An ROI Ed-Biz Approach for Deploying Mobile Pedagogy

The long history and short past of online distance education is posited as a precursor to the monumental changes revolutionizing global educational activity. The author argues for the use of Mobile Pedagogy as an idiom for the inclusive nature of the platforms, processes, teaching methodologies, and infrastructures (technical and instructional) that comprise this new approach in the world of learning. As such, this chapter discusses the critical element of finances by looking at contemporary learning theory and a specific E-learning system model termed CADRE (Content, Access, Distribution, Revenue, and Evaluation). To help delineate connections between elements in this emerging ecosystem the important component of cost is used as exemplar. As the cost of Higher Education rises, answers to questions long been taken for granted have come to the forefront of the concern for parents and students: Is College worth the cost? Are expensive elite schools a guarantee to entry into the world of work? Are the opportunity costs for a four year (or more) degree program worth the investment? These questions are examined in the context of an ROI (Return on Investment) conjecture that assumes benefits must outweigh costs in order to be worthwhile. In the era of Open Courseware, free courses, MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), and teaching and learning anytime, anywhere by anybody the issues of cost, quality, sustainability and evaluation are addressed within the context of an educational-business (Ed-Biz) framework. Various strategies relating to the kinds of monetization that could support these directions are offered.