ABSTRACT
Cost analysis is concerned with establishing cost functions which attempt to relate costs to some measure of output. The purpose of cost analyses is to identify the main generators of cost, and to study how costs change as key input or output variables change. J. C. Eicher has summarised some of the factors which affect cost levels in media-based distance-learning systems. Production costs are particularly high for film, whatever the size of the system. Changes in the media used would affect the cost structure of courses. B. Laidlaw and R. Layard studied the relationship of fixed and variable course costs. Studies of cost-efficiency are concerned with the economical use of inputs relative to the output produced, where the quality of the output is held to be constant. The economics of the United Kingdom Open University have been more extensively studied than those of any other distance-teaching university, and a number of studies have been published.
