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Results trace earlier findings from 2017 through conclusions drawn from a 2024 survey, highlighting funding parity for many courses, limited differences in tuition and fees across most institutions, and the reduced importance of modality in determining instructional price. It also compares categories where costs exceed or normalize against face-to-face benchmarks.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/distance-educations-disconnect-understanding-the-relationship-between-the-cost-and-price-of-distance-education/587750/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/distance-educations-disconnect-understanding-the-relationship-between-the-cost-and-price-of-distance-education/587750.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Melati","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-31","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":29},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What relationship does the report examine between distance education and student costs?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The report studies the connection between the cost side of delivering distance education and the price students pay, focusing on tuition and fees compared with face-to-face instruction.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What did earlier findings (2017 study) show about tuition and fees?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Although 75% of respondents reported the same tuition for distance and face-to-face, adding fees changed the outcome, with 54.2% of distance education students paying more overall.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What major conclusion does the report draw about modality and instructional price?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Modality is increasingly irrelevant for price: over 74% reported tuition is the same regardless of delivery mode, and course-related cost patterns generally normalize compared with face-to-face over time.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},587750,1792191658,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":29,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},962085570644,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_994ba38a5ba835b3df7d355c54d3ed8d","DISTANCE EDUCATION’S DISCONNECT: UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE COST AND PRICE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION  \nVan L. Davis, Ph. D.  \nWCET – the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies  \nAUTHOR  \nVan L. Davis, Ph.D.,  \nExecutive Director  \nWCET – the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies Vice President, Digital Learning-WICHE  \nACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  \nThe author would like to thank the following individuals for their time and assistance in developing the survey and writing this report.  \n• Emilie Cook and Lindsey Downs for editing and formatting this report.  \n• Russ Poulin for his review and consultation during the writing of this report.  \n• Colleen Falkenstern for assistance in developing the survey and analyzing the survey results.  \n• The following individuals who participated in one-on-one interviews to review and discuss the findings of the report:  \no Luke Dowden, Ed. D., Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Online Learning Officer, Alamo Colleges  \no Ryan Faulkner, Ed. D., Dean of Online Learning, College of Eastern Idaho  \no Robert Griffiths, Ph. D., Assistant Vice Provost, Online Learning and Innovation, The Ohio State University  \no Shannon Riggs, M.A., Associate Vice Provost of Education Programs and Learning Innovation, Oregon State University  \nRECOMMENDED CITATION AND LICENSE  \nThe recommended citation for this report is Davis, V. (202 5) . Distance Education’s Disconnect: Understanding the Relationship Between the Cost and Price of Distance Education. WCET. [https://wcet.wiche.edu/resources/distance-educations-disconnect](https://wcet.wiche.edu/resources/distance-educations-disconnect)understanding-the-relationship-between-the-cost-and-price-of-distance-education/  \nThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.  \nPlease visit the WCET website for a downloadable copy of this paper and related resources. For more  \ninformation, [contact](contact wcetinfo@wiche.edu)[ ](contact wcetinfo@wiche.edu)[wcetinfo@wiche.edu](contact wcetinfo@wiche.edu).  \nEXECUTIVE SUMMARY  \nIn 2016, WCET conducted a survey to better understand the relationship between the cost and price of distance education. The results of this survey were published in the 2017 study Distance Education Price and Cost Report. That survey found that although 75% of respondents indicated that distance education and face-to-face students paid the same tuition, once fees were added into the equation, the majority of distance education students, 54.2%, paid more for their education than their face-to-face counterparts.  \nAnother main finding of the 2017 report was in response to the widely accepted notion that distance education must cost less to create than face-to-face instruction. Survey respondents indicated that distance education generally costs more, but there are instances when it costs less if cost reduction is a specific goal of the distance offering. Distance education’s goal to increase access often adds to expenditures.  \nDistance education continues to play a significant role in higher education even after the shift to emergency remote instruction that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whereas face-to-face higher education is starting to see a reduction in enrollment, distance education enrollment continues to increase. 1  \nGiven the pervasiveness of distance education and the still erroneous belief that somehow it is cheaper than face-toface instruction, it is telling that, at least in terms of instructional price and costs, course modality is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Yes, in some cases, distance education continues to cost more. However, more likely than not, its costs are comparable to face-toface instruction. We can draw seven conclusions from the 2024 survey on the cost and price of distance education.  \n1Although there has been a decrease in distance education since the COVID spike of 2020/2021, distance education enrollments remain higher than prior to t","cbCaiu4GAXwhQ8fX","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiu4GAXwhQ8fX","pdf",3295601,52,"English","# Executive Summary\n# Conclusions","[{\"question\":\"What relationship does the report examine between distance education and student costs?\",\"answer\":\"The report studies the connection between the cost side of delivering distance education and the price students pay, focusing on tuition and fees compared with face-to-face instruction.\"},{\"question\":\"What did earlier findings (2017 study) show about tuition and fees?\",\"answer\":\"Although 75% of respondents reported the same tuition for distance and face-to-face, adding fees changed the outcome, with 54.2% of distance education students paying more overall.\"},{\"question\":\"What major conclusion does the report draw about modality and instructional price?\",\"answer\":\"Modality is increasingly irrelevant for price: over 74% reported tuition is the same regardless of delivery mode, and course-related cost patterns generally normalize compared with face-to-face over time.\"}]","DISTANCE EDUCATION’S DISCONNECT: UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE COST AND PRICE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION | PDF",1792062907,131]