Education: Private alternative, distance learning

Growth Strategies, May 17, 1999

Education in the United States is undergoing two simultaneous transformations -- privatization and technologization, both of which underpin a third: remote or distance learning.

Privatization

Over $600 billion is spent on education every year in the United States - more than is devoted to either the Defense Department or pensions - and spending per pupil is predicted to rise 40% over the next 10 years. According to International Data Corporation, the private sector's share of the education market will expand from 13% to 25% over the coming two decades.

Educational companies are mushrooming, providing instructional materials using new media (satellite links, software, the Internet), and offering supplementary services - tutoring, testing, training, coaching and pre-school education. Some market leaders in these fields include Sylvan Learning Systems, The Edison Project, Nobel Learning Communications, KinderCare and Knowledge Universe.

The movement of profit-making companies into ownership and management of schools has stalled (private schools educate just over 10% of America's children), but barriers between public and private education are eroding. There are between one and two million home-schooled students in the US; over 1,000 charter schools (private schools funded with public monies); and a growing number of educational management organizations that, like HMOs, seek to both produce better results and improve administrative efficiencies.

Distance Learning

Remote learning has been part of American education since 19th century correspondence courses. Today the Internet, World Wide Web, video teleconferencing, interactive computer software and email put instructors and students all over the world "virtually" together in colleges, universities and corporate training centers.

According to International Data Corp., the number of students utilizing remote education will grow 33% annually over the next 3 years, increasing from 710,000 last year to 2.2 million by 2002. Some 60% of academic institutions already offer online learning as part of their curriculum; 85% will do so by 2002. IDC estimates the online learning market will grow from $600 million in annual receipts today to over $10 billion by 2002.

The University of Phoenix is probably the best-known non-traditional, for-profit institution in the US. It educates roughly 62,000 students, mostly in professional fields such as business, nursing and information sciences. Some 5,500 of its students take their courses online, a number that has been growing by roughly 50% a year.

Jones Education Company handles online programs for the University of Colorado, the University of Delaware, Washington State University, California State University and George Washington University. Jones International University has just become the first accredited college to offer undergraduate and graduate degrees through classes conducted exclusively over the Internet. UNEXT.com plans to deliver postgraduate-level training online to corporations around the world; Columbia University's business school has signed on as the first academic institution to provide educational materials, and IBM has signed on as the first corporate customer.

Other universities rushing to offer online education include Boston University, Carnegie Mellon, New York University, Penn State, Purdue, Duke, Stanford, University of California, University of North Carolina and University of Wisconsin. Most aren't making any money at it, but like loss-making Internet retailers, hope to become profitable one day in the future.

Besides the question of profits, there's also the question of effectiveness. According to recent reports from both the College Board and the Institute for Higher Education Policy, distance learning has several potential limitations:

Online students are on average more likely to be older, white, male, affluent, tech-savvy and already employed. Younger, poorer, minority students who have less exposure to new technologies may not get to benefit from distance learning.

Online courses do not necessarily expand the student base. Most participants either aren't conventional college candidates or would have enrolled in classroom-based programs in any case.

Retention rates are disappointing; many students apparently are discouraged by the impersonal nature of online learning and drop out.

Online students miss out on all of the informal and experiential learning that occurs in a campus environment or academic milieu. Remote learning enthusiasts counter each of these negative concerns with positive merits:

Because distance learners are self-selected, they tend to be more motivated and selfreliant. Hence they actually show higher rates of retention and completion than most traditional students.

For those who live in remote areas, have hectic schedules, are transferred or are otherwise non-traditional students, online learning can deliver high-quality, low-cost education with unmatched speed and convenience.

Interactivity between and among all students and instructors is an integral facet of virtual classrooms and courses. Participation is required, hence personal, informal, experiential learning is still part of remote education.