How to analyze the cost and benefit of informatization in colleges and universities

2020-09-11 12:15:46

Abstract: To analyze the cost and benefit of education informatization construction, generally for two purposes, one is to evaluate the benefits obtained from the completed inputs, to find out the direction to further improve the benefits or further increase the inputs, and maximize the benefits Second, for information planning projects, simulate and analyze the input-output ratio of different programs in order to screen the best program.

The construction of informatization in colleges and universities in China began in the mid-1990s, starting with the construction of a student computer room at the earliest, mainly to meet the needs of computer-related majors and courses for computer experiments in universities. By around 1998, colleges and universities began to build campus networks, connecting computers used by students â€™computer rooms and teachers to the Internet. From then on, collegesâ€™ informationization entered a stage of rapid development. A series of processes including the reconstruction of multimedia classrooms, network access to student dormitories, digital libraries, one-card systems, and the construction of digital campuses. Due to the different management systems of colleges and universities, these inputs come from the expenditures of different departments, so the statistical calibers of colleges and universities are different in the input of statistical information. However, even so, the investment is still more than 10 million yuan, a few colleges and universities have even exceeded 100 million, and with the substantial increase in national investment in education, the investment in informatization is also continuously increasing.

Although the informationization of colleges and universities has invested a lot of financial resources and manpower, the pace of informationization in colleges and universities is always quite far from the expectations of teachers and students. This is evident from the many problems exposed in college education and teaching. Many surveys show that college students have a negative attitude towards multimedia teaching in the classroom, which shows that the large investment in multimedia classrooms has not produced good benefits; the construction of college online courses represented by excellent courses is vigorous, but the number of clicks and teacher-student interactions are not Very good; in the construction of the network teaching platform, many schools of different departments, undergraduates, graduate students, online education, continuing education use different systems, repeated investment, similar functions, increased maintenance workload, teachers also have to repeat construction Courseware, the application effect is not good. Such questions from college teachers and students about the application of information technology in colleges and universities are constantly heard. How to make the achievements of informatization truly serve the teaching, scientific research, management and social services of colleges and universities and improve the educational benefits of informatization in colleges and universities is worthy of our thinking and reflection.

After more than ten years of construction, college informatization has entered a brand-new stage, shifting from infrastructure and hardware construction to building around applications and services. Under the new situation of informatization construction, it is very important to carry out in-depth cost and benefit analysis. With the help of cost and benefit analysis, we can find the problems in the current university informatization construction, find the source of the problem, and be able to determine the further investment in university informatization Orientation to ensure the healthy and sustainable development of university informationization.

Level of analysis

The cost and benefit analysis of education informatization construction is generally for two purposes: one is to evaluate the benefits obtained from the completed inputs, so as to find out the direction to further improve the benefits or further increase the inputs to maximize their benefits; The second is to simulate and analyze the input-output ratio of different schemes for information planning projects in order to screen out the best scheme.

The input of basic education informatization is planned and implemented by local education administrative departments, such as audio-visual halls or educational equipment stations. Unlike basic education, college information input is generally determined and planned by colleges and universities, and the sources of funding are more diverse. According to different project funds, relevant departments and schools have established corresponding management and control procedures to ensure the benefits of inputs, such as the feasibility of the project. In addition to procedural guarantees, we need a more specific and quantitative analysis of the cost and benefit of informatization to maximize the value of input. The level of cost and benefit analysis can consider the actual situation of information construction in colleges and universities. It can be divided into three levels according to the main body of funding and the final application mode.

Macro level

Analyze the total amount of information input of the entire school over a period of time, including various aspects such as software, hardware, and personnel, and examine the explicit and hidden benefits of this investment throughout the school. The cost and benefit analysis at this level is conducive to understanding the input and output of university informatization from the macro level.

Information application service

Whether it involves hardware, software or personnel education informatization investment, in the end will be presented in the form of informatization services, will be represented as specific applications, serving the majority of teachers and students. Perform cost and benefit analysis based on specific informatization application services, for a certain informatization service, such as wireless access service, periodical database query service, etc., summarize all the inputs at the beginning and end of the period, and examine the use of service objects and User experience, service level assessment, comprehensive evaluation of its effectiveness, and quantitative and qualitative analysis methods are used to analyze input and output. Through analysis, finding problems, formulating improvement strategies, further improving the level of the service and increasing benefits.

Information construction project

The construction of university informatization is mostly completed by means of project declaration. At the beginning of the project declaration, the necessity of the project construction must be analyzed. After the project construction is completed, the project construction results need to be evaluated, which requires cost and benefit analysis based on the information construction project. For example, a professional applying for a three-dimensional animation development laboratory must analyze the benefits, such as service targets and service frequency, after the project is completed based on the current situation. Generally speaking, this kind of analysis has a short time span and the investment situation is very clear. After the project construction is completed, its benefits can be initially shown, but the subsequent investment and benefit conditions need to be predicted and analyzed.

cost analysis

The cost of informatization in colleges and universities is divided into explicit cost and hidden cost. Explicit cost is the visible monetization cost, and hidden cost refers to the investment that is difficult to monetize. See the table for the possible cost structure of college information construction. The cost analysis must clearly list the explicit costs and the cost structure of hardware, software, personnel, etc., fully analyze the possible hidden costs, and give clear explanations. The cost analysis should consider the entire process of the life cycle of the information facilities, and the cost analysis should be conducted from the perspective of sustainable development.

It is worth noting that different colleges and universities have different ways of informatization construction. Some colleges adopt a self-built model, and some colleges mainly rely on outsourcing. However, when investigating the informationization of colleges and universities, the human capital investment of the self-built model is not Can be counted. In addition, the regional differences in information technology investment are obvious at the level of network export costs. For the same network bandwidth, the investment difference in different regions may differ by more than several times. At present, there are no regulations on the types of information services provided by colleges and universities for teachers and students. Therefore, the types of information services provided by colleges and universities for teachers and students are different. For example, some colleges and universities are free of charge for the Internet access service for teachers and students, but most colleges charge a different fee. These factors reduce the comparability of informatization investment of different universities.

Benefit evaluation

The benefit of informatization in colleges and universities is a part of the results of colleges and universities. Unlike ordinary economic activities, the quantification and evaluation of education benefits have their own unique characteristics. The benefits of informatization in universities are both explicit and implicit, with quantifiable parts, and more are non-quantifiable. They can be measured and evaluated in accordance with the different forms of educational informatization services.

1. Quantifiable benefit assessment

Regardless of hardware, software, or team building, informatization in colleges and universities ultimately manifests as informatization services for college teachers and students and the general public. For the inspection of benefits, the primary consideration is the use of information facilities. Reducing idleness and waste is the basis for improving the input-output ratio. This can be measured quantitatively. The quantitative method can be applied to the following occasions:

(1) Time

Network access time can be counted through network management software. The time for students in the network computer room to practice on the computer can obtain relevant data through the teaching management system or estimate the size and lesson plan of the students.

(2) Frequency and frequency

For website visits, online course platforms, etc., the number of database searches and data downloads in the digital library, corresponding data can be obtained through website traffic statistics software.

(3) Speed

The speed of network access, the speed of website access, the speed of computer calculation, the speed of software operation, etc., can be measured by sampling with relevant software.

(4) Stability and compatibility

The stability and compatibility of software and hardware systems can be determined by the number of error reports.

2. Benefit evaluation that is difficult to quantify

(1) Evaluation index system

For a specific evaluation project or type of education informatization service, a detailed evaluation index system can be formulated to evaluate the achievements of education informatization construction. A set of evaluation index system can be divided into several first-level indicators. Each first-level indicator is set with two-level index items, each index item is set with several levels and the weight of this index item, and each level is given a certain score According to the scores and weights of all index items, the final benefit can be counted.

(2) Satisfaction assessment scale

The evaluation index system focuses on the inspection and rating of objective existence. Attitude scales are more used to measure people's subjective attitudes, such as satisfaction evaluation of an information service and satisfaction evaluation of multimedia teaching effects. The design of such satisfaction assessment scale must not have any tendency to induce users to fill it out, ensuring objectivity and science.

(3) Qualitative description

The achievements of information construction in colleges and universities can be described in a completely qualitative way to illustrate their benefits. For example, by investing in the information construction of a laboratory, the results of the beneficiary students in the relevant subject competitions; through the use of multimedia teaching and network teaching, a teacher won the provincial teaching achievement award; through information training and information Instructional seminars and papers published by teachers. All of these can be evaluated by qualitative description.

Cost and benefit evaluation reference method

The goal of cost and benefit analysis of university informatization is to obtain as much output as possible through scientific input. Through analysis and research on the cost and benefit of university informatization, key issues affecting cost and benefit are identified, and the actual situation is investigated and analyzed. The source of the problem is to adopt effective measures to maximize the benefit of informatization in colleges and universities. In terms of cost and benefit analysis mode, cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis, or cost feasibility analysis can be used [2]. The specific analysis routine can refer to the selection of the following mature evaluation analysis methods, these methods are widely used in society

Disciplines such as science, management, operations research, and education.

Performance evaluation method

Performance technology is a kind of engineering thinking and method to solve problems. It emphasizes the systematicity of problem solving. It always strives to find the best cost-benefit ratio solution with low cost, high efficiency and high efficiency [3]. Performance technology has a development history of more than 30 years, and has formed a systematic evaluation and analysis method. The benefit evaluation of college informationization can fully draw on the mature theory and operation methods of performance technology. The ISPI performance technology process model is an operational process model for performance technology to solve problems. The model divides it into five main links: performance analysis, cause analysis, problem solution selection and design, problem solution implementation, and transformation And evaluation [4].

When performance technology was first proposed, the main focus was on people, not machines or equipment. The development of informatization in colleges and universities has always paid more attention to hardware facilities, and paid too little attention to users or teachers and students who are the objects of informatization services. Perhaps this is also the reason for its low educational efficiency. By using the theory and methods of performance technology to evaluate the application of information technology in colleges and universities, it is better to find the crux of the problem and improve the efficiency of information technology in universities in a targeted manner.

2. StaR Educational Informatization Evaluation Tool

StaR (School Technology and Readiness), an evaluation tool for educational informatization benefits, was proposed by the US CEO Forum and adopted in many US states. StaR evaluates education informatization from two dimensions: one is the five aspects of the benefits of education informatization, including education benefits, hardware and connections, professional development, digital resources, student performance and evaluation; second is the development of education informatization The four stages, including the initial stage, application stage, integration stage, and transformation stage.

3. Data Envelopment Analysis

Data Envelopment Analysis (Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA for short) was first proposed in 1978 by operations research scientists A. Charnes, WW Cooper and E. Rhodes. From the perspective of production function, this model is used to study the ideal and fruitful method of "production sector" with multiple inputs, especially with multiple outputs being both "scale effective" and "technically effective" [5]. Many researchers use the DEA method to analyze the input and output of education informatization, quantify the input items and output items, and find the optimal input and output scheme through DEA â€‹â€‹decision analysis. The research idea is the cost and benefit of education informatization Quantitative research of analysis opens up a new path [6] [7].

4. ROI calculation model

Moonen (2003) proposed the ROI reduction algorithm as a tool for information technology education and training application decision-making. ROI (return-on-investment) is a calculation method of economics, used for industrial and commercial activity decision-making. The calculation formula of ROI is: ROI = net benefit / cost, net benefit = total benefit-cost. The ROI calculation model is very simple, but when applied in the field of education, the benefits are difficult to quantify and have limitations. In the specific calculation, relative data can be used to calculate the parts that are difficult to quantify, and use the hypothetical interval scale to assign values â€‹â€‹to the given data. [8]

Informatization in colleges and universities has entered a brand new stage, and targeted cost and benefit evaluations are carried out, which is urgent to discover problems in the construction and application of informatization in colleges and universities. We must face up to all issues, fully understand the status and role of information technology in college teaching, scientific research, management and social services, and further promote the sustainable development of college informationization.

(Author: Xuguang Tao East China Normal University Institute of Education Science and Information Technology Department of Education, Shanghai Education Digital Equipment Engineering Technology Research Center)