Wednesday, December 15, 1999

Some Students Pay a Premium to Use a 'Portal' Site for On-Line Courses By SARAH CARR Organizers of a new Web site say they hope to help universities market their on-line courses and to help prospective students find the courses that are right for them. But the service comes with significant costs for some students, who pay 15 per cent to 20 per cent more if they register through the site than they would pay by registering directly with the institutions offering the courses. The site, called CollegeLearning.com, has already attracted $3.5-million in venture capital and the support of the U.S. Distance Learning Association as it works to set up more partnerships with colleges and universities that have courses to market. The site is the work of a Boston-based company called the International Center for Distance Learning, which was founded by a former music teacher. The site's founders hope it will become a major portal, listing distance-education courses from thousands of colleges and universities all over the world. So far 12 colleges have joined, and organizers hope to sign up 300 colleges by the end of 2000. Jerry T. Ice, the company's president, is also provost and vice-president for academic affairs at Thomas Edison State College, in New Jersey. He says the site will serve as a marketing arm for colleges and universities. "There is this gold rush out there in distance education, and what many of the colleges don't do well is market themselves," says Mr. Ice. The company's leaders say they plan ultimately to include distance-education course information from as many institutions as possible at no cost. Many courses already are listed free. But they have also created a plan through which colleges and universities can pay to become members and have students apply and register for their courses directly on the company's site. To join the plan, an institution pays $3,000 up front, as well as 15 per cent to 20 per cent of whatever it charges each student who enrolls through the site. The site's course listings provide students with such information as class size, the name of the instructor, the start date, the medium of delivery, and the cost. But for students, the information may come at a premium, because some of the participating institutions pass along their membership expenses to students who enroll through the site. "Somebody has to pay for this service, and it really is a convenience for the student," says Leonard C. Faucher, the founder of the company. Susan M. Kryczka, the director of networks at Northeastern University in Boston, says her institution started working with the company this fall as a way of extending the university's reach beyond the Boston area. "We are always looking to market our on-line courses," she says, adding that the university is interested in "anything that gets us to a different audience, or one that might not come to our Web page." Because Northeastern is one of a few schools testing out the company's program this fall, company officials waived the $3,000 membership fee. But the company is still charging Northeastern 20 per cent of each enrolled student's tuition -- and Northeastern is billing students accordingly. A student signing up for a credit course through the site pays $755, while someone registering directly with Northeastern pays $630 to take the same course. Mr. Ice says the extra cost is identified to prospective students as a "registration fee." Ms. Kryczka says the university has not documented how many students enrolled through the center's site, but she notes that there had been a 400-per-cent increase in on-line enrollments from the fall of 1998 to the fall of 1999. "We think whatever we are doing is working," she says. Richard J. Novak, the executive director for continuous education and distance learning at Rutgers University, says his institution would most likely not charge a premium to students when it tests the company's service this coming semester. "We would absorb the marketing or advertising costs as one of our expenses rather than charge a premium to students," he says. Mr. Novak adds that university administrators might eventually impose a surcharge, but would like to evaluate their experience with the company first. He says he is looking into a number of ways of publicizing Rutgers' distance-education courses, and is negotiating with a few portal sites. "They seem to be springing up quite rapidly," he adds. Mr. Ice says individual universities will decide whether to charge more to students who sign up through the company. "In some cases institutions will absorb that as part of the cost of marketing the course," he says. "In other cases, the institution will make a decision that the student will pick up the cost as part of having the one-stop advantage." While officials of the company are hoping that their model for a portal will take off in the coming months, Robert W. Mendenhall, the president of Western Governors University, says W.G.U. leaders have found that charging students a premium to use a course catalogue does not work. When W.G.U. officials rolled out their catalogue listing distance-education courses at several colleges and universities in the fall of 1998, they charged a $30 user fee to students who signed up through W.G.U. "The students figured out pretty quickly that they could come to our catalogue, find the course they needed, and then go to the institution directly and sign up for it," he says. "So we did not get a lot of sign-ups for courses through our catalogues, although we know we drove at least hundreds -- and maybe thousands -- of students into the catalogues of others." Starting in January, W.G.U. will embark on a revenue-sharing agreement with its member colleges and universities, and charge students the same tuition and fees they would pay by signing up directly. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

Education Dept. releases new draft of guide to use of tests in admissions Trustees appoint ally of Governor as chancellor of SUNY M.L.A. reports another rise in the number of tenure-track openings in English In valedictory, N.I.H. director urges cooperation on agency's budget, health education Professor disputes scientific validity of report on sex bias at M.I.T. Director named to lead Gates minority-scholarship program U. of Arkansas at Little Rock receives probation for basketball violations College radio stations' Web sites serve both students and listeners Some students pay a premium to use a 'portal' site for on-line courses