Technical

The technical issue: will the solution work efficiently?The technical feasibility study has to evaluate to what degree the proposed solutions will workas required and whether the right people and tools are available to implement the solution. It“refers to the analysis of possible technical problems in the different solutions and who isappropriate to solve”.This involves several questions such as:
 Does the technology needed for the system exist?
 Should the solution be a bespoke development or an off-the-shelf solution?
 How difficult will it be to build or to develop the new solution?
 How much do we need to outsource? How much do we need to insource?
 Does the organization (school, faculty, firm, etc.) have enough experience and/orneeded skills using that technology (computers, software, networks, etc.)?


Economic

The economic issue: will the new system cost more than the expected benefits?The economic feasibility covers the assessment of costs and benefits of different solutions inorder to select that who gives the best value. In other words the economic assessment has toanswer the question: “will the project (solution) be viable?“…you must have a basic idea about how much time and money it is going to take to put theconcept into a usable program. Doing neat blue-screen video1 effects like the folks atCognitive Arts is very slick and engaging, but that can get very expensive very quickly.Programming simulations is not an easy task either. Of course, the easy and cheap thing to dois dump lots of texts to the computer, and throw in multi-choice questions at the end. That hasto be one of the most unimaginative and most un-engaging type of learning experiences that alearner could encounter, never mind not having an instructional design behind it. As notedexpert in the field of educational technology, David Merrill emphasizes, "Information is notinstruction."7(Curtis L. Broderick, 2001).Said in maybe more concrete terms, the economic feasibility is the analysis of the differentcosts and benefits of implementing a new system. It should also assess the relative importanceof the new system in the comparison with other proposed solutions. Will the new system costmore than the expected benefits?Tangible and intangible costs and benefitsIn carrying out a cost-benefit analysis, both tangible and intangible costs and benefitsidentified and have to be taken into account.What differentiate tangible from intangible costs or benefits is whether or not it is possible toset a definite numeric value against an item. When, for instance, the item is the cost ofinstallation, it is possible to set such a numeric value, and the cost can be identified astangible.

Tangible costs are a measure of costs that can be calculated for each item of expenditure on ane-Learning system. For example, the purchase price of a router needed to install an internetnetwork, or the recruitment of tutors, are tangible costs.On the contrary, it is not possible to place a numeric value on intangible costs and benefits.For example, the user resistance that will occur due to the implementation of a new system orthe disruption of the network will have an effect on the overall organization performance butthey are difficult to measure.A definite measure of improvement can be calculated for each tangible benefit. For instance, areduction in costs of travels thanks to the e-Learning system is a tangible benefit. Theregistration, a subscription or the tuition fee is typically a tangible ‘benefit’. However, thebenefit of using computer animations instead of fixed images in a learning process is difficultto calculate. It has to be considered as a qualitative advantage, or intangible benefit.Accessing a broader range of contents through the Internet is also difficult to quantify, and isalso an intangible benefit.Assessing the costsA range of costs must be taken into account in the feasibility study. They include, amongothers: Technical costso Hardware, software and network equipment purchase costs;o Telecommunication costs;o LMS application;o Internet subscription;o Systems development staff costs if a bespoke or tailored solution isimplemented;o Installation costs including cabling, physically moving equipment and bringingin new furniture to house the computers;o Migration costs, such as transferring data from an existing system to the newsystem;o Operating costs: maintenance costs of hardware such as replacing parts orupgrading to new versions software; staff costs in maintaining the hardwareand the software and troubleshooting ; amount of energy and consumable used; Multimedia costs: audio and video production and editing; Human resource costs, especially when there is a need to hire new personnel or toinvolve free-lancers experts:o Instructional designero Teaching staffo e-Tutors,o Administrative staffo Content designers,o Experts and consultants,o Graphic designers,o Web designers,o Analysts and programmers,o Web master, etc

 Training costs; Other costs.It is important to notice that the technical costs not only include the initial cost of purchase butalso the ongoing maintenance costs. These can be considerable and often exceed the costs ofpurchase. As stated by Bocij et al., p.358, (2006), “the cost of ownership of a software or ahardware product is potentially much higher than the purchase costs. This is mainly due to thecost of troubleshooting software bugs and hardware faults, phone support, installing upgrades,and paying for support and/or upgrades from vendors”. As a consequence, the cost ofownership of the selected equipment should also be factored into the cost-benefit analysis.Human resources are also an important cost factor in e-Learning instructional systems, notonly during the design and development phases but also during the implementation phase.Implementing an e-Learning solution for distance learning requires traditional teaching staffresources but also additional tutoring. The latter tends however to be neglected andunderestimated in the costs estimates.The cost of training and education and documentation of teaching staff should also beincluded with standard development costs of paying analyst and programmers.The various costs should be estimated after determining the requirements and scope of theproject and on the basis of the tasks defined in a work breakdown structure.Assessing the benefitsWhile the costs are relatively easy to identify, the benefits are harder to quantify and this fortwo key reasons:
 They often are intangible;
 They will occur in the future which means that they are dependent from a factor ofuncertainty.Benefits from the e-Learning system can be considered in terms of improvement in thelearning process and the quality of learning contents used to support these processes.Tangible benefits of e-Learning could be, for instance, the following:
 Higher revenues due to higher number of beneficiaries (learners)
 Reduction of renting classrooms;A way to identify tangible benefits of e-Learning could be based on considering the costs ofperforming a teaching process before introduction of e-Learning and comparing this to thecost after e-Learning implementation.Intangible benefits can include the following: Broader geographical dissemination of e-Learning;
 Easier group work o a remote basis;
 Easier access to learning content;
Intangible benefits will also include improvements to the quality of learning content in someof the following ways:
 Improved usability (easier to understand and then act on information);
 Improved utilization;
 Improved availability and timeliness;
 Improved accuracy;
 Improved security of information;CommentsThe cost-benefit analysis has to occur at the very start of a project to implement a new e-Learning instructional system. Although all feasibility assessments for e-Learninginstructional systems should include a cost-benefit analysis, it might happen that someorganizations want to bypass this stage, because other factors are driving the change such asthe need to respond to the learner (or market) demand, or to counter a competitor threat.Implementing an e-Learning instructional system can be seen also as a strategic initiative togain experience aimed at ensuring success in the future when this form of learning becomesmore widely used, or to gain what is called in the business area “first-mover” advantage.It has to be noticed that assessing the costs and benefits of an e-Learning instructional systemis not an exact science. It is not easy to measure each benefit and cost accurately. And evenwhere the benefits and costs are quantifiable, the figures used are only based on an estimatepredicting several years into the future.