Tuesday, July 24, 2001

AARP Signs a Deal With Fathom for Distance-Education Courses By DAN CARNEVALE Members of AARP already get discounts to fly on airlines, to sail on cruise lines, and to see Disney on Ice. Now they will be getting a discount on distance education. Fathom, a for-profit online-education provider, is announcing today that it has signed a deal with AARP to bring online courses to its 35 million members. Members of the AARP, who are age 50 or older and pay annual dues, will get a 5-percent discount on the cost of any course. Fathom is owned by Columbia University and a dozen other institutions, including universities and museums. Anne Rollow, vice president for strategic alliances for Fathom, says many AARP members are looking to continue their education without having to go back to college. "Their membership was looking for opportunities in online learning," she says. AARP is paying Fathom for other services besides offering online courses. Fathom is helping AARP develop a section of its Web site dedicated to online learning. The section will include courses from a number of different providers besides Fathom. Neither group would disclose details of their financial arrangement. Fathom had previously announced that it would postpone efforts to advertise its services to the public, concentrating instead on serving alumni of the member institutions. Ms. Rollow says the deal with AARP does not contradict that goal, because Fathom can still increase its offerings to alumni while providing services to AARP. Other similar deals are forthcoming, she says. Tom Otwell, a media-relations specialist for AARP, says its members are interested in finding new ways to increase their knowledge on various subjects. "Older folks certainly don't stop learning at X age," he says. "There's still a lot of learning opportunities for them." Some of the courses available on the AARP Web page include classes on women's health and American literature. Ms. Rollow says the large membership pool was one of the attractive features of working with AARP. But she also says Fathom will do well to take aim at this demographic group, whose members are starting to become more comfortable with computers and the Internet. "People over 50 are really a growing Web audience," she says. "This is a key audience for reaching out to the lifelong learners." Background articles from The Chronicle: For-Profit Web Venture Shifts Gears, Hoping to Find a Way to Make a Profit (2/9/2001) Knowledge Is 'a Form of Venture Capital' for a Top Columbia Administrator (2/9/2001) Web Company Founded by Columbia U. Opens a Beta Version of Its Site (12/1/2000) Columbia's Fathom Site Attracts 4 More Prominent Partners (9/8/2000) Going for Profit and Scholarship on the Web (5/5/2000) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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