Distance-learning firm builds national customer base

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Aug 20, 2004 by Dickinson, Casey J

SYRACUSE - Hezel Associates helps educational clients ensure their information highways are headed in the right direction. Founded in 1987 by Richard T. Hezel, Ph.D., Hezel Associates, LLC provides research, evaluation, and strategic services for education-sector clients.

The consulting firm has earned a national reputation in the field of distance learning and higher-education needs assessment. Hezel Associates is also the North American marketing partner for LEARNTEC, Europe's largest education technology conference.

Though technology plays a large part in Hezel Associates' business, its founder stresses the point that technology isn't the focus of his work.

"This isn't about technology," says Hezel, "it's about learning."

A former Syracuse University professor, Hezel began consulting in the field of distance learning when television was the main focus. In 1987, the Internet hadn't yet become a mass medium, and closed-circuit television held the most promise in the late 1980s. Hezel's career in education studies began in the early 1970s when he worked on a project to bring closed-circuit television to Brooklyn Preparatory School. He later worked as a producer at WCNY.

Hezel's work takes him and other Armemployees to client sites across the nation and around the world. The annual LEARN TEC conference takes place in Germany, and Hezel provides services for clients in Arizona, the Virgin Islands, and West Virginia. Sometimes Hezel's travel schedule doesn't conform to the ideals of Central New York travelers. His latest work in Miami and other sunny locales often takes place during the summer months rather than during the dead of winter. The LEARNTEC Conference brings Hezel to Germany February.

Hezel has added three new employees this year. The firm's offices are located at 1201 E. Fayette St. in the Samuel William Business Center, where it leases about 1,000 square feet. Hezel Associates employs 11.

Hezel's employees don't just talk about distance learning. Some of the firm's employees work from home.

In recent years, federal and state education officials have shifted their focus towards results-oriented programs. Hezel Associates performs studies of education projects to determine if the program are producing . demonstrable results. One of Hezel's ongoing studies involves the Public Broadcasting System's TeacherLine professional-development program. Hezel is studying the achievement of students whose teachers participate in the program to determine if there is any link between the teacher-education program and subsequent student performance. One portion of the project involves students and teachers in Florida's Miami-Dade school district. Other evaluation projects include studies for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on how to interest students in ocean sciences and one for McDougall-Littell regarding classroom use of an online algebra textbook. The projects typically last for several years with Hezel's staff preparing periodic progress reports before making a final assessment. The firm cooperates with researchers from educational institutions in some of its studies.

The Internet is following a similar path that television did as an educational tool, says Hezel. Television was once touted as a boon to educators, but by 1961 FCC Chairman Newton Minnow denounced the medium as a "vast wasteland" in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters. The Internet held similar promise as an educational miracle in the mid-1990s, but educators have now adopted a more realistic view of the medium, he explains.

"Many universities realize they need a distance-learning program," says Hezel, "but they first want to see how it can work for them."

Hezel's strategic-consulting services help higher education clients see where distance learning fits into their programs. Hezel helps universities develop distance-learning programs and evaluate the resources needed to make a successful program.

Hezel has worked with Denver-based Regis University for many years. Regis offers several advanced-degree programs online, including physical therapy and nursing. The Jesuit University was founded in 1877 in Las Vegas, N.M., and later moved to Denver.

Hezel predicts future growth for the distance-learning market as well as for the other segments of the business. He declines to disclose the company's annual revenue.