[sdpd] Re: Only 5 subscribed for the SDPD Internet Course ??!!

[cockcroft... @gordon.cryst.bbk.ac.uk (Jeremy Karl Cockcroft (Tel. 0171-631-6800))]

In reply to the recent discussion re fees and numbers on Web-courses, I
would like to add a short constribution since Armel has quoted the fees
for the Birkbeck courses.

My first point is that these fee levels are very cheap compared to
traditional face-to-face fees in UK universities. However, I do
accept that they may still be large for students from other parts of
the world. For this reason, the first Web-based course to be run
at Birkbeck (named the Principles of Protein Structure) initially had
no fees in its trial year and obtained scholarships for Eastern European
countries for a few years thereafter. It is clear from our statistical
analyses that many students in, for example, Eastern Europe could only afford
to do the course when these studentships were available.

My second point is that to put on such a course involves far more effort
than putting on a traditional face-to-face course. For example, in
face-to-face course figures are regularly copied on to overhead
transparencies: In a Web-based course, these all have to be redrawn
to avoid potential copyright problems. (The Birkbeck Space Group CD-ROM
was a bi-product of this.) Several of my collegues on the
Protein Crystallography Web course have compared the production of Web-based
material to writing a postgraduate textbook - which is considered by
some to be easier!)

Given the relatively low numbers on these type of Web-courses, I could also
argue that they are better value for money than many face-to-face courses,
where interaction with the course lecturer may be very limited. They have
many other advantages: PhD students can get access to experts in the field
without having to travel half-way round the world to see them, they
can study in their own time, etc., etc.

And as for "only 5", remember that "mighty oaks from small acorns grow".

                              Jeremy Karl Cockcroft
    (Course organiser for powder Diffraction on the Web at Birkbeck, London)