Thursday, August 22, 2002
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Distance-Education Alliance Backed by Oxford, Stanford, and Yale Will Offer Courses to the PublicBy SCOTT CARLSON
A nonprofit distance-education company supported by three elite universities will begin offering online courses to the general public today. The company, until now known as the Alliance for Lifelong Learning, will also dump its unwieldy name for a more marketable one: AllLearn. The company previously offered courses only to the alumni of Stanford University, the University of Oxford, and Yale University, the three institutions that support the venture. Nancy D. Kelly, the director of marketing for AllLearn, says that the company always had the intention of marketing to "lifelong learners" among the general public; the company marketed to alumni at first to work out the kinks in the system. She says that AllLearn plans to advertise the courses through specialized and general-interest magazines. "There are a lot of behaviors that people engage in ... that can be considered lifelong learning, like listening to public radio," Ms. Kelly says. "What we think is the key to developing these courses is that they be flexible, that people can do it on their own time, that people can participate as much or as little as suits their lifestyle." About 50 courses in a dozen disciplines, on topics such as "The History of Spies" and "Understanding Beethoven," will be available to those willing to spend $250 on tuition. Course materials can run an additional $25 to $50. AllLearn's goal is to become self-sustaining by selling these courses, which cost from $10,000 to $150,000 each to produce. Each course will last five to 10 weeks and will include interactions with the professor who created the course, with one of the professor's teaching assistants, or with another expert in the subject. All of the courses were created by professors from Oxford, Stanford, and Yale. Many of the participating professors, such as Jack Rakove and David M. Kennedy, both historians at Stanford, are distinguished in their fields. AllLearn's strategy of marketing eclectic courses to the public is very much like that of Fathom, Columbia University's for-profit distance-education venture, which has not been able to make a profit yet. What sets AllLearn apart from other distance-education courses, Ms. Kelly says, is that its esteemed professors and subject experts will be directly involved in the day-to-day operation of the courses. "We believe that that's a really important part of the value that folks assign to what we are offering," she says. Jack M. Wilson, the chief executive officer of UMassOnline, has his doubts about the strategy. Although AllLearn is trying to market its association with elite universities, that doesn't always work. "There is a misunderstanding about 'brand' -- it doesn't equate to prestige at all," he says, adding that the best-known food brands in the United States are McDonald's and Coca-Cola, and the most popular higher-education brand is the University of Phoenix. Developing a brand involves "consistently delivering what they say they are going to deliver." Mr. Wilson had heard rumors that the alliance was going to start offering courses to the public. "My initial response is that maybe they haven't had the success that they thought they would," he says. "They see this as a way to get people in the door with the hopes that there would be more business there."
Background articles from The Chronicle:
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 U. of South Florida accuses professor of links to terrorism and asks court to approve plan to fire him Rockefeller U. researchers report new way to detect and treat anthrax Many schoolteachers lack subject mastery, report contends Higher-education groups form coalition to promote community-service activities College enrollments projected to rise 15% by 2012 Distance-education alliance backed by Oxford, Stanford, and Yale will offer courses to the public |
Copyright © 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education