The Development of a Prototype Computer-Based Modeling System for Analysis of the Sensitivity of Selected Costing Assumptions in an Academic Department Page: 21

                                
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resource requirements. RRPM 1.6 does not directly provide
the capability of comparing one simulated model with another
to produce sensitivity tests as was performed in the Sheehan
and Michaels study. However, institutional-level sensitivity
tests could be computed by hand.
An important notation is that Bogue's study, the Sheehan
and Michaels study, and the RRPM 1.6 system do not actually
apportion costs through individual courses. Rather, they
group all courses of a level together along with the sum of
corresponding costs and the sum of corresponding enrollments
and compute an output measure based on both sums.
This study expands on work done in the area of costing
assumptions by including more than one set of costing sources
and more than one set of apportioning procedures. This study,
therefore, may be viewed in matrix form as comprised of more
than one column and more than one row.
This study, instead of focusing on an institution,
focuses on a single university department where enrollment
in courses can be studied in detail. Cost studies typically
deal with entire levels of costs apportioned in a uniform
way and do not attach specific costs or enrollments to
specific courses. The prototype modeling system allows
costing sources to be apportioned to courses and enrollments
within courses in four different alternative ways.
This study concerns the development of a prototype
computer-based modeling system which allows sensitivity tests