Incentives in On‐line Education

Abstract

A major problem with on‐line education in contemporary universities is securing cooperation of academics. This paper argues that even if the benefits of on‐line learning are widely recognised, several incentive problems inhibit academic staff participation. These incentive problems include unverifiability of expertise in on‐line learning, the firm‐specific nature of investments in on‐line learning and the team nature of on‐line learning. Suggestions are made for remedying each of these problems by correcting the distorted incentives faced by academics and administrators.

Acknowledgements

I appreciate the support of a Universitas 21 Fellowship to visit the University of British Columbia; and helpful discussions with Tony Bates, Mark Bullen and Adnan Qayyum.