Distance-learning ventures propel top universities into for-profit sector: Harvard, Cornell, and Stanford among those lured by $10 billion potential - B2C

Matrix: The Magazine for Leaders in Education, Nov-Dec, 2000 by Karen Singer

"We have been involved in some form of distance learning for a dozen years, and it's the most overhyped thing, primarily because the supply of companies trying to market content significantly exceeds demands," said the Wharton School's Mittelstaedt. "That's true of a lot of new industries and technologies, but everyone has jumped on the bandwagon and assumed the whole world is going to embrace that form of education. There are still a lot of questions about whether those of us who produce content are going to do it in a way to make it a valuable learning experience for the student."

The Wharton School has five joint ventures involving executive training, including alliances with Pensare, Skillsoft, and Caliber Learning Systems.

"We're still trying to figure out how this is going to work best," Mittelstaedt said, adding the school has spent between $2 million and $3 million on Internet-related learning efforts.

Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, which recently established a for-profit arm called Duke Corporate Education, Inc., also has joined forces with Pensare for an online MBA program.

Business and professional training make up the majority of courses offered by OnlineLearning.net, a partnership formed in 1994 to distribute online courses for the UCLA extension, a part of University of California at Los Angeles providing continuing education for adults. As part of a licensing and royalty arrangement, the company has exclusive worldwide electronic rights to all courses developed by UCLA extension for online delivery. About 40 percent of students live in more than 50 countries, including England, Australia, Norway, China, Japan, and Taiwan. Sixty-four percent of all students are women.

Around 3,000 students are expected in the fourth quarter of 2000, up from 2, 500 the previous quarter.

"It's not degree-granting, but you can earn professional development credits," OnlineLearning.net President and CEO John E. Kobara said.

Over the past two years, OnlineLearning.net has inked 37 deals with new partners, including edukos.com, a Korean portal supported by Intel and Samsung to promote online education for teachers in Korea.

In January 2001, OnlineLearning.net will launch a full master's program for teachers in urban education, as part of an arrangement with Occidental College in Los Angeles. Also coming soon, will be professional practice tests from Chauncey, the for-profit arm of the Educational Testing Service, Kobara said. "We're going to be one of the first providers of around 77 certification tests," including those for teachers, nurses, and architects, he said.

Other big-name universities are forming alliances with UNext.com, an online education company founded by entrepreneur and educator Andy Rosenfield, whose subsidiary, Cardean University, awards graduate degrees in business administration, information management, and information technology.

Currently marketing to multinational corporations with global work forces, UNext expects its 24 courses to mushroom to 100, with graduate level offerings in art, history, philosophy, and liberal arts by the end of the year. As of September, about 300 students were enrolled, primarily middle and top managers from Fortune 100, Fortune 1000, and Global 500 companies with headquarters in the U.S.