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Appendix

History

This opinion piece started at the NBIS Training Steering Group meeting of 2026-09-21, where the flat fee for online courses was announced.

A more detailed history can be found at Appendix 4: history of this opinion piece.

Course attendance

The idea presented behind the course fee is that it will help registered participants to actually show up. This is a known problem (with an elegant solution), the extent of which is shown in appendix 1

The effect of management

The idea coming from management has an effect, which is described in Appendix 6: the effect of management

Insights from the academic literature

The academic literature does not help much: a course fee is predicted to lower the number of registrations [Han et al., 2019] (however, this is for dynamically priced courses) and to increase the engagement of participants [Goli et al., 2022]. For more details, see appendix 5: insights from the academic literature

Support for/against a flat course fee within NBIS

It is unknown to which extent there is support for a flat course fee. Hence, I have asked NBIS and non-NBIS teachers in online courses for their response to having an online course fee to increase the certainty of a high attendance. I did so without disclosing my own views.

So far, the reactions are around 50-50.

You can read these in appendix 2: support for/against a flat course fee within NBIS

Support for/against a flat course fee outside of NBIS

I have asked non-NBIS teachers in online courses for their response to having an online course fee to increase the certainty of a high attendance. I did so without disclosing my own views.

So far, the reactions are clear: all are against a course fee.

You can read these in appendix 3: support for/against a flat course fee outside of NBIS

References

  • [Goli et al., 2022] Goli, Ali, Pradeep K. Chintagunta, and S. Sriram. "Effects of payment on user engagement in online courses." Journal of Marketing Research 59.1 (2022): 11-34.
  • [Han et al., 2019] Han, Yongseung, Michael P. Ryan, and Kelly Manley. "Online course enrolment and tuition: empirical evidence from public colleges in Georgia, USA." International Journal of Education Economics and Development 10.1 (2019): 1-21.