The Hidden Costs of Carts

The Hidden Costs of Carts

Many schools use carts as a solution to managing laptops, chromebooks, or tablets in school.  As the ratio of devices to students approaches one-to-one, it is important to look at the overall costs of managing devices with a classroom cart model.  When all costs are considered, it is likely to be more cost-effective to move to a take-home model for devices.

The challenge for educational decision makers is that a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model is often used to defend the need for carts, but it may not fully include resource costs or estimate the qualitative costs of lost opportunity.  A Value of Investment model can be used to determine the benefit of one or the other model by considering the value to the educational mission.

The TCO analysis may also rely on anecdotal data with respect to maintenance, damage, and loss, which may embed expectation bias into the decision.  It is important to track actual maintenance and damage/loss experience, to mitigate expectation bias, and also to implement practices to improve results.

The following is a list of resource costs and lost opportunity costs to evaluate when comparing different implementation models.  For a device ratio of one-to-one, typical models include a cart with sufficient devices for each student, a cart with devices assigned (e.g., labelled) for each students, and students assigned devices to take home.  For more details on these hidden costs and ways to mitigate them, watch for future blog posts.

Resource Costs to consider when comparing cart model to take-home model

Classroom Space
Teacher Instructional Time
Device Management by Teachers
Regular Device Management Time
Training for Device Management (PD) Time
Variance in Management Cost
Teacher Experience, Morale, and Motivation
Repair Costs
Ownership and Repair Cost Impact
Student Training Time
Administrative Procedures Time

Opportunity Costs to consider when comparing cart model to take-home model

Learning Opportunities

Having a Just-in time Classroom tool available
Developing Independent student roles in the classroom
Opportunity for collaborative learning outside the classroom in school setting
Impact on substitute on educational program if students are able to manage their own devices.
Opportunity for flipped classroom
Resources available when school is not in session 

Socioeconomic Equity Opportunity

Mitigating the Homework gap
Socioeconomic equity and access to a device at home

Parent Engagement Opportunity

Involvement in parent meetings
Use of parent portal, way to communicate through student to parents
Parent training programs, Parent University model

System Change Opportunity

Student Involvement in Device Management processes and solutions, help desk, training teams, mentoring incoming students
Faculty Involvement
Investing faculty in developing new systems and solutions
Alignment of online learning system use and goals
Shared learning and collegiality impact on PD