Describes GAELIC (Gauteng and Environs Library Consortium), the largest academic library consortium in South Africa. Formed in response to conditions in higher education and the need to become more cost effective, GAELIC is working to overcome the effects of the previous government's discriminatory approach through resource sharing and…

Proposes a program to provide high school, technical, or even college educations for young offenders. Education instead of incarceration offers many benefits to the offender and society as a whole. Discusses the cost effectiveness of such a program. (SLD)

Current reform efforts are politically inspired, fragmented, unsystematic, atheoretical, and costly. They ignore developmental limitations to student achievement. This article uses Piaget's cognitive notion of development and behaviorist principals of instructional design to support the existence of qualitative and quantitative limits to student…

Examines the role of training for improving the performance of people in ways that both they and their organizations value, focusing on what the true worth of training is and can be. Proposes a model for calculating return-on-investment (ROI) in training. Presents a case study of its application within an operational context at a bank. (Contains…

From a cost-benefit viewpoint, investing school revenues in small K-3 classes has great potential for improving productivity. Statewide class reduction initiatives in Indiana, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin have positively influenced student achievement, behavior, citizenship, and development. Districts cannot afford to ignore this mounting…

Although nearly 200 million has been invested in producing and rewarding National Board-certified teachers, a study by Lloyd Board and colleagues is the first to assess whether such teachers perform better than their peers. It is uncertain whether researchers' 13 measures of teacher expertise actually correlate with improved student achievement.…

Discussion of the value of multimedia in online learning environments focuses on a cost-benefit study of a doctoral-level course that used a multimedia CD. Results suggest that the instructional effectiveness of multimedia is relative and actual costs versus anticipated benefits must be balanced. (LRW)

Purpose - Despite a growing body of literature in the field, there is still considerable uncertainty as to whether entrepreneurs are born or made, which has led to an ongoing debate in the entrepreneurship academy about whether we can actually teach individuals to be entrepreneurs. With this in mind, this two-part paper aims to address the…

Computer-Based Assessment is a risky business. This paper proposes the use of a model for web-based assessment systems that identifies pedagogic, operational, technical (non web-based), web-based and financial risks. The strategies and procedures for risk elimination or reduction arise from risk analysis and management and are the means by which…

Research on animated pedagogical agents (agents) is viewed as a very positive attempt to introduce more pedagogical support and motivational elements into multi-media instruction. Yet, existing empirical studies that examine the learning benefits of agents have had very mixed results, largely due to the way that they are designed. This article…

This paper presents a model of educational production that tries to make sense of recent evidence on effects of institutional arrangements on student performance. In a simple principal-agent framework, students choose their learning effort to maximize their net benefits, while the government chooses educational spending to maximize its net…

When students put down their pencils at the end of Connecticut's testing each year, another intensive process begins. Hundreds of trained evaluators work day and night for about a month to score the written responses. Although expensive, the use of open-ended questions drives the kind of instruction that state leaders say they want in their…

In December 1998, the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) revised the educational standards for Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) programs to include non-traditional or community-based practice. This freedom to explore new fieldwork opportunities prompted OTA programs to examine the needs of their surrounding…

Matched samples of 174 pairs of persons with mental retardation who live in either community settings or congregate care settings were compared on both cost and outcome dimensions. It was learned that costs were significantly lower in community programs. Greater levels of service and integration were evident in the community programs, but…

School administrators face one of the most daunting challenges in history--providing quality learning environments during a tremendous financial crisis. The crisis may seem overwhelming, but web-native operations management technology offered by SchoolDude.com can help them overcome these challenges. The Internet makes technology more affordable…