Technology Updates:  Paradigm Shifts in Prestige Universities
Bob Jensen at Trinity University 

The threads below are somewhat dated.  For my more recent writings on this topic go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm 

News Flash on April 20, 2000

Question 01:  
What is the most important thing every professor in higher education should do this very instant?
Answer:  Take a look at four articles  Newsweek, April 24 
Click here for excerpts and comments by Bob Jensen

• "College Online" 
  
• "The New School" 
  
• "Tangled Wires in Harvard Yard" 
  
• "So You Want to Be an Internet Prof" 

I might note a Columbia University professor featured in one of the articles will appear in one of my forthcoming workshops.   I mention this because several months ago I lined Professor Kirschenheiter to present a module on the UNext program in a day-long workshop that I developed for August 12 (Saturday) in Philadelphia two days prior to the start of the American Accounting Association Annual meetings.  In addition, there will be modules from Chuck Hickman (Academic Vice President of University Access), Dan Stone (Illinois research professor who will discuss the SCALE program at the University of Illinois), and Tony Catanach (our AAA Pew Scholar from Villanova who will discuss the revolutionary lecture-free year of intermediate accounting in the BAM Program).  Of course Bob Jensen will also do his thing in that workshop.  Details are not yet available, but you will eventually find these details at http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/aaa/meetings.htm 

Question 02:
What did Business Week call the hottest online higher education program?  Click here for the answer.

Question 03:
What is the most important distinction to keep in mind when considering online "prestige" degree programs of the future?
Answer:  Remember that there are two kinds of prestige online diplomas or certificates as distinguished below:

• The logo of a prestige university's logo on the diploma itself, which is what is intended with some programs such as the Stanford University ADEPT distance education Masters of Engineering Degree and the Duke University Global Executive MBA degree.
  
  
• The logo of a corporation on a diploma that does not have a prestige logo but does have some prestigious faculty designing and/or delivering all or parts of courses.   In some instances, these faculty are former or current employees of a prestigious institution such that by merely listing their affiliations beside their names, the online corporation indirectly tries to link to a prestigious logo.

Question 04:
How does the Wharton/IBM partnership differ from the UNext-type partnerings?  Click here to view the answer.

How does the Babson/Intel partnership differ from the UNext-type partnerings>  Click here to view the answer.

Question 05:
How are top business schools teaching each other's students?  Click here to view the answer.

Question 06:
How will the services provided by colleges and universities change fundamentally in the next decade?  Are we being realistic?  Click here to view the answer?

Question 07:
What is happening in this regard on the Canadian front?  Click here for the answer.

Question 08:
What major publishing firm has formed a university and is awaiting accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges?  Click here for the answer.

Question 09:
What is so important about the prestige of the logo versus accreditation? How can programs become accredited?  Click here for the answer.

Question 10:
Are some online education programs, even prestige programs, scams?  Click here for the answer.

Question 11:
Do you want to by a shares in a prestigious university? Is this possible? Click here for the answer.

Question 12:
What is the leading research study on the cost of developing an online program (including a spreadsheet that you can use in your own institution)?  Click here for the answer.

Question 13:
What are the five leading distance education websites according to Yahoo?
The answer is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245progs.htm#Yahoo 

Question 14:
How can I find links to distance education programs and financial aid for such programs?
The answer is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245progs.htm 

Question 15:
What is the past, present, and future of course authoring technologies?  What are knowledge portals of the 21st Century? 
Go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/290wp/290wp.htm 

Question 16:
How can I find online courses and programs?  
Go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245progs.htm 

Question 17:
How can I find online high school courses and programs? 
Go to Prestige High Schools Join the Act

My document below contains threads from my weekly editions of New Bookmarks at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm 

The four Newsweek articles on April 24, 2000:
Click Here for Excerpts

• "College Online" 
  
• "The New School" 
  
• "Tangled Wires in Harvard Yard" 
  
• "So You Want to Be an Internet Prof" 

The Prestigious Online MBA Programs at Duke University

Duke Corporate Education (A For-Profit Corporation)

UNext: The Anti-University?

The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School Partnership with IBM

The Babson/Intel MBA Program

Distance Learning:  Are We Being Realistic?

How Top Business Schools Are Teaching Each Other's Students 

What is So Important About Logo Prestige Versus Accreditation?

Accreditation

Accreditation Issues

How to Discover and Analyze the Costs of Developing an Online Program

Are Some of These High Profile Ventures Scams?

The Virtual University (Possible Scams)

The Bubble Bursts for Education Dot-Coms

Corporatization of the Academy

Examples of Problems and Progress

Earlier Articles:
Paradigm Shifts in Research and Funding of Faculty

Paradigm Shifts in Distance Education 

What is Morningside Ventures started up by Columbia University?

What is E-SKOLAR started up by Stanford University?

Paradigm Shifts in Faculty Allegiances (including the free Academy Online journal)

Who Are These Prestigious Professors Online?

Harvard Sues to Set a Precedent

A Virtual Revolution in Teaching 

The Union Label is Everywhere

Paradigm Shift in University Management and Strategies 

Securing Our Future:  A Manitoba Innovation Corridor

Prestige High Schools Join the Act

The past, present, and future of course authoring technologies ---  http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/290wp/290wp.htm 

How to find online courses and programs?  http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245progs.htm 

Selected Key Links and References

The Four Newsweek Articles on April 24, 2000 http://newsweek.com/nw-srv/common/index/index.htm  
  (The above Newsweek web site has a broken link to the "College Online" link below.)

McGinn presents a very nice, albeit somewhat frightening, overview of schools that will probably become the major players in online distance education.  Typical full-time college students living on campus now comprise only 16% of the total student population in the U.S.  This leaves 83% in the U.S. and millions of students around the world that are eager for new online education alternatives.  He claims that 75% of all U.S. universities will provide online coursework to about 5.8 million students by the end of Year 2000.

The first truly online college to receive regional accreditation in the U.S. is the Jones International University at http://www.jonesinternational.edu/.  McGinn is quite complimentary about the rigor and pedagogy of this university.  Degree programs include the following:

Bachelor of Arts in Business Communication
Master of Arts in Business Communication
Master of Business Administration

Duke's Global Executive MBA program receives highest marks.  The GEMBA link is at http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/gemba.html 

Various other programs are mentioned such as University Access at http://www.universityaccess.com/  and the University of Phoenix at http://www.phoenix.edu/ .

McGinn discusses concerns about how "a handful of well-credentialed 'content experts' who write the curriculum, and armies of 'instructional faculty.'"  The American Association of University Professors is fighting to prevent accreditation of programs designed in this fashion.

McGinn mentions that a researcher named Thomas Russell has collected 355 studies showing that there is "no difference" in terms of learning between onsite and distance education, although most of the studies cited used interactive TV in a synchronous mode.  The jury is still out regarding asynchronous online courses.

The Achilles' heel of distance education to date have the high student dropout rates.  Brian Mueller from the University of Phoenix contends that the key to student retention is the creation of a "highly social online experience" in each course.

What is most important to me is "The New School" article that describes the planned pedagogy of how UNext intends to teach courses online developed by Columbia University, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Chicago, and the London School of Economics.  In a nutshell, the pedagogy is "problem-based learning" in a confrontational style that is not intended for the faint of heart.

Rosenfield's team wants to totally re-engineer professors' old-fashioned "stand-and-deliver" courses. At UNext, a "course" requires perhaps 30 hours of work. Four or five courses make up a "course suite," the equivalent of a campus semester of, say, marketing. (Tuition works out to 80 percent of the roughly $2,600 that a semester course costs at a top B-school.) Clients like Bank of America and Owens-Illinois, the packaging giant, are enrolling pilot groups of employees for classes that begin this spring. UNext will eventually offer M.B.A. and other graduate degrees; the sheepskins will be from Cardean (CAR-dee-an) University, a UNext subsidiary named for a Roman goddess who guarded doorways (think portals). This sounds better, Rosenfield says, than a degree from a dot-com.

I might note a Columbia University professor who is leading the way in delivering Columbia's courses in Mike Milken's UNext online distance education program is mentioned in "The New School" article cited above in the April 24 editon of Newsweek:

Rosenfield's team wants to totally re-engineer professors' old-fashioned "stand-and-deliver" courses. At UNext, a "course" requires perhaps 30 hours of work. Four or five courses make up a "course suite," the equivalent of a campus semester of, say, marketing. (Tuition works out to 80 percent of the roughly $2,600 that a semester course costs at a top B-school.) Clients like Bank of America and Owens-Illinois, the packaging giant, are enrolling pilot groups of employees for classes that begin this spring. UNext will eventually offer M.B.A. and other graduate degrees; the sheepskins will be from Cardean (CAR-dee-an) University, a UNext subsidiary named for a Roman goddess who guarded doorways (think portals). This sounds better, Rosenfield says, than a degree from a dot-com.

Now suppose you do sign up for assessing profitability. You'll be grouped into a new class of about 25 students. You'll have two faculties instead of just one: a cluster of experts who've put together your course, and the part-time instructors—all with master's degrees or Ph.D.s —who were hired less for research scholarship than for teaching ability. Your course is the progeny of a Columbia professor named Michael Kirschenheiter and a UNext team led by Don Wortham, an educational psychologist. Taking the course resembles using the Net itself to research a problem: applying your wiles, rooting out information, piecing together solutions. "What we don't tell you," Wortham says, "is 'Here's what to do next.' It's an adventure."

"Tangled Wires in Harvard Yard"  http://newsweek.com/nw-srv/printed/us/so/a18728-2000apr16.htm 
Newsweek, April 24, 2000, Page 62

As at most universities, the continuing-ed department is the boldest experimenter. This spring computer-science professor Len Evenchik is conducting a class by posting videotaped lectures from last fall to a new group of students. Like that one, most of Harvard Extension School's 18 online courses are for techies, but on a recent evening, classics professor Greg Nagy and three T.A.s discussed Euripides in front of 35 students—and two video cameras. Webcasting allows six more students—one in Singapore—to take the class.

Some online students say they miss campus life. But most appreciate the cachet of Harvard on a resume. When Keith Davis, a systems consultant in St. Louis, mentioned his Harvard online coursework in a job interview, "They were impressed," he says. For now, the school's migration online will remain slow and experimental. But if it ever opens its doors widely, Harvard.com could be higher education's killer app.

"So You Want to Be an Internet Prof," --- this article is only on the web at http://newsweek.com/nw-srv/printed/us/so/a18821-2000apr19.htm 

Eisendrath tells the Klingon story to newcomers being trained in the more demanding ways of UNext. The job, he says, should be far more satisfying than working as a graduate assistant at a brick-and-mortar university. "For starters," says Eisendrath, "if you teach for UNext, you wouldn't feel like you were just beavering away for some research professor. The class is yours to teach."

The material, however, wouldn't be yours. UNext has 150 education and info-tech experts who are building its courses from scratch, using materials culled from world-class professors at its five partner universities. That group of professors in effect constitutes one of UNext's two faculties. The other consists of part-time instructors who can live anywhere they choose, and who actually teach the students. Being hired less for research scholarship than for teaching ability won't appeal to everyone. But for those who really do want to share knowledge with students, the online game may be a good one. Here's a clue to UNext's thinking: Eisendrath wants his staff to listen carefully to what job candidates discuss during their interviews. Do they seem focused on their own achievements? Or do they spend more time talking about students and how to help them learn? "This job isn't about attracting research money," Eisendrath says. "We need people who can help students, who can write well, who can project an engaging personality."

The ideal UNext instructor is someone 30 or older who has spent enough time in the real world to know how it connects to academic subjects. All must have a master's degree at a bare minimum; a doctorate is, of course, even better. Alan Drimmer, who hires instructors, says pay rates depend largely on workload, but applicants can figure on earning at least 90 percent of what adjunct professors get for classroom teaching at top-flight universities. A rough estimate of how that works out: if you spend 10 to 15 hours a week teaching one course for 12 weeks, you'll earn about $3,000. Four courses a year means $12,000. Unless, of course, you're better than average, in which case UNext will do something that almost no other school will do: pay you a bonus!

So far, the company has hired 66 instructors across the United States. Many now teach at the college or graduate level; some work in the private sector, often in fields like finance. Once courses are up and running this summer, each will be expected to check in on his or her class of 25 or so students at least once a day, six days a week. Eisendrath expects the heaviest workloads to come on Mondays and Tuesdays as instructors grade the homework, or "deliverables," that students submit by e-mail over the weekend.

Do you want to by a shares in a prestigious university?

One alternative used by prestige universities is to partner with an online course development and delivery corporation such as UNext (a corporation that will deliver business courses developed and owned by Stanford University, Columbia University, Carnegie-Mellon University, the University of Chicago, and the London School of Economics.   See http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245prest.htm  

Another alternative is for a university to form a corporation (and possibly sell investment shares to the public) and then deliver online and onsite courses through the private corporation.  One such company is the new Duke Corporate Education.   (Wanda Wallace watchers may want to note that our respected and talented Dr. Wallace has gone corporate.)

DUKE'S FUQUA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS FORMING PRIVATE COMPANY;
FIRST TO PROVIDE GLOBAL TOP-TO-BOTTOM EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

DURHAM, N.C. - Duke University's Fuqua School of Business is forming a private corporation to become the first business school to provide tailored, top-to-bottom educational services to the world's major companies, Dean Rex D. Adams announced Friday.

Blair H. Sheppard, currently Fuqua's senior associate dean for academic programs, will be president and CEO of the new enterprise.

Named Duke Corporate Education Inc., the company will provide corporate clients with business education designed specifically for their needs. It also will expand Fuqua's innovative distributed-learning consulting services to help corporations establish or radically improve their manager training programs and corporate universities.

"In my four years as dean, this is one of the most significant announcements I have had the privilege to make," said Adams, who will serve as the chairman of the company's board of directors. "Building on our success in customized executive education, we will be out front in teaching across multiple layers of management - anywhere in the world. Duke Corporate Education will house and expand our current tailored executive education operation and also our newly formed Corporate University Advisory Services and e-Learning Solutions groups of distributed-learning consultants.

"Faced with the accelerating pace of change and a growing dependence on talent, companies are looking for Duke-quality education to support strategic transformation, help develop managers and serve as an ongoing investment in human capital," Adams said.

He said the market for corporate education is now about $40 billion annually and is growing at 25 percent a year.

Duke University will be the majority shareholder of Duke Corporate Education. Private equity groups are expected to make major investments in the enterprise.

An agreement has been reached with Pensare Inc. to provide the distance-learning technology for Duke Corporate Education. Pensare, based in Los Altos, Calif., is the global leader in e-learning business networks. Pensare first partnered with Duke in October 1999 to co-produce a new curriculum and e-learning platform to support The Duke MBA - Cross Continent program. The Cross Continent program, which welcomes its inaugural class of 100 students from around the world in August 2000, offers a unique blend of classroom-based and online MBA education from campus locations in Durham, N.C., and Frankfurt, Germany.

Sheppard said the school "is a natural for leading this brand-new industry. We have been known for delivering innovative executive education, and creating this stand-alone business maintains our momentum and leadership. We will be providing a one-stop shop for corporate universities, delivering top-to-bottom education that is truly unique."

Other schools have formed private companies, but Sheppard said Duke Corporate Education will be the first to deliver programs at every level of a corporation, not just upper management.

He said initial clients of Duke Corporate Education will include Deutsche Bank, Ford, Siemens and Ericsson. Its offices will be in Durham, in close proximity to Fuqua, he said.

Joining Sheppard at the company will be Wanda T. Wallace, formerly associate dean for executive education, who will be director of customer relations and program operations; Professor John Gallagher, former director of Fuqua's Computer Mediated Learning Center, who will be head of research and development; and Professor John McCann, a specialist in e-commerce.

Sheppard said Judith A. Rosenblum will join the company in a leadership role. She is the former chief learning officer for The Coca-Cola Company and a former vice chairman for learning, education and human resources at Coopers & Lybrand.

Fuqua's second type of executive education program, open-enrollment courses taught to managers from multiple companies, will remain under Fuqua's non-profit umbrella. These include Fuqua's highly acclaimed Program for Manager Development and Advanced Management Program courses. New courses will be developed in the coming months.

Richard Staelin, the Edward S. and Rose Donnell professor of marketing at Fuqua since 1982, has been named associate dean for executive education to lead open-enrollment education.

The search for new revenues sends increasing numbers of universities to contract with corporations to provide continuing education for their employees. The University of Michigan's College of Engineering, for example, arranges with the university's Transportation Research Institute to provide week-long minicourses each summer to keep Ford's engineers up-to-date on advances in computer-aided design. This is just one of many new cozy relationships between higher education and industry.
Vision 2010 at http://www.si.umich.edu/V2010/scen-sw.html 

Question:  What did Business Week call the hottest online higher education program?

Answer:  The Duke University Global Executive MBA (no longer called GEMBA) program is one of the most successful and prestigious online degree programs in the world.  You can read the following at http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/gemba.html 

The Duke MBA - Global Executive (formerly GEMBA) is an innovative master's degree program offered by The Fuqua School of Business for executives and high-potential managers of global corporations. Thanks to a unique format that combines multiple international program sites with advanced interactive technologies, Global Executive students can work and live anywhere in the world while participating in the program

Now Duke has also launched its Cross-Continental MBA program as described at http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/cc.html 

The Duke MBA - Cross Continent program allows high-potential young managers to earn an internationally-focused MBA degree from Duke University in less than two years utilizing a format that minimizes the disruption of careers and family life. The inaugural Cross Continent class will be enrolled in August 2000. Two class sections will be enrolled concurrently: one will be based primarily at the Durham, NC campus of Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, and the other in Frankfurt, Germany at The Fuqua School of Business Europe. Ongoing classes are held through the use of interactive communications technologies. Students will attend nine weeks of residential sessions (8 one-week sessions plus a week of orientation), mostly on their primary campus, with at least one session on the other campus. Students will complete 16 courses (48 credit hours) over the course of the 20-month program.

These are the first 10 FAQs about Duke University Global Executive MBA (no longer called GEMBA) program as given among other FAQs at http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/admin/gemba/gemba_faq.html 

Q1. How is the Global Executive program different, in terms of academic content, from other Executive MBA programs (e.g., weekend EMBAs)? What makes it global? A1. The Duke MBA - Global Executive is every bit as academically demanding as Duke's other two MBA programs. Global Executive uses the same faculty base, the same rigorous grading standards, and provides the same Duke degree. However, the content has been adjusted to include more global issues and strategies to serve a participant population that has far more global management experience. Like most other Executive MBA programs, the Global Executive program is a lock-step curriculum, meaning that all students take all courses. The courses are targeted at general managers who have or will soon assume global responsibilities. The program is designed for those who want to enhance their career path within their existing company. International Residencies: See Q8 Global Student body: Unlike traditional Executive MBA programs which usually have a regional draw, the flexibility of Global Executive accommodates a student body from around the globe. Not only are the students diverse geographically, but they are also diverse in the types of global management experiences that they bring to the classroom.

Q2. How accessible is the faculty on-line? A2. Faculty/student contact is actually significantly greater in Global Executive than in other Executive MBA programs due to the 24 hours/day, 7 days a week nature of Internet mediated learning. In addition to weekly real-time office hours, faculty monitor class and team bulletin board discussions and respond to e-mails on a regular basis. Faculty vary in availability, usually due to the subject matter and other teaching/research commitments. However, you can expect that, on average, faculty will respond within 24 to 48 hours.

Q3. What is the purpose/value in having international residencies? A3. International residencies are an important ingredient in a global MBA program as they add to the value and richness of the classroom component by providing various lenses (social, economic, cultural, etc.) through which to view various economies and systems. Instead of simply studying about an economy, Fuqua provides an experiential component which adds value to the learning experience that cannot be duplicated in Durham. This is accomplished using a variety of means, including visiting regional companies, having regional speakers, bringing in company representatives to supplement case discussions, and simply by experiencing the region outside of classroom time. Additionally, being away from job responsibilities and family in an unfamiliar culture also helps build the intimacy and team spirit of the group. Oftentimes, Global Executive students who reside in the residency location act as hosts and expose the class to experiences and cultural insights that the average tourist would not encounter.

Q4. Can group or individual projects be done that are directly related to the sponsoring the company? A4. There are several opportunities to work on issues facing your company, although it is important to note that these opportunities vary depending on the professor and the course. For instance, one course may ask your learning team to analyze some aspect of a corporation; if your corporation has challenges that interest your teammates, you may be able to persuade your team to focus on your company. Another course may ask you to write analyses based on your experience within your corporation. Regardless of the specific project, the courses are designed so that you can implement course materials in your daily work within a reasonable amount of time.

Administrative Q5. Given the rigor of the program and the necessary time commitment, how do I fit this into my life? How are current Global Executive students handling it? A5. The Global Executive program will definitely require some prioritizing in your life. When deciding to apply to the Global Executive program, you need to make sure that those around you--your spouse, family, and co-workers--understand the commitment you've made and support your undertaking. Some companies help to alleviate workload by providing their employees with additional support (e.g., staff support, time off), but most Global Executive students see no relief in their responsibilities. Global Executive students vary in how they handle the Global Executive workload (e.g., some may do school work all weekend, some may set aside 3 hours every day). The important point is that you need to find a routine that works for you and for your team and stick with it.

Q6. Do I have to attend all of the residencies? A6. Yes, attendance at all of the residencies, for the entire residency, is a requirement.

Q7. Can I use my own laptop during the program instead of the one that the program provides? A7. The Global Executive program provides each student with an IBM ThinkPad, all of the program software, and technical support. In order to provide the necessary technical support, it is imperative that everyone be on the same platform. If you are using different hardware, we cannot provide assistance. A well-maintained laptop is critical to the distance learning component of Global Executive. The Fuqua School of Business Distance Learning specialists maintain, upgrade, and trouble-shoot Global Executive laptops during each residency. Some students have decided to purchase an additional hard drive in order to use the ThinkPad for work and Global Executive. Upon graduation, the ThinkPad becomes the property of the student.

Q8. How good/reliable does my Internet access have to be? A8. In order to be a solid contributor to your team and to the program, you should be able to connect to the Internet for at least 45 minutes at a time for a total of at least five hours per week.

Admissions Q9. How technologically savvy do I need to be to succeed in Global Executive? A9. During your first residency, we provide an extra week for orientation. Part of this orientation focuses on getting students comfortable with understanding and using the technology. Most students are familiar with word processing, e-mail and the World Wide Web, but many have not been exposed to spreadsheets, electronic bulletin boards, chat rooms, and messaging services. There is a wide range of computer skills among the Global Executive students, but we recommend that you have some basic skills on the computer (e.g., EXCEL, Word, PowerPoint) to succeed in Global Executive.

Q10. What "type" of student are you looking for? A10. Although each applicant will be assessed on his/her unique qualities, here are some characteristics that the admissions committee looks for in a Global Executive applicant:

Minimum of 10 years work experience Soon to be or already involved in significant global job responsibilities An enthusiasm, inquisitiveness, and commitment to assure success in an intellectually challenging global learning endeavor. Quantitative aptitude and the intellectual ability to complete a rigorous graduate degree program at Duke University Highly proficient in English A clear understanding of the commitment required to succeed in Global Executive.

UNext: The Anti-University?
Forwarded by Jagdish Gangolly

UNext.com., an on-line learning company which has attracted such investors as Michael Milken, the financier, and Larry Ellison, chief executive officer of Oracle Corporation, is generating a lot of discussion in academic circles. Among its higher-education partners supplying course content are Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, and Stanford Universities, the University of Chicago, and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The posting below is a response by Donald Norman, UNext president, to a controversy resulting from a talk, "UNext: The Anti-University?," that he gave in early June, 2000 at the Training Directors' Forum Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. My thanks to Arun Tripathi for calling this event to my attention.

Regards,
Rick Reis reis@stanford.edu UP NEXT: Helping Newcomers Become Good Teachers

**********************************************************************************

Tomorrow's Academy
--------------- 887 words ---------------
NO, UNext ISN'T THE 'ANTI-UNIVERSITY'

At a recent TRAINING DIRECTORS' FORUM E-NET --A discussion-driven newsletter for training managers In this issue --Prof. Donald A. Norman (President of UNext and renowned Cognitive Scientist) has given good and stimulating feedbacks on the philosophy and criterion of UNext Learning Systems.

TDF E-Net Editors note: Donald A. Norman (don@jnd.org) stirred controversy with a presentation at Training Directors' Forum Conference earlier this month in which he criticized academic practices such as lectures and grades ("UNext: The Anti-University?," June 7). Here Don Norman-- president of e-learning provider UNext.com LLC ( http://www.unext.com  ) of Deerfield, IL -- tells more.

By Donald A. Norman

I am both amused and dismayed by the reaction to the report of my talk at Training Director's Forum in Phoenix.

At UNext, we take education very seriously, even if I don't always take myself so seriously. Education - and lectures -- should be fun.  But I guess I had better be wary of the fact that Internet learning is so controversial these days that sometimes a footnote in a talk can become the headline.

Let me try to clarify the message I delivered. We -- UNext -- form real partnerships with our consortium universities.  We are not the "anti-university." Rather we are the university for those who cannot attend physical universities.  We offer courses to busy working professionals who do not have time to attend school -- not even night school -- or the workers in nations who do not have ready access to university education, especially graduate-level courses in business administration.

We worry a lot about pedagogy. We know that we cannot offer the same rich social interaction possible in face-to-face, residential universities. So we work hard to create an on-line learning community.  We don't use lectures because we believe that the lecture format simply does not work over the Internet -- and for that matter, is not the most effective way to learn in any setting.

FIERCE ADVOCATES

We are fierce advocates of learning by doing, so all our courses are problem-based -- yet with substantive content that we co-create with our consortium universities: Carnegie-Mellon, Chicago, Columbia, London School of Economics, and Stanford.

Do we question university practices? Of course - and every quality university does as well. Why lectures? Why grades? Why fixed schedules?  We question in order to do better, to understand the pedagogical argument behind the tradition. Sometimes, the tradition is no longer relevant. Sometimes, it is important, valuable, and should be maintained.

One mark of the educated citizen is the questioning citizen: We question.  Are our courses good? You bet. I taught for more than 30 years as a faculty member of Harvard and the University of California-San Diego. The courses I am helping put together at UNext are better than the ones I taught at Harvard and UCSD.

We work harder to develop the right pedagogy and content, and to structure the course to promote learning.  We test and test and test. Each course is tested with students three different times, in three different ways, before we release it for teaching by carefully trained instructors of our university, Cardean University. And even then we watch, observe, test and improve.

NOW, TWO QUESTIONS

Let me answer two of the questions that emerged in response to my talk at Training Directors' Forum Conference:

Q Are MBA courses from a traditional institution better than on-line ones?

A Asking the "better or worse" question is asking about the wrong dimension. Our courses are of the same quality as the best traditional ones, but they are also very different, for they are aimed at a different audience, with the material delivered over different media and with no in-person interaction.  Interaction among Cardean faculty and students happens in an on-line community enabled by technology and nurtured by exceptional educators.  We aim at people who couldn't go to a traditional MBA institution. We recommend that people go to a traditional school over an on-line one if they have the choice.

But what of those who do not have that choice? We offer an alternative.

Q Do traditional grades matter? Why?

A They matter for traditional assessment, course credits, degree programs, and accreditation. But in the real world, no, they do not matter.  What does matter is how effective the learning is and how effectively the student can apply what has been acquired.  Traditional grades are often the result of out-of-context examinations that do not really assess true knowledge, or an ability to apply that knowledge.

Moreover, in the real world, we expect people to work together effectively, in teams. If you don't know something, it is fine to ask others for help.  Not so with the grading process. So the true team builder might be penalized.

It is important to understand the reason for grades and their limitations, even if we do stick to conventional grading.

In conclusion, on-line universities are different from facilities-based ones. They therefore need to be assessed on different grounds.  It is not one versus the other -- the one expands the horizons of the other, but is intended for different people under different circumstances.

Let us not put this as "us" versus "them": Let us make it into cooperative exploration of learning and teaching.

The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School and IBM are Delivering E-Business Courses Online --- http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/news/news_rel/ibm.html 
(Note that unlike some of the UNext partnerings with prestigious business schools, the Wharton/IBM partnering will entail use of Wharton faculty on an ongoing basis rather than just a course development one-shot involvement).

WHARTON ANNOUNCES FORMATION OF SEPARATE EDUCATION GROUP AT UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Partners with IBM to Combine Expertise in Distributed Learning & Technology April 27, 2000 — The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania today announced the creation of a separate education group that will extend its already significant presence and capabilities in executive education, distance learning, and online dissemination of business knowledge. The School's current award-winning distance learning initiative, Wharton Direct, will become part of this new enterprise. Wharton also announced plans to form a business alliance with IBM that will leverage the organizations' combined resources to provide products and services in the management education arena, initially focusing on e-Business transformation. The alliance between Wharton and IBM will draw on their respective leadership in business education and technology to help major corporations worldwide provide access to top-quality learning and collaboration for middle and senior managers across a dispersed workforce. The alliance will focus on relationships with corporations that seek to use management education as a platform for organizational change and transformation. Beyond the founding partners, discussions continue with other organizations that may become part of this business education alliance.

"Wharton is clearly recognized as one of the top business schools in the world and has done extensive analysis of the impact of technology on both the learning process and organizational efficiency," says Laura Sanders, VP Distributed Learning, IBM. "We are looking forward to working with Wharton as the School expands its resources and faculty expertise to wider audiences."

"Traditional, non-Web enterprises are recognizing the enormous potential of e-business as the key to market growth and improved customer service," says Patrick Harker, dean of the Wharton School. "Wharton is leveraging its unparalleled resources and expertise in business education to provide `bricks-and-mortar' organizations with the knowledge and skills they need to transform into `bricks-and-clicks' powerhouses."

The alliance will offer a series of courses designed to help businesses address the challenges they face in the e-Business arena. In addition to online course modules and live learning events, the programs will build collaborative learning communities within the organization and offer managers access to a deeper level of business research and resources. The courses will include a combination of standardized and customizable content. In this way, companies can benefit from the cost-efficiencies of basic content development while gaining the advantage of selective customization to meet their specific needs.

Unlike many Web-based or other distributed learning content offerings, a core element of these programs will be the ongoing involvement of Wharton faculty. While much of the knowledge offered would be accessible on an anytime/anywhere basis by participating corporate managers, the combined products and services will include facilitation by, and interaction with, Wharton faculty, teaching assistants and a network of industry experts and practitioners.

"This is a mold-breaking initiative that combines the academic expertise of one of the world's leading business schools with the commercial expertise of one of the world's leading technology corporations," says Judith Rodin, president of the University of Pennsylvania. "Wharton and IBM will establish a new model and a new standard of excellence in the use of technology to enhance the delivery of business education," she added. "The prospects of this partnership are extraordinary."

Wharton's new education group will be headed by Robert E. Mittelstaedt, Jr., currently vice dean, Executive Education, at Wharton. "Wharton and IBM together will bring an unbeatable combination of content, technology, problem-solving and global marketing capability to help companies worldwide cope with the challenges of e-Business," says Mittelstaedt. "IBM knows more about real e-Business than any other company. In addition, their advanced distributed learning offerings make IBM an ideal company to help us provide applied learning in this space." Specific offerings in conjunction with IBM will be announced later this year.

The Wharton School is recognized around the world for its leadership and broad academic strengths across every major discipline and at every level of management education. Founded in 1881 as the nation's first collegiate business school, Wharton has nearly 5,000 students enrolled in degree programs, 8,000 participants in its executive education programs, and a network of more than 73,000 alumni in 130 countries.

Babson, Intel To Unveil MBA Deal
From Technology News, December 17, 2000 --- http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001217/tc/babson_mba_1.html 

Students used to go to business school. More and more, business schools are going to them.

Babson College, a business-oriented institution in suburban Boston, planned to announce an agreement Monday with Intel Corp., the world's largest computer chip maker, to customize a master of business administration degree for Intel workers.

After the program gets up and running in May, Babson professors will fly to Intel locations around the country for a series of intensive seminars with classes compromised mostly of Intel employees. (Dan Gode noted the typo when he informed me about this article.)

Between seminars, students will work, often online, on learning projects, many of which will be directly related to the work they do. In 27 months, graduates can earn an MBA, a degree that normally requires two years of full-time study.

Business schools in recent years have aggressively built bridges to the private sector, many of them raking in money with executive education programs. Companies such as Intel, which will cover the full tuition of $52,500 for its employees in the Babson program, get an important tool for retaining employees. Intel wants well-trained workers, but it doesn't want them to leave to pursue an MBA.

There are other advantages for Intel: students will work on Intel-specific case studies and projects, so the work won't just be academic.

``It has tremendous value-add for Intel, because while our employees are getting their MBA, they're able to take that knowledge and apply it immediately to the work that they're doing,'' said Alan Fisher, Intel's extended education program manager.

"Distance Learning:  Are We Being Realistic," by Diana Oblinger and Jill Kidwell, Educause Review, May/June 2000, pp. 31-39. --- http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm00/erm003.html 

In the last few years we have begun to think of higher education as a market. The size of the education market — pre-school, K–12, higher education, and adult learning — has been pegged at $665 billion a year. That makes the amount that America invests in lifelong learning more than the total spent on national defense.2 Estimates for higher education alone indicate that it is a $225-billion-a-year market.

The shift in perspective about higher education — from a “cottage industry” to a substantial market — has attracted the attention of firms such as Merrill Lynch, Banc One, and a host of venture capital groups. Education is being looked at as a market—one that has strong growth prospects. In fact, the price point of education (e.g., tuition and fees, which range from several hundred to many thousands of dollars) is far higher than the price points of the Internet’s first big industries—books, CDs, or flowers. E-learning is viewed by many as a “killer app” of the Internet. Investors are eager to put their money into dot.com educational start-ups because they believe there will be huge payoffs.

Such investors have been active in the distance education market for several years now. Since 1994, thirty-eight initial public offerings (IPOs) and thirty follow-on offerings have been completed, raising $3.4 billion in equity. eCollege.com, which recently raised $50 million in capital from its IPO, traded at $200 million of market capitalization on its first day of trading. Many venture capital firms also have invested in the educational technology sector, as Table 1 indicates.

Higher education provides a variety of services. These activities constitute a value chain — the end-to-end services that make up a college education. One way to conceptualize this value chain is to think of the activities as falling into several categories:

• Curriculum development
• Content development
• Learner acquisition and support
• Learning delivery
• Assessment and advising
• Articulation
• Credentialing

Historically, higher education institutions have provided the entire value chain for students.  Today, a number of new entrants to the educational field are also providing some of these services. A categorization of some of those new entrants is shown in Table 2 (from PricewaterhouseCoopers, "Overview of e-Learning,"  January 26, 2000):

The bottom line conclusion of Oblinger and Kidwell is that colleges and universities of the future may no longer attempt to provide all services in the above value chain.  They will instead position themselves where they retain comparative advantages.

Examples of Problems and Progress

Preparing Future Faculty --- http://www.aacu-edu.org/KnowNet/faculty/preparingfuturefaculty.htm 

A great set of links on the future of education --- http://milproj.ummu.umich.edu/version2/classes/highered/web.html  

What's new and remarkable in online educational technologies? --- http://www.si.umich.edu/V2010/multimed.html 

Equilibrium Dialysis Experiment from the University of Toldeo

• An online, interactive simulation of a chemical experiment designed to study the chemical properties of antibody molecules. You set the parameters, and the server runs the simulation and returns your results. The site was set up to provide exer cises for immunology students. The experiment changes every day, using a different antibody.

The Interactive Patient at Marshall University

• An online simulation of a physican/patient encounter used as a training tool for physicians, residents, and medical students.

Writing Classes on the WWW

• A page of links to writing classes that make use of the World Wide Web in one way or another.

Education Program for Gifted Youth at Stanford University

• A program of computer-based distance courses for advanced high-school students. This link will take you to a description of the program, a description that includes a good explanation of the features and strengths of such computer-based programs .

CyberEd at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth

• A program of University of Massachusetts courses offered on the World Wide Web.

Virtual Online University

• This non-profit organization teaches courses over the World Wide Web and has applied for accreditation. This link takes you to an overview of "Virtual Education Environments."

Paradigm Shifts in Research and Funding of Faculty

Excerpt  from my February 29, 2000 Edition of New Bookmarks 

"New Profits for Professors," February 28, 2000 Edition of Newsweek, Pg. 52 
Universities grapple with new ways to turn ideas into cash
By Thomas Hayden Newsweek, February 28, 2000
 http://newsweek.com/nw-srv/common/archive/archive.htm 

Nobody ever went into academia to make a fast buck. Professors, especially those in medical- and technology-related fields, typically earn a fraction of what their colleagues in industry do. But suddenly, big money is starting to flow into the ivory tower, as university administrators wake up to the commercial potential of academic research. And the institutions are wrestling with a whole new set of issues. The profits are impressive: the Association of University Technology Managers surveyed 132 universities and found that they earned a combined $576 million from patent royalties in 1998, a number that promises to keep rising dramatically (chart). Schools like Columbia University in New York have aggressively marketed their inventions to corporations, particularly pharmaceutical and high-tech companies.

Now Columbia is going retail—on the Web. It plans to go beyond the typical "dot.edu" model, free sites listing courses and professors' research interests. Instead, it will offer the expertise of its faculty on a new for-profit site which will be spun off as an independent company. The site will provide free access to educational and research content, say administrators, as well as advanced features that are already available to Columbia students, such as a simulation of the construction and architecture of a French cathedral and interactive 3-D models of organic chemicals. Free pages will feed into profit-generating areas, such as online courses and seminars, and related books and tapes. Columbia executive vice provost Michael Crow imagines "millions of visitors" to the new site, including retirees and students willing to pay to tap into this educational resource. "We can offer the best of what's thought and written and researched," says Ann Kirschner, who heads the project. Columbia also is anxious not be aced out by some of the other for- profit "knowledge sites," such as About.com and Hungry Minds. "If they capture this space," says Crow, "they'll begin to cherry-pick our best faculty."

Profits from the sale of patents typically have been divided between the researcher, the department and the university, and Web profits would work the same way, so many faculty members are delighted. But others find the trend worrisome: is a professor who stands to profit from his or her research as credible as one who doesn't? Will universities provide more support to researchers working in profitable fields than to scholars toiling in more musty areas?

"If there's the perception that we might be making money from our efforts, the authority of the university could be diminished," worries Herve Varenne, a cultural anthropology professor at Columbia's education school. Says Kirschner: "We would never compromise the integrity of the university." Whether the new site can add to the growing profits from patents remains to be seen, but one thing is clear. It's going to take the best minds on campus to find a new balance between profit and purity.

Paradigm Shifts in Distance Education

Columbia Establishes Company to Develop Digital Media/Online Learning Site and Programs
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/newrec/2420/tmpl/story.2.html 

Columbia Establishes Company to Develop Digital Media/Online Learning Site and Programs BY VIRGIL RENZULLI

Columbia has established a company, Morningside Ventures, Inc. (MV), to create an online learning center to produce and distribute high quality educational resources. The company, which will develop an overall new media strategy for Columbia, will compete in the commercial marketplace for learning and will build strategic alliances with businesses that have significant reach on the Internet, such as search engines, portals, Internet and broadband access points and news information sites.

Ann Kirschner, former vice president of interactive programming and development for the National Football League, has been named MV's President and CEO, and Vikram Nagrani, a former principal at Morgan Stanley, has been named the company's chief operating officer.

This new venture will consider the feasibility of a wide range of innovative education models that would augment traditional, campus-based Columbia education programs and will consider the entire spectrum of academic disciplines from arts and sciences to law and medicine.

In one dimension of this effort, the Graduate School of Business has already reached an agreement with UNEXT.com, a start-up company, to provide education material primarily for post-graduate education, probably courses in finance, accounting and marketing. This is a non-exclusive agreement to license intellectual property, the rights to which Columbia will retain.

"Columbia will continue to offer its traditional, campus-based degree programs. Indeed, applications to our undergraduate and graduate schools are at record levels," President George Rupp said. "However, interactive, online, multi-media programs will be among the most important educational developments in the 21st century. We believe it vital that Columbia, both because of its academic strengths and its research in new media technologies, should be a leader in this movement. The content of education, whether on campus or online, is best provided by outstanding colleges and universities."

Provost and Dean of Faculties Jonathan R. Cole added, "The mode of production and consumption of knowledge is undergoing changes no less dramatic than the changes from a pre-industrial to industrial society. Knowledge-access to it and the creation of it-will be the engine that will fuel change in the 21st century. Columbia must lead the development of quality in this domain. We will continue to preserve all that is great in our current research and teaching structure, and develop, through digital media, new ways of enhancing still further that quality. That is what we are trying to do in establishing Morningside Ventures."

Executive Vice Provost Michael Crow, who was instrumental in the creation of Morningside Ventures, explained that the University thought it necessary to create Morningside Ventures as a for-profit company.

"After a thousand years, university-based education is undergoing a fundamental transformation," said Crow. "In addition to the classroom and the textbook, we will have interactive, multi-media learning initiatives on the Internet. Because of the technologies required and the non-traditional revenue streams involved, corporations will play a major role in these new forms of education. We felt we needed a for-profit company to compete effectively and productively."

Said Kirschner, "Columbia is one of the oldest and most intellectually rich universities in the nation, and through these initiatives, we hope to extend and enhance the University's international reputation for academic excellence and to reflect its uniqueness and integrity. "Interactive technologies, such as the Internet and digital television, are creating additional dimensions for learning. The technology, itself, is stimulating the creation of information that is increasingly current, diverse and targeted.

"Although the international marketplace for interactive learning is at the early stage of development, there are already thousands of courses available online. But there is very little in the way of context for these courses. We intend to use the Internet to make connections to a worldwide audience, provide a sense of community, respond to daily event and participate in a dynamic marketplace of ideas."

Kirschner has been involved in the telecommunications and interactive communications business in cable, satellite and online ventures. At the National Football League, she directed the introduction of new programming ventures in emerging technologies such as interactive television, on-line services and electronic publishing. She created some of the most successful sports sites on the Internet, including NFL.com, superbowl.com and Team NFL on America Online, and she developed strategic partnerships between the NFL and leading programming, technology and distributions companies.

Before joining the NFL, she was a co-founder of PrimeTime 24, a satellite television venture, and was director of new business for Westinghouse/Group W Cable. She received a Ph.D. in English from Princeton, where she was a lecturer in English literature.

Vikram Nagrani was a principal at Morgan Stanley in the institutional equity division, where he advised hedge funds and other institutional fund managers on investment opportunities in listed equities in Asia. He was also responsible for helping to develop Morgan Stanley's emerging markets franchise.

Following on the heels of Morningside Ventures started up by Columbia University, the new E-SKOLAR venture firm of Stanford University may set a whole new trend in the mission of universities and further blur the bright line between non-profit education versus corporate education --- http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,36227,00.html 

Stanford University, which has trained many of the best minds in Silicon Valley, jumped into the Internet fray Tuesday, spinning off its first startup company to market a high-speed medical search engine for physicians.

E-SKOLAR, based on an internal service developed and used by Stanford's medical school, will allow doctors to search multiple medical references including textbooks, medical journals, drug databases, and clinical guidelines.

The Push for Online Medical Info Why Doctors Hate the Internet Safe E-Health Requires Patience Docs in the Dark Ages Check yourself into Med-Tech Mind your own Business news

"E-SKOLAR has provided us with a great opportunity to respond to the needs of physicians worldwide," Eugene Bauer, vice president for Stanford University Medical Center and dean of Stanford's School of Medicine, said in a news release.

"We believe the service will significantly raise the bar of medical practice by bringing one-click knowledge to the point of care."

As one feature of the e-SKOLAR service, physicians will be able to earn continuing medical education credits -- a "Webucation" strategy designed to place the company in the forefront of those developing Internet-based training schemes, which some investors believe could be the "next big thing" for Internet companies.

Paul Lippe, chief executive of the new company, said it would help physicians to take advantage of Stanford and turn the university, "from a training resource to a sustaining resource."

"Addressing important challenges, such as improving medical care, by leveraging the Web, can do good while creating a very good business," said Lippe, a former senior vice president of business and market development at Synopsys, an electronic design automation company.

E-SKOLAR marks the first direct Internet play for Stanford, which boasts former professors and alumni who started companies ranging from computing giant Hewlett-Packard Co. to Internet portal Yahoo. Stanford owns a majority stake in the new company, which plans to distribute stock options to employees and hopes one day to achieve a successful initial public offering on the stock market.

UNext is becoming a major player in partnering with prestige universities --- 
http://www.unext.com/company_overview/overview.html 

UNext.com was created to deliver world-class education. We are building a scalable education business that delivers the power of knowledge around the world. To bring people the finest curricula, we collaborate and co-brand with leading knowledge institutions. Ultimately, we plan to form partnerships with leading establishments throughout the world.

With a wealth of history and knowledge, our academic consortium helps create and authenticate our online education. They vet course content based on their own experience and long-established standards. Their experts work closely with UNext.com to capture their knowledge in an online environment. Through close collaboration, we're bringing people everywhere the latest and best in business education.

The people at UNext.com - academics, cognitive scientists, computer engineers, and designers- work with these institutions to create state-of-the-art online learning. UNext.com's first online learning community is called Cardean University. UNext.com will continue to create other educational services that fit within our core competency: developing scalable, world-class knowledge businesses for delivery over the internet.

 Partnerings of UNext include some of the most prestigious business schools in the world.  You will find the following at http://www.unext.com/company_overview/alliances_01.html 

Columbia University
 Founded in 1754 as King's College by royal charter of King George II of England, Columbia University is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York and the fifth oldest in the United States. Overall, the university has produced 54 Nobel Prize winners and 12 National Medal of Science winners. Fifteen Columbia scholars have received the MacArthur Foundation award. For further information regarding Columbia University, visit their web site at: http://www.columbia.edu

The University of Chicago
 The University of Chicago is one of the nation's leading private universities and is affiliated with 69 Nobel Prize winners. Founded on October 1, 1892, by John D. Rockefeller, the university - with support of the University of Chicago Hospitals - is also a major economic anchor for the city of Chicago. Moreover, 11 members of the university's faculty have been named Nobel laureates. For more information, visit the University of Chicago web site: http://www.uchicago.edu 

Stanford University
 Founded by Leland and Jane Stanford on October 1, 1891, the university has produced 12 Nobel Prize winners and 20 MacArthur Foundation award recipients. Stanford's School of Engineering consists of nine departments and offers the graduate degrees of Master of Science, Engineer, and Ph.D. For additional information, visit the Stanford University website at: http://www.stanford.edu

London School of Economics and Political Science
 The London School of Economics and Political Science is one of the largest colleges within the University of London. Its studies cover the social, economic, and political problems of countries on every continent. Originally founded in 1895 by Beatrice and Sidney Webb, the school offers a wide range of master's and Ph.D. programs. For more information, visit the school's web site at: http://www.lse.ac.uk 

Carnegie Mellon University 
Carnegie Mellon University is an internationally recognized research university that was founded in 1900 by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Also recognized as a pioneer in the uses of computing in education, Carnegie has one of the world's most sophisticated computing environments. With a distinctive blend of academic programs, the university currently consists of seven colleges and schools: the Carnegie Institute of Technology, the College of Fine Arts, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Mellon College of Science, the Graduate School of Industrial Administration, the School of Computer Science, and the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management. For more information, visit the Carnegie Mellon University Web site at: http://www.cmu.edu 

Another heavy player will be Pensare --- http://www.pensare.com/frame_offer.htm 

Pensare has developed an innovative Internet-based infrastructure to support thinking and action within your organization called a Pensare Knowledge Community™. These Knowledge Community online learning solutions combine applied e-learning techniques and human interaction with validated content from the world’s top business schools and innovators to help your company compete in the new economy. By connecting your people through these customized Internet-based solutions, Pensare can transform your organization into a learning organization.

At Pensare, we believe Knowledge Community™ online learning systems are optimal vehicles for individuals in the workplace, and the organizations that employ them, to be continuously equipped with the latest in business thinking and practices to produce results and advance their competitive advantage in the marketplace. Shared knowledge means greater innovation and faster attainment of business goals. And, it means your company retains this important knowledge even when key employees leave.

Not to be outdone by UNext, Pensare has its own impressive list of partnerships with prestigious universities ---
http://www.pensare.com/frame_partners.htm 

Pensare partners with world-class business schools, consultants, technology providers and seminar providers to offer fresh, current and most effective business practices for the new economy.

In working with our customers and partners, we leverage the expertise of each of the partners to solve customer issues in a manner unmatched by any single vendor or collection of vendors. In so doing, we continue to drive forward creatively and technologically, building long-lasting relationships for the benefit of all.

Duke University
Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Pensare are partnering to coproduce and deliver a new accredited Duke for resale among its corporate customers and other business schools seeking to develop their own degree-granting programs. As part of this agreement, Pensare will provide the Internet MBA program. The alliance also gives Pensare exclusive distribution rights to the jointly developed curriculum—based technology platform, to produce the courses in an online format, and to provide ongoing support for the program.

Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business (http://www.business.duke.edu) was founded in 1969 and is widely regarded as a worldwide leader in management education and research. Fuqua was ranked No. 7 in Business Week’s most recent rankings of the best business schools. It is also a leader in non-degree executive education, training more than 2,000 executives each year.

Harvard Business School Publishing
Harvard Business School Publishing creates products for individuals and organizations that believe in the power of ideas and their impact on the practice of management. Harvard offers materials in a variety of platforms and delivery methods that are distinguished by their integrity, quality and relevance, reflecting the educational mission of the Harvard Business School and its access to leading authors and companies. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Harvard Business School Publishing is a not-for-profit, wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard Business School. Additional information is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu .

The Wharton School
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is regarded as an innovative leader in executive education, enrolls more than 9,000 participants annually. The School is recognized around the world for its leadership and broad academic strengths across every major discipline and at every level of management education. Founded in 1881 as the nation’s first collegiate business school, Wharton has nearly 5,000 students from more than 60 nations enrolled in degree programs, and is committed to creating the highest value in the understanding of business and the practice of management worldwide.

Additional information is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.wharton.upenn.edu .

Question:
What major publishing firm has formed a university and is awaiting accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges?  

Answer:
Harcourt Higher Education --- http://www.harcourthighered.com/ 

Harcourt has submitted an application to the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education for higher education degree-granting authority. Massachusetts law prohibits stating or implying that the outcome of this application will be positive. All information is provided herein with the understanding that Harcourt's plan to license degree programs in Massachusetts is contingent upon approval by the Board of Higher Education

Excerpt  from my November 9, 1999 Edition of New Bookmarks at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book99q4.htm#prestige

Ivy Online

Elite universities and professional schools are scrambling to "leverage their brands" and make extra money through online education.

See http://www.thestandard.com/articles/display/0,1449,7122,00.html 

Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm 

Some excerpts from http://www.thestandard.com/articles/display/0,1449,7122,00.html

Columbia is not alone in its Internet ambitions. The nation's elite universities, long secure in their centuries-old reputations, face a rapidly changing world in which any school, from the University of South Alabama to UC Berkeley, can put its courses online and court a global market for continuing education. Fearing that they will be left behind, Ivy League administrators are becoming dealmakers, and buzz phrases like "leveraging brands" and "tapping intellectual capital" echo from the Stanford Quad to Harvard Square.

In recent months, Stanford, the London School of Economics and other top-tier schools have followed Columbia's lead, signing with UNext to trade their name and curricula for equity in the startup. Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, meanwhile, have struck deals with Pensare, a Silicon Valley company that creates online courses. Harvard will receive stock warrants in Pensare, as will Duke University, which is licensing a complete MBA curriculum to the company.

(The UNext web site is at http://www.unext.com/ )
(The Pensare web site is at http://www.pensare.com/index.htm )

...

Education As Commodity

Thanks in part to the Net's ability to distribute courses to students anywhere at any time, learning is becoming another commodity, part of the $740 billion "education industry" that has attracted keen interest on Wall Street. Scores of community colleges and universities have embraced distance learning in recent years, putting courses online for people who are too busy or live too far away from institutions to attend classes. Meanwhile, online-only schools, such as the for-profit Jones International University, have emerged to capitalize on the growing demand for adult education.

The ultimate "brand" in education is a Harvard, a Stanford, a Columbia degree; the ultimate market for those schools is overseas, where there's a relative surfeit of universities and the names Harvard and Stanford are as recognized in corporate circles as Coca-Cola and Pepsi. But the Ivys have been late to move online, reluctant to put their jealously guarded reputations in the hands of the private partners that are needed to provide the technology and financing to create Internet courses.

Helen Chen is the type of potential student the top-tier schools covet but could lose to more wired competitors. The 32-year-old Harvard graduate wants to obtain an MBA but expects she'll have to do so online because the demands of her job at consulting firm Mitchell Madison Group prevent her from attending a traditional program. But Chen is still looking to enroll at a top-ranked school. "I have a pretty good undergraduate education and I don't want to get just any MBA attached to my name," she says.

The needs of people like Chen are forcing elite universities to embrace the Internet, acknowledges Harvard Business School Dean Kim Clark. "Education used to be done in the early stage of someone's life and maybe once or twice after that," he says. "We are moving into an era where organizations are much more fluid, the pace of change is much faster and much more international. There's much more need for just-in-time, just-right education. The Internet is becoming central to education because it allows you to meet these kinds of needs."

There are other motivators, however, behind university administrators' enthusiasm for the Net. For decades, they have watched professors transform the knowledge they acquired in the university's employ into royalties from books that publishers then sell back to the universities. Now that this gold mine of intellectual property can be packaged and sold online, universities are determined to share in the profits. "The idea that all of this content – we used to call it teaching and learning – can be turned into content with an economic value is extraordinary," says Geoffrey Cox, a Stanford University vice provost. "Frankly, if anyone is going to get the economic value of that, it will be the university."

How Top Business Schools Are Teaching Each Other's Students 

Top Business Schools E-Align
Jun. 29, 2000

Beginning this fall, three high-ranking, competing business schools will collaborate to offer classes to each other's students via full-motion video-conferencing and other Internet technologies.

School officials expect it to become a popular feature, despite logistical difficulties and a prevailing belief among detractors that the quality of the education might suffer.

The Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Michigan Business School, and the Darden School at the University of Virginia will offer each other's students classes specializing in e-business.

"So much of business education is the network-building between the students," said Haas Dean Laura Tyson. "What is nice here is that people in each location will now be able to have a new selection of classes to choose from, and a new selection of people to work with."

"In essence, this program is not only about sharing knowledge but about sharing communities," she said.

Each school will offer its own courses in e-business and technology. Class preparation materials and research will be distributed over the Internet, and students will communicate during class with each other and with faculty via video-conferencing and Internet chat rooms.

For example, a student at Berkeley's Haas School could elect to take Darden's course on e-business. The Haas School will offer a course on financial issues in the Internet sector, including valuation of high-technology companies. Michigan will teach a course on understanding and strategically applying Internet technologies.

The University of Michigan's alliance with the other two schools grew out of its video-conferencing and Internet chat room classes used by its MBA students studying abroad in Brazil and Korea. The university's MBA abroad program began in Hong Kong in 1985, when professors used video-conferencing and other Internet technologies. Although that program is no longer taking place, programs in Korea and Brazil are.

Michigan Dean of Business B. Joseph White went to Brazil to teach students who were using the technology.

"I came away from the teaching experience with the feeling that the students were achieving a very strong level of education," White said. "I feel very confident in the quality of education and fairness of grading that can be achieved through video-conferencing and the Internet."

"If I didn't feel it would work, I wouldn't propose (the alliance between Michigan, Haas, and Darden)," he added.

There are skeptics out there.

Mihir Mankab, a recent graduate of the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, said it was difficult to enroll in a popular e-business class offered at his school. Due to its popularity, the class used video-conferencing and Internet chat rooms so that more students could participate.

The rest of the article is at http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,37220,00.html 

What is So Important About Logo Prestige Versus Accreditation?

If the credit earned on a course carries the logo of Harvard University, Stanford University, London School of Economics, Motorola University, AT&T University, or some other logo with high brand recognition, prestige, and respect for quality control, it matters very little whether the program is officially accredited.  This is why startups like UNext are so eager to pay huge amounts of money to partner with institutions having prestige logos.  

For other online programs that do not carry prestige logos, accreditation looms as a troubling issue.  Very few programs that are not extensions of existing accredited institutions (like UCLA Extension is an extension of UCLA),  Western Governors University ( http://www.wgu.edu/ ) is an example of a competency-based online university that has been hung up for years earning its regional accreditations.  You can read the following at http://www.wgu.edu/wgu/academics/accreditation.html 

SALT LAKE CITY - In follow-up to the WGU site visit for candidacy for accreditation that took place February 7-10, 2000, the Interregional Accrediting Committee (IRAC) today announced that they have been unable to decide this issue and have deferred action on WGU's application for six months. IRAC has asked WGU to submit further information about its unique model.

"While we would have preferred more certainty, this is part of the process for a new institution," stated WGU president Bob Mendenhall. "Traditional accreditation is a three stage process-eligibility, candidacy, and accreditation...and it takes some time. WGU's status as an eligible university has not changed, and no negative judgment about the quality of our degrees is implied by this deferral."

WGU provost, Dr. Chip Johnstone added, "The fact that five major universities already accept our associate degrees in transfer through articulation agreements, that several states recognize our master's degree for teachers, and that twenty major corporations provide substantial financial support for WGU's continuing development is a tremendous show of quality support for WGU. While our candidacy will take longer to achieve, it is not surprising that the uniquely innovative nature of our model is difficult for traditional educators to evaluate."

WGU Co-Chair Gov. Mike Leavitt of Utah, stated, "The needs of society for education and training are changing more rapidly than traditional education can meet. WGU was developed as a new and unique distance education initiative to address those needs. We realize that it will take time for the traditional accreditation agencies to feel comfortable with this kind of innovation, but the market is demanding it and it will happen. WGU will continue to move forward in a positive and quality manner and work diligently to provide IRAC with what they have requested to make a decision regarding our candidate for accreditation status over the next six months."

"Over the last 10 years, traditional educational institutions have not been able to keep pace with society's or industry's needs. The result is that we have gone around traditional education processes," added WGU board member Gov. Jim Geringer of Wyoming. "That was the reason for the creation of WGU. We expect that the traditions will change out of the necessity to certify competency in new ways. Education must adapt so that it can actually certify competency, not just certify that a student has been exposed to education, and that is what WGU is all about. The deferment of WGU's candidacy status demonstrates the impact WGU is already having on higher education and the need for change. We will continue to move forward with our exciting initiative."

About IRAC

IRAC is the sixteen-member committee that represents four regional accreditation commissions that was formed to conduct the accreditation process for WGU. The commissions involved in IRAC are the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (Commission on Institutions of Higher Education), Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges (Commission on Colleges), the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities and Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges).

About WGU

WGU is a degree-granting, competency-based, online, distance-education institution. With just a few clicks at www.wgu.edu, a student can find competency-based degree programs, an online catalog of quality distance-learning courses, an online library, bookstore, and one-on-one access to a personal WGU mentor, who will guide the student through his or her customized degree program. WGU was founded and is supported by 19 states and governors as well as 20 leading corporations and foundations. Current WGU competency-based degree offerings include an MA in learning and technology, an AA, three AAS degrees in information technology, and an AAS degree in electronics manufacturing technology.

You can read more about existing WGU degree programs and certificate programs at http://www.wgu.edu/wgu/smartcatalog/index.html 

Very few corporate programs are regionally accredited in the U.S. unless they are partnered with accredited colleges.  One exception is Jones International University ( The first truly online college to receive regional accreditation in the U.S. is the Jones International University at http://www.jonesinternational.edu/  has regional accreditation.  Some like Harcourt Higher Education at http://www.harcourthighered.com/  are in the midst of seeking regional accreditation.

Accreditation Issues

For general background on accreditation, you can enter the search term "Accreditation" at http://ifap.ed.gov/dev_csb/new/srchsite.nsf/Web+Search+Simple?OpenForm 

There are three sources of accreditation:

• Type 1
  Accrediting agencies of the government or sanctioned by the government (for example the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) has a government sanction)  Accreditation is a tough issue that I have not researched fully. I suspect that the main accreditation process must use one of the Federally-approved agencies. You can see a listing at http://ifap.ed.gov/85256508006391d1/005fd53d0d39dd4285256508006391ed/852565a7005d473f85256675004fbec9?OpenDocument 
  
  

• Type 2
  Accrediting agencies that carry the logo of prestige (for example, training courses that have Microsoft certification)
  
  

• Type 3
  Accrediting agencies that start with neither a prestige logo nor government blessing but attempt to build a reputation through standards and membership.  For example, a relatively popular accrediting agency called Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) is a Type 3 agency at http://www.acbsp.org/.

Richard Newmark forwarded the following information to me about the relatively new Association for Online Excellence:

For a new entity, AOAE has been quite busy -- they've accredited schools from Adams State College to Youngstown State University. ( http://www.aoaex.org/pbo.htm  )

You might want to check to see if your university is on the list -- and the university legal department might want to contact AOAE.

On a related note, tomorrow (Tuesday July 18) I'll be offering an online chat focusing on how to evaluate school websites from 1 to 3, Central time. Drop by http://www.distancelearn.about.com/mpchat.htm to join in.

.Kristin Evenson Hirst 
About.com Guide to Distance Learning 
http://distancelearn.about.com/  
email: distancelearn.guide@about.com

AOAE has a relatively long list accredited programs, including some major colleges and universities.

"Does Accredited Really Mean Accredited?" by Sally Johnstone, "Syllabus, January 2001, p. 22.  The online versions of these short articles in Syllabus are usually not made available on the Web.  The Syllabus home page is at http://www.syllabus.com/ 

Except where a U.S. distance education course is from an accrediting body recognized by either the U.S. Secretary of Education or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), Ms. Johnstone casts doubt on the value of the accreditation.  There are "about 100 accrediting bodies that are unrecognized."  Some are very dubious accrediting bodies.  Obviously some are more prestigious than others.  Ms. Johnstone states the following:

This is a good question for a potential student to ask.  For most of us, accreditation refers to the regional or professional accrediting associations that have historically validated our traditional colleges and universities.  They assure that institutions have the intellectual, organizational, and financial capabilities they claim to have.

One accrediting group that is becoming well-known among distance learning providers is the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC).  It has been around since 1926 and was originally developed to assess correspondence schools.  Lately, several non-traditional online providers have gone to the DETC for accreditation because the DETC process for evaluation can be completed in a much shorter time frame than the regional accreditation associations' processes.  However, students studying at an institution accredited solely by the DETC are unlikely to be eligible for federal student loans and grants.

The CHEA homepage is at http://www.chea.org/About/ 

The DETC homepage is at http://www.detc.org/ 

In my opinion, the impossibility or impracticability of getting appropriate accreditation is what is driving many distance education providers to partner either with established accredited colleges or with prestigious corporations.  For example, accreditation becomes less important if the transcript can be stamped with such logos as Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Ernst & Young, etc.  However, for college credit, having accreditation from an organization recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education still has special meanings in the U.S. even if there is a wide range of quality of schools having such accreditations.  These special meanings include transfer credit to other colleges, qualifications for admittance to graduate programs, and government funding of loans and grants.

How to Discover and Analyze the Costs of Developing an Online Program

Question:  What is the leading research study on the cost of developing an online program (including a spreadsheet that you can use in your own institution)?

Answer: In this age of exploding technology, three things are still certain --- death, taxes, and cost accounting.  The bottom line for universities and corporations developing online courses will ultimately boil down to revenues minus costs.  Measuring and accounting for costs of online courses is an enormous problem that entails joint costs, indirect costs, and economies of scale.  Brian Morgan at Marshall University is sharing a tremendous research study into cost analysis of online courses and programs.  He also shares a worksheet that readers can implement for their own programs.

Links to Dr. Morgan's paper and a worksheet to determine the cost of an online education course --- http://webpages.marshall.edu/~morgan16/onlinecosts/ 

Are Some of These High Profile Ventures Scams?