Wednesday, September 12, 2001

San Diego Company Quietly Provides Online Courses to Nearly 1,000 Institutions By MICHAEL ARNONE Over the past six years, a San Diego company that most students have never heard of has become one of the biggest names in adult continuing education. The company, Education to Go, offers not-for-credit courses in all 50 states and five countries. Company officials say it currently offers courses through 945 client institutions, including almost 700 community colleges and more than 200 universities and other four-year institutions. It has 135 courses in its catalog now, and has 200 more in development, with four new titles coming out each week for the next year. But even students who take its courses may not know its name. "Education to Go does all that it can to remain transparent to the students," wrote Craig Power, co-founder of the company, in an e-mail interview. "Most students enter our courses under the assumption that they originated at the school through which they were offered." Education to Go courses are popular, said Martha Kossoff, a program developer for community education at Northern Virginia Community College, in Annandale. The college has had 506 registrations for Education to Go courses in the past two semesters and has received only one complaint, she said. The company offers a money-back guarantee to any dissatisfied student. Ms. Kossoff said the college has had many repeat customers for the company's courses. Donna Burns, head of the Communiversity adult continuing-education program at the University of Cincinnati, said the same is true there. Ms. Burns said that Communiversity now teaches all its computer classes through Education to Go, while Ms. Kossoff said that Northern Virginia Community College offers both traditional classroom and the online computer courses. Computer courses are the company's most popular offerings, especially courses in the HTML and Java programming languages and in A+ and Microsoft systems-engineer certification, Mr. Power wrote. Writing, language, genealogy, and debt-elimination courses are also popular. Unlike most other online-course providers, Education to Go splits course revenues with its client institutions and doesn't charge up-front fees, said Leon Levy, director of community services and business development at Mira Costa College, a client college in Oceanside, Calif. If no one enrolls in a course, the college or university incurs no cost. Yegin Chen, director and senior analyst at Eduventures Inc., an education-research firm, said he wasn't familiar with the company but was intrigued by its economic model. "It would be unique if they help brick-and-mortar institutions create online courses without charging up front for it," he said. "Most academic institutions would custom-develop their online courses through a third-party developer or have their own faculty members do it themselves." Every Education to Go course has the same format. It starts the second Wednesday of every month, 12 times a year, and runs for six weeks with two lessons per week. Each lesson concludes with a multiple-choice quiz or other self-assessment, and some lessons include additional assignments. Courses have online discussion areas where students can interact with their professors and one another. The course ends with a final examination. Students evaluate their own work, and all assignments are due 10 days after the student receives them. The standardized class format and online delivery enable Education to Go to charge much less than other online-course providers, Mr. Power wrote. Courses range in price from less than $100 to several hundred dollars. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

Colleges cancel classes after terrorist attacks; Pace U. had program in World Trade Center U.S. should finance more stem-cell lines, National Academy of Sciences report urges Jordan revives its Ministry of Higher Education Archaeology project will recreate an ancient Assyrian palace electronically San Diego company quietly provides online courses to nearly 1,000 institutions