B. Materials Acquisition

Materials acquisition includes evaluating and acquiring all learning materials that can be purchased or borrowed from others—i.e., those not developed by the faculty member(s) teaching the course.

  1. Learning materials/software – these may be traditional paper-based materials (e.g., cases, workbooks, texts) as well as instructional software, course management software, simulations, etc.
  2. Diagnostic assessments – these may be paper-based or computer-based. Such assessments determine how much a student already knows about the course subject matter, learning styles, etc.
  3. Tests/evaluations – these may be paper-based or computer-based and include mid-course and end-of-course tests/exams or other kinds of assessment instruments.

C. Materials Development

Materials development includes the time spent by the faculty member(s) teaching the course and all others associated with course preparation (TAs, professional staff) to develop all learning materials used in the course.

  1. Lectures/classroom presentations – the time spent preparing for in-class presentations or discussions.
  2. Learning materials/software – the time spent developing learning materials for the course.
  3. Diagnostic assessments – the time spent developing diagnostic assessments for the course.
  4. Assignments – the time spent in developing specific learning activities for students to complete.
  5. Tests/evaluations – the time spent developing test, exams and other forms of evaluations of student work.

Sub-Total – total number of hours spent by each type of personnel on activities related to materials development. These activities may be listed as an aggregate if it is too difficult to specify the time spent in developing each specific task.

D. Faculty/TA Development and Training

If a course involves the use of either graduate or undergraduate teaching assistants, a certain amount of time is spent by supervising faculty and by them in their orientation and training. Courses that are team-taught may also require ongoing staff meetings, etc. These are activities that require participation but do not involve direct preparation of course materials.

  1. Orientation – formal orientation sessions or time spent in informal orientation activities.
  2. Staff meetings – TA staff meetings and other faculty meetings related to the specific course may occur throughout the term.
  3. Attend lectures – time spent attending lectures or other course events.

Sub-Total – total number of hours spent by each type of personnel on activities related to TA training and development (or other kinds of faculty development) that do not involve direct preparation of course materials. These activities may be listed as an aggregate if it is too difficult to specify the time spent in developing each specific task.

Total Preparation – total number of hours spent by each type of personnel on course preparation.

Course Delivery

Assumption: There are two major activities associated with delivering the course: instruction and evaluation.

Some courses will involve only some tasks—i.e., do not expect to fill in every cell. If you need to add categories, please insert them as needed.

A. Instruction

  • Diagnose skill/knowledge level – in-class and out-of-class administering of assessment instruments at the beginning of the course.
  • Presentation – presentation of materials (e.g., lectures).
  • Interaction – all non-presentation interactions with students including leading in-class discussions, office hours, TA discussion sections, leading laboratory sessions , and email interaction .
  • Progress monitoring – time spent monitoring the progress of individual students.

Sub-Total – total number of hours spent by each type of personnel on activities related to instruction.

B. Evaluation

  • Test proctoring – time spent being present to proctor tests and examinations.
  • Tests/evaluation – out-of-class time spent grading assignments (homework, labs, exercises), tests and evaluations.

Sub-total – total number of hours spent by each type of personnel on activities related to grading and proctoring tests, assignments, exams, etc.

Total Delivery – total number of hours spent by each type of personnel on activities related to course delivery.

TOTAL – total number of hours spent by each type of personnel on preparing and delivering the course.

GRAND TOTAL – total instructional costs.

Total # of students – the course enrollment for the term or the full year depending upon which you are displaying.

Cost per student – total instructional costs divided by the course enrollment.

Below-the-Line Costs

Course costs that are non-personnel costs should be identified and displayed below the TOTAL line and incorporated into the GRAND TOTAL—e.g., software or equipment that is particular to the specific course and that must be acquired by the institution each term or year. Campus networking, site licenses for course management systems, desktop PCs for faculty, pre-existing facilities, etc. should not be included.

Displaying One Section vs. Whole Course

Data displayed on the Traditional Course and Redesigned Course worksheets should reflect the whole course—i.e., all sections and all semester/quarters affected by the redesign. This is especially true when you have diverse instructional arrangements in regard to personnel types and number of sections per semester (e.g., 5 in the fall, 2 in the spring, 2 in the summer.)

NOTE: Be careful to consider the preparation time if any faculty member teaches more than one section—i.e., this would involve an adjustment to simple multiplication.

If your redesign involves a simple extrapolation from one section, you may show one section and multiply the total by the number of sections at the bottom of each worksheet. The UW-Madison chemistry case illustrates this approach.

Additional Tips and Information

  • Include your institution's name and the course name on each worksheet/ page.
  • Round all costs to the nearest dollar.
  • Explain the worksheets in the Course Planning Tool narrative. This is the place to elaborate any aspect of the planning tool that is not self-evident, to explain variations among personnel (e.g., 2 TAs teach 1 section, 1 TA teaches 2 sections), etc.
  • Be clear about whether you are showing one section or the whole course and whether you are showing one term or the whole year.

When You Need To Use More than 3 Worksheets

There are several instances when you may need to complete more than 3 worksheets. These include:

  • When you plan to redesign more than one course. You must complete a CPT for each traditional course and each redesigned course.
  • When you are considering more than one redesign model. (The SUNY-Buffalo case illustrates this approach.)
  • When you are combining more than one course into a single course. In this instance, you should complete a traditional course worksheet for each of the courses involved and one redesign worksheet for the final plan.
  • When you offer two versions of the traditional course (e.g., small expensive sections and large cheap sections) that you are combining into a new redesign. (The University of Colorado case illustrates this approach.)
  • When you have already begun to redesign a course and are planning further redesign. In this instance, you should complete one traditional course worksheet reflecting the course before redesign began, one initial redesign worksheet reflecting the current state and a second redesign worksheet reflecting the intended future redesign. (The University of Massachusetts—Amherst case illustrates this approach.)

ASSUMPTIONS OF THE NCAT PLANNING MODEL

Developmental costs are not included.

This planning model compares the before costs (current/historical/ traditional) and the after costs (forecast of what the course will cost when it is fully operational, say for example, In its “third” offering)—i.e., it asks you to plan what the redesigned course will look like at the end of the developmental process. It does not include the up-front developmental costs of either the traditional or the redesigned course.

The reason for this approach is twofold. The first is that we are trying to show institutions that by investing in IT-based course development, they can see a return of their investment provided that they redesign the course. The second is that, while the developmental period for course conversion has costs associated with it, those costs can be paid for from one-time allocations, such as grants from foundations, federal agencies, or the institution, and/or they can be amortized over any number of years. If institutions can see that they will ultimately realize a return on their investment, they will have an incentive to make the needed developmental investment. Then, of course, questions about how much to invest for how much return come into play.

Institutionwide support services, administrative overhead, infrastructure and equipment costs are not included.

The assumption is that these costs are constant—are part of the campus environment—for both the traditional and redesigned courses. Campus networking, site licenses for course management systems and desktop PCs for faculty, for example, are part of the campuswide IT environment.

Software or equipment that is particular to the specific course, however, should be included. (See the discussion of Below-the-Line Costs above.)

Who Captures the Savings?

The tool is neutral on the question of who captures the savings. Savings can be used by the department or by the institution in a variety of ways—conduct more research, teach different courses, teach more students, support an incentive plan to encourage faculty productivity, etc.