Class.com secures two state licenses for online high school courses

Internet Strategies for Education Markets: The Heller Report, Jan, 2000

Class.com (Lincoln, NB) has entered the market for online high school classes with state contracts in Kentucky and Kansas. Discussions are underway with four more states, says John Blair, president. But this is not a story of instant success. Classroom.com has the exclusive license to distribute online courses from the U. of Nebraska's Independent Study High School (ISHS), a distance learning organization formed in 1929 and accredited since 1978.

Classroom.com was established in April of 1998 to market the online courses and began operations last July. The U of Nebraska is a major shareholder, and the board of directors includes J. Robert Kerrey, a US Senator from Nebraska and former Governor of the state, and Donald Helmuth, president of the Nebraska Technology Development Corporation and associate vice chancellor for research, U of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The commercial spin-off has a ten year exclusive license to all of the online courses from ISHS, including access to the teachers on the ISHS staff and use of ISHS as an accrediting body. ISHS currently offers 30 online courses, with 25 more to be rolled out over the next 18 months.

Blair says that Class.com will market these courses as well as courses that Class.com creates in-house and additional best-of-breed courses that come under their umbrella through acquisition, partnership or strategic alliance.

Class.com focuses on helping schools fill-out their curriculum offerings for children with advanced or remedial needs and to meet capacity problems, such as an enrollment boost or a teacher shortage. The company also has a young Olympian and rock star as students; their unconventional schedules require online schooling.

Both Kentucky and Kansas approached Class.com as they sought online learning solutions. While Class.com has considerable reach through the long-standing Nebraska program, they don't expect all sales to be so simple. The company is building an in-house sales team for direct sales at the state, district and school level. Blair says that Class.com will also pursue indirect sales. Currently, GPN Educational Media (Lincoln, NB, http://gpn.unl.edu/), a nonprofit distributor perhaps best known as the creators of Reading Rainbow, is reselling the courses nationally.

License Details

Starting this month, the Kentucky Virtual High School (KVHS which resides on an eCollege (Englewood, CO) server at kcvhs.redirect.ecollege.com) will make eleven of Class.com's courses available to all schools in the state. KVHS stems from the same state-funded organization as the Kentucky Commonwealth Virtual University, www.kcvu.org (see ISEM, Sept. 1999). The online high school is likely to expand to offering all of the Class.com courses next year.

Kentucky teachers will support the courses, and the agreement calls for Class.com to train those teachers. Teachers on the staff of ISHS will serve as backup support. Schools pay a fee of $300 per student per course, a price which covers the Class.com licensing fees and the participation of the Kentucky teachers. Home schooling parents can also purchase the courses for their children.

Mary Beth Susman, ceo of KCVU, expects demand to exceed availability during this pilot phase. She says that the program will be using both Class.com courses and some created by Kentucky Education Television for the Net during the spring semester. "We hope to build some ourselves and perhaps license more as we go forward," says Susman.

The Kansas license is through a service center that reaches the entire state, Southeast Kansas Education Service Center at Greenbush. As with Kentucky, teachers within the state will facilitate the courses. The courses will cost $295 per student. Mike Bodensteiner, Greenbush program director, is enthusiastic about the license's ability to give schools and individuals in the state volume discounts on the courses. And as education consumers have new choices through web-based offerings, says Bodensteiner, the classes also help to ensure that public education is the first and best choice for his constituency.

Class.com is a private company. They are currently in a quiet period.