Wednesday, January 19, 2000

Brown U. and Williams College Consider Alliance With New Online-Education Company By SARAH CARR and JEFFREY R. YOUNG Brown University and Williams College are seriously considering a proposal by a new company to offer their courses on the Internet. The two institutions are among several colleges the company has approached with a plan that, if accepted, would represent one of the first major embraces of online education by Ivy League and other elite colleges. Organizers of the company, Global Education Network, have approached eight or nine Ivy League universities and other top-tier colleges. The company was founded by Mark Taylor, a professor of humanities at Williams, and by Herbert Allen, president of the venture-capital firm Allen & Co. and an alumnus of Williams. It has no official connection to Williams. Company officials declined to provide specifics about the Global Education Network or to identify the colleges and universities that they have contacted. But spokesmen at Brown and Williams confirmed that those institutions had been approached by the company and were discussing the offer, while a Princeton University spokeswoman said it was doubtful that the university would get involved. Kim B. Bruce, a professor of computer science at Williams and co-chairman of a committee formed to consider the company's proposal, said it called for Williams professors to work with technicians and other employees at GEN to put existing courses on the Internet using a variety of technologies. He said the courses would not be taken for Williams credit and that target audiences might include Williams alumni, continuing-education students, and advanced high-school students. Some projections show that colleges that work with the company could earn $250,000 per course, according to Mr. Bruce. He said that if Williams did accept the company's offer, it would most likely have five to ten professors per year working on the effort. Mr. Bruce said the company's plans had served as a springboard for broader discussions of online learning and the incorporation of technology into courses at Williams. "We are not just looking at the GEN proposal, but are interested in considering the general issues involved in online learning, and whether or not it would be a good thing for Williams to be involved in," he said. Newell M. Stultz, associate provost at Brown, said officials there were optimistic about the idea. "I think we are considering it in a positive light and expecting something to happen," he said. "On a provisional or pilot basis, we are interested to see how this works out and are expecting it to be the beginning of something that may be not a permanent change, but an adaptation of the way our education is delivered to its audience." Mr. Stultz added that the university had little experience with online or distance learning, but that officials had begun to look at specific courses that could be put online through the company. Princeton was approached by the company but will probably decline to participate, said S. Georgia Nugent, associate provost at the university. "We haven't absolutely said 'Oh yes' or 'Oh no,' but my sense of things is that it's something that we're unlikely to do," she said. "I think we are unlikely to feel that we want to partner in a venture-capital kind of way, you know, a for-profit kind of way." She added that the university was watching the issue of distance education closely, and had had conversations with "a number of different parties" about possible partnerships to offer online courses. Officials at Harvard University were unsure Tuesday whether Global Education Network had approached the institution. "There are so many people wanting to get into this business that it gets a little bewildering," said Michael Shinagel, Harvard's dean of continuing education, who notes that companies regularly approach the university with proposals. For the moment, however, Harvard has placed a moratorium on entering any distance-learning partnerships, preferring to hold off until a university committee decides how distance education fits into Harvard's long-term strategy. Gregory A. Jackson, chief information officer at the University of Chicago, said that as far as he knew his institution had not talked with the Global Education Network. The university has signed a deal to work with another company, Unext.com, to offer courses online. "Everybody has this I.P.O. fever these days," said Mr. Jackson, who added that there were "many too many" ventures competing to offer high-quality distance education. "No one really knows how to take elite university education and translate it into online education," he said. That is an issue with which Williams is currently wrestling, said Mr. Bruce. He said members of his committee would present details of their discussions to the college faculty next month. He added that the committee was particularly concerned with issues of course ownership, start-up costs, and the amount of faculty time involved in online endeavors. "Williams would need to release some of its faculty from portions of their regular teaching, because I don't see how they could continue with a full teaching load and work on the development of an online course," he said. "And if we are going to be pulling faculty away from the classroom, we need to find a way of making up for that." Regardless of the final outcome, Mr. Bruce said he thought the Global Education Network proposal would spur a useful discussion on the campus. "The committee was formed because the administration felt that it was very important to think about these issues," he said. "Even though we are a small college focused on a residential student body, we need to see what is going on in the world, and not just close our eyes and pretend that these things have nothing to do with us." Background stories from The Chronicle: From Kant to Las Vegas to Cyberspace: a Philosopher on the Edge of Postmodernism (5/29/98) A Company Pays Top Universities to Use Their Names and Their Professors (6/18/99) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

Justices signal that they may apply rationale of age-bias decision in sex-bias case Colleges continue to hire more part-time faculty members, government study finds Colorado higher-education report cites pay bias, unprepared students Indiana U. trustees abandon golf course plan As its president, Williams College hires an expert on the economics of academe Funds for Internet infrastructure may flow again, as court refuses to hear appeal Brown U. and Williams College consider alliance with new online-education company