Friday, October 5, 2001

University of Phoenix Markets Its Courses on America Online By MICHAEL ARNONE The University of Phoenix has announced it will market its adult-education and degree programs through America Online. Starting Wednesday, America Online began displaying prominent advertisements for the university and links to the university's Web sites. The promotional material is available to America Online customers through the education channels at AOL.com, Compuserve.com, and Netscape.com. Anyone interested in taking courses can visit the University of Phoenix Web site and sign up as a regular student. "We're trying to expand the informational flow about the University of Phoenix to a broader audience," said Tony Digiovanni, chief executive officer of the University of Phoenix Online. Terry Crane, vice president of information and education products at America Online, said the company has been looking to expand its education content. "We did research and found that a significant percentage of our members would take a course online if AOL offered one," she said. "[It's] what we think our 30 million members would want." America Online doesn't have an exclusive contract with the University of Phoenix, Mr. Digiovanni said. Ms. Crane said that America Online is working on similar arrangements with other education providers, but declined to mention their names. Both officials refused to discuss any financial aspects of the deal. Demographics and size played large parts in sealing the deal, which has been in the works for the past six months, Mr. Digiovanni and Ms. Crane said. America Online is a family-oriented portal with many adult members who value education, Ms. Crane said. The University of Phoenix "had a broad array [of courses] for the types of members we have," she said. The for-profit university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in business, nursing, information technology, and other disciplines. Mr. Digiovanni said that, demographically speaking, University of Phoenix students and America Online users are very similar. Many are 25- to 49-year-old working professionals who don't have time for traditional degree programs. The size of the university also played a large role in America Online's first broaching the idea of a partnership, Mr. Digiovanni said. The University of Phoenix is probably one of the first institutions to take advantage of its size and prominence to get a marketing contract with a large Internet portal, he said. The deal made sense because the university has a lot of experience in handling large numbers of students at home and internationally, he said. The University of Phoenix describes itself as the largest university in the United States, with 70,000 students on 58 campuses nationwide and 25,000 students earning degrees through its online division. The collaboration of online universities and Internet portals is a trend to watch, said Reinhard Ziegler, leader of the learning and knowledge management team at Accenture, a consulting company. Mr. Ziegler said it was "tough to say" whether other such deals would occur. He said he wondered whether consumers would want to peruse a massive course catalog behind the America Online portal. "It doesn't strike me as a mass-market offering," he said. Background article from The Chronicle: University of Phoenix Begins Advertising Blitz (3/30/2001) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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