From the issue dated December 21, 2001
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China May Be Next Big Market for Course-Management SystemsBy FLORENCE OLSENCourse-management systems have been gaining popularity at colleges in the United States,
In August, WebCT Inc. signed a reseller contract with Tsinghua Tongfang, a commercial arm of Tsinghua University, in Beijing. WebCT officials say they expect courseware sales by Tsinghua Tongfang in the first six months of the contract to reach 400 higher-education institutions in China and to be worth $3-million. "This is somewhat uncharted territory," says Stavros Cademenos, WebCT's vice president for international business. Universities worldwide have produced homegrown software for online instruction, and China is no exception, he says. But to his knowledge, the contract is the first of its kind in China for "commercial grade" software for use in online teaching and learning. China, with a population of 1.2 billion, has "a strong impetus and mandate to educate people outside of brick-and-mortar institutions," Mr. Cademenos says, noting that China spends -- as a percent of income -- more per capita on education than any other country in the world. Some studies show that, by 2020, China will have 20 million students enrolled in higher education. WebCT, which has spent more than two years creating foreign-language versions of its software, has developed techniques for reducing the time needed to produce new translations, Mr. Cademenos says. As WebCT increases its presence in the global software market, the company's adherence to international technical standards becomes ever more important, according to Mr. Cademenos. "It's just part of the new Internet culture," he says, "where open architecture always trumps proprietary systems." So far, at least, WebCT's biggest U.S. competitor, Blackboard Inc., has not entered the Chinese market. But Blackboard has gone after international business in Australia, Britain, Canada, Europe, and Latin America -- 43 countries in all -- and has announced plans to internationalize its software. Blackboard's chairman, Matthew S. Pittinsky, says that WebCT's contract with Tsinghua Tongfang is "a big deal" for WebCT and that Tsinghua Tongfang "is a significant market maker in China." WebCT is also negotiating contracts with the governments of Japan and France, Mr. Cademenos says. Currently its biggest overseas markets are in Australia, Britain, Canada, and Hong Kong. http://chronicle.com Section: Information Technology Page: A26
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Copyright © 2001 by The Chronicle of Higher Education