Education & Distance Learning Enthusiasts- For Online College Degree Programs, The Future Is Now 10/27/98

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For Online College Degree Programs, The Future Is Now 10/27/98

Newsbytes PM - October 27, 1998

DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1998 OCT 27 (NB) -- By Jacqueline Emigh, Newsbytes. With more and more colleges and universities now launching online course offerings, the future of higher ed is arriving already, asserted college administrators, students, and officials of Real Education, Simon & Schuster, and Microsoft [NASDAQ:MSFT], in a teleconference today.

Fully 79 percent of all colleges and universities are online today, and 97 percent are projected to belong to this category by the year 2000, said Real Education CEO and President Rob Helmick, speaking during the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes.

Outside of actual courseware, collegiate online activities range from class registration to library research, according to Helmick.

Simon & Schuster, the world's largest college textbook publisher, began producing supplementary online materials three years ago, and is now moving at full throttle into online courseware, noted the publishing firm's Patricia Leonard.

"Today we have over 350 Web sites to complement textbooks," Leonard told the teleconference attendees.

The publishing exec described the emerging availability of online courseware directly within educational sites as "the ultimate in access." Adult students, finishing up their college degrees online, no longer need to take "four-pound books" along with them on their business trips, she observed.

Yet, Leonard added, 96 to 97 percent of all online courses still require the use of textbooks or other printed materials to bolster the online experience.

Real Education, a major producer of hardware and software distance learning systems, entered the market two years ago with only two university clients, according to Helmick. By now, that number has mushroomed to 60.

Online courseware is the fastest growing area of all within the college publishing space, evidencing a compound annual growth rate of 21.8 percent between 1995 and 1997, said Patrick Quinn, managing editor for the Simba market research firm, also during the teleconference today.

Colleges can produce online courseware in as little as 60 days, at about half the cost of a traditional course, Helmick maintained.

The officials also cited many other drivers behind distance learning, including increasing numbers of older students; the ability of universities to market their courses across a virtually unlimited geographic base; and improved "interactivity" in the learning experience.

"Imagine a classroom where every student who raises their hand gets a detailed answer," enthused Ray Alvorado, one online student. "It's going to this eventually. This type of learning is the future."

Interaction is "more thoughtful and researched," remarked Dr. Donald McKenna of Seton Hall. Students "sit offline and write out well researched comments." Also, because courseware can be accessed at any time of the day or night, students "can come in (to the classroom) much more frequently."

Many other nonprofit and for-profit higher ed institutions are also readying Web-based courseware, according to the speakers today.

Philadelphia-based Drexel University is already offering first-year MBA courses online, with the expectation of adding second-year courses online next year.

The University of Colorado is currently readying extensive Web-based courseware, in the belief that "investments in online education will generate unique, added-value learning experiences."

American Intercontinental University, a for-profit school, is also rolling out an online MBA program, with BBA and master's degree in project management programs eyed for the future.

Helmick noted that, for the past two years, Real Education's products have been based strongly on technology from Microsoft.

"Microsoft from a very top level (believes) that one of the most important uses of technology is education," said Microsoft's Joe Powell, also during the teleconference today.

"The Microsoft model is to support and encourage a broad array of third-party providers," Powell added. "Real Education has led the charge."

Real Education is located at http://www.realeducation.com on the World Wide Web.

Reported by Newsbytes News Network, http//www.realeducation.com .

(19981027/Press Contact: Joanne Younkin or Brenda Nichols, Parker, Nichols & Company for Real Education, 978-369-2100/WIRES ONLINE/)

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