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Appendix 3: 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.

Below is an aggregate of the reasons they provided:

  • The fee costs time and money: the administrative cost is higher than the fee brings in. This is especially true when attendants from different countries (e.g. with a different VAT rate) apply.
  • A fee penalizes the wrong people: a flat course fee hinders those people that we want to attend, such as early-career researchers, students, or participants from less well-funded institutions and countries. It is exactly those that we should provide this service to.
  • A fee turns students into customers: this is a big difference in mindset with lots of risks involved
  • A fee is inferior to better communication: It was found by experience that better communication is more effective at increasing attendance, such as sending personal confirmation reminders, requiring explicit re-confirmation a week prior, or using waitlists with clear cancellation deadlines
  • A fee is an alternative to free methods: There are other ways to increasing attendance that do not cost money e.g. a short supervisor approval note or asking people to write 100 words explaining why the course might be useful for them
  • Any course fee is already paid by the university: The universities has already paid NBIS to deliver courses. A course fee would mean that a this is paid by both the university beforehand and by the participant
  • A fee reduces the amount of participants, where we want as big as a reach as possible
  • We are not allowed to have a course fee at all: this happens to be the case for other (i.e. not NBIS) public-funded research infrastructure
  • A fee misaligns with higher goals, such as the principles of Open Science and FAIR training principles for public-funded research infrastructure.
  • There is no evidence that a course fee increases attendance: universities are to follow evidence-based practices themselves too in their decision making.