Online Courses Lead For-Profit Learning Trend

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July 01, 1998 (11:27 AM EDT)

Online Courses Lead For-Profit Learning Trend

By Mo Krochmal,

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Of the 60 new distance-learning courses the University of British Columbia in Vancouver has added in the past three years, 50 are also offered on the Web.

Online classes, part of the growing trend toward distance learning, are helping the 90-year-old institution redefine itself as a networked, virtual university and one of the leaders in using information technology to reach students outside its geographic boundaries.

"It's a result of our management thinking strategically," said Anthony Bates, director of distance education and technology at UBC. Bates spoke at the Institute for Leadership in Distance Education, a three-day conference this week at Pennsylvania State University. Bates said UBC's online initiative was born after a budget freeze forced the university to find new ways to increase revenue.

But UBC, with a student body some 33,000 strong, isn't alone. Peterson's, the college guide, lists more than 800 colleges and universities with distance-learning courses. Five years ago, there were fewer than 100. In many cases, they are correspondence courses or even delivered via satellite, but more often, it means using the Internet to teach students. For example, Duke University recently began offering an M.B.A. program on the Web.

UBC offers classes through video-conferencing, on CD-ROM, the Internet, and of course, in its classrooms. It also sells its services to organizations that seek custom training, and intends to eventually turn a profit from these activities. That has yet to happen, although Bates praised the online courses as a way of "reorganizing the university for the 21st century."

The school offers distance courses in the arts, agriculture, forestry, and law, and is preparing courses in dentistry and pharmacy. It has a distance-learning partnership with the Monterrey Institute of Technology, a private college with campuses throughout Mexico, and is looking to franchise its programs globally.

In creating virtual courses, UBC saves money. "We were able to do an online course at half the cost of print," said Bates. In addition, the virtual courses let UBC get more mileage from its offerings, by disseminating them through varying media.

Murray Goldberg, a computer science professor at the school, led the development of Web-CT, a software tool that helps educators create Web-based courses. The software, which costs around $200 for a site license for 50 students, is now installed at 600 different institutions around the world.

UBC's efforts are " very close" to the ideal virtual university, said Joan Calvert, coordinator of academic computing at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn. "They have a big jump on us, they are online and now working internationally. The ramifications of this will transform the higher education model."