Describes two ways of organizing distance education: using telecommunications to duplicate traditional classroom teaching; and reorganizing educational resources with a total systems perspective, including sources of knowledge, structures of knowledge, and media of communication. An example from higher education is discussed, students'…

Discusses instructional design; examines various analyses which should be made as part of instructional development, including needs analysis, front-end analysis, job analysis, task analysis, training analysis, and learning analysis; and describes steps in a learning analysis that is less labor-intensive and time-consuming. A learning analysis…

Effectiveness of a new 72-hour delivery system (USXPRESS) for pharmaceuticals purchased by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from VA depots was evaluated by comparing 33 test sites with 11 matched sites using a pretest posttest quasiexperimental design. The USXPRESS system reduced inventory, decreased space needs, and satisfied service…

College business officers can save money, adhere better to budgets, and improve relations with international vendors through foreign monetary exchange. By comparing exchange rates and buying foreign currency when rates are good, institutions retain much more control over the transaction rate than if they delegate the task to the bank. (MSE)

Fifty alumni association administrators offer tips on how they save money or make their programs more cost effective in a variety of administrative areas including event programing, staffing, postal services, support of chapters, looking for new sources of revenue, fees for services, publications, planning ahead, and sharing resources. (MSE)

Researchers received 256 ideas from 141 Long Island, New York, school districts that had resulted in cost savings. From these, 75 were classified into 10 areas and printed in booklet form. Cites examples in financial management, transportation, risk management, personnel practices, facilities management, purchasing, support services, and food…

Environmental, cost-benefit, and regulatory reasons for colleges to have a comprehensive consumption and waste management program are offered, and elements in a policy statement on recycling and resource use are outlined, including encouragement of precycling, reduction of use of disposable products, separation of recoverable and recyclable…

Describes the main forms of supported employment and the essential components of effective vocational rehabilitation programs for those with severe disabilities, considers their cost effectiveness, and outlines successful programs in the United States, Britain, and Italy. (JOW)

The study developed an economic model for the evaluation of Seaton Hall University's freshman studies program. Two techniques used to evaluate the economic success of the program are break-even analysis and elasticity coefficient. (Author/MLW)

Describes the collection of the Local History Department of the Central Library in Aberdeen (which includes 2,300 volumes of locally produced newspapers and 101,000 sheets of press cuttings) and the use of an optical disk system to help solve the problems of storage and access to these materials. (CLB)

Explores the use of analog optical disks as a practical, cost effective means of building picture databases. Questions that should be asked to determine whether optical disk is a suitable picture storage alternative for a particular application are identified and three implementation issues--imaging, indexing, and integrating--are discussed. (CLB)

Discusses the rising costs of cataloging and the need to provide access to the increasing volume of library materials. Various cataloging elements are examined in terms of the quality they add to the record, responsibility to library users is considered, and distinctions between essential and useful information in cataloging records are discussed.…

School districts across New York State have implemented numerous innovative cost-saving measures in the 1990s, according to February 1993 New York State School Boards Association survey of 722 school superintendents. Districts achieved substantial savings in financial management, plant management, personnel management, and school support services…

Presents a cost-benefit analysis of a supported-employment program using natural support strategies to assist 59 workers with severe disabilities in integrated employment settings. Results suggest substantial benefits to participants, the taxpayer, and society resulting from the choice of a natural support approach over the sheltered workshop…

Models administrative and operating costs surrounding a hypermedia database and identifies seven conditions for the cost justification of hypermedia. Concludes that cost considerations aside, hypermedia offers significant data retrieval benefits in accessing text, video, still pictures, and sound, and provides substantially better human…