Applying balanced scorecard for assessing programs' effectiveness and efficiency : the case of IPace

Distance learning has been growing in faster rates than the general education due to developments in technology and internet diffusion and due to a tendency of students choosing the course that best fits their needs. An extensive literature review shows that concrete evaluation of costs is missing and this work is heavily based on a proposed solution, a framework built by Cerri and Castelli (2013) that includes the financial perspective and is based on the balanced scorecard. Several meetings are held with stakeholders in order to modify some of the framework’s indicators and it is applied in an evaluation of a real online program, the iPace, from Pace University in New York City.