Cost

I've duplicated the current (10 Feb) use case for refining course search by cost below for convenience.

We have a <cost> element in XCRI-CAP, defined as "the cost for obtaining access to the presentation".  It's part of the XCRI-CAP <presentation> element, which is equivalent to what's already being mentioned here as "specific instance of a course being offered" (Learning Opportunity Instance in the European MLO model).

As part of our work on XCRI-CAP we investigated how to model 'cost' in relation to UK HE.  Our conclusion was that it was a very fraught area.  Most issues were to do with costs varying in relation not only to the mode of study and location of study, but also to the specific (detailed) circumstances of the individual.  Particular difficulties were raised because an individual might be offered a very different price (or free of charge) dependent on where they were living (UK / specific country in the UK / EU / EEA / RoW), or their own circumstances (dependents / no dependents / employed / unemployed / etc), and whether they had access to scholarships and bursaries.  Also VAT / No VAT (for EU).  The upshot was that the <cost> element in XCRI-CAP is unstructured.  No-one supported the idea of putting just a numerical or currency value in there, because context was vital.  Current web page entries from UK Universities are very varied in content and structure.

For these reasons I suggest we modify requirement c) to:

"must be able to identify text that describes the costs associated with studying a specific instance of a course."

This (I hope) doesn't suggest a requirement for definitive values in relation to what a specific individual might have to pay. So it would be possible to have an entry like: "2015-16 fee for UK students was £10,500.  Fee for 2016-17 academic year not yet determined."

I would miss out the requirement of cost by mode of study.  Where they're available, they could be included.  Where not available, I suggest we don't put off usage by narrowing the requirement.

For more on XCRI-CAP: http://www.xcri.co.uk (redirects)

use case 1.1 refining course search from UC1 by cost
description: an extension to use case 1, where the searcher is concerned about the cost of the course.
note: where a course is offered in different modes of study, e.g. full time or part-time, face-to-face or at distance, the cost may vary by mode
requirement p) must be able to identify web pages that describe specific instances of a course being offered
requirement c) must be able to identify cost of course in each mode of study offered.

Alan Paull

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Alan Paull
APS Ltd
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