Ged Prep

Q. i'm looking into a CAI system called PLATO. it's currently owned by a company called NRO, but it appears to be the product of work by the university of illinios and control data corp. anyway, i got some pricing info on course modules that NRO sells and i'm a little taken aback. $5k per workstation for what amounts to a GED prep package strikes me as a little expensive; are these sort of prices par for courseware these days?

A. If you think Plato is expensive have a look at the Pathfinder Learning System. Try $200,000 + for the package. It"s way more than a GED prep but it's still just a management tool. PLATO was invented and developed at the Computer-based Education Research Laboratory (CERL) at the University of Illinois. It was then licensed to Control Data Corporation (CDC). There are now three CBE systems based on that work: PLATO, which CDC sold to The Roach Organization (TRO); CYBIS, which CDC sold to IMSATT; and NovaNET, which the University of Illinois sold to University Communications Inc. (UCI). (Bias alert: I used to work for CERL, and now I work for UCI.) As for cost, I think $5k per station is in the ballpark. A typical 16-station NovaNET subscription costs around $1800 per station per year, with a one- time installation cost of a little under $600 per station. Looking only at these numbers, you would reach $5k in the third year. There are other factors to consider: upgrade costs vs. subscription costs, Internet access, platforms supported, size and quality and range of the courseware library, quality of service, results, and more.

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