Next year, business students in Brazil will be able to get a Stanford-caliber education in Sao Paulo, not Palo Alto.
Stanford is one of several top universities that have enlisted commercial Web sites to supplement their catalogs with point-and-click courses and to market their distance learning programs to larger audiences.
Donald Norman, president of UNext, is collaborating with faculty from such universities as Columbia, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Chicago, and the London School of Economics to develop online business courses.
UNext aims to develop a top-quality business education curriculum in courses, marketed under the name Cardean, beginning early next year.
"Every university that I know of is seriously considering the idea of distance education," said Stanford vice provost Geoffrey Cox.
Institutions vary in their approach to cyber courses, and the best model for educating eager students over the Web is subject to debate.
Norman, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California at San Diego, emphasizes a "constructivist" method of education where students learn by doing, are self-motivated, and can interact with other students to discuss problems and develop solutions.
"Our model is the new method of instruction," Norman said. "We don't believe the traditional model works. We do not believe in streaming lectures in a classroom." The courses are aimed at, but not limited to, middle managers who need more training on a certain business topic, like corporate finance, financial accounting, and marketing, Norman said. Students can sign up for the courses at any time, and can complete them at their own pace.
Cardean courses are led by mentors who answer questions, connect students studying the same topics to discuss problems, and monitor student progress. Mentors are hired by UNext, and are not on the faculty of participating universities.
Norman dismisses the notion that UNext courses will devalue university brands.
"While we are clearly identified with content, we can retain complete control over the content," Stanford's Cox said.
Students cannot earn a degree from any specific school in the consortium, although UNext plans to eventually offer a Cardean MBA.
Not everyone thinks the program will succeed, however.
"I don't think [Norman] knows what he is talking about," said Gary Matkin, the associate dean for UC-Berkeley Extension.
"It's a lot easier conceived than actually done. We have 90 courses online. UNext has zero online," Matkin said. At Berkeley Extension, students read about the subjects, complete assignments, engage in dialogue on message boards, and email homework to instructors.
"It's a very well-designed learning experience," Matkin said.
To promote its classes, Berkeley Extension has partnered with so-called knowledge portal Hungry Minds, which is also helping to develop an e-commerce certificate program that begins in January.
"We're using them because we simply can't afford to spend money on the marketing necessary to reach a national and international audience," Matkin said.
Hungry Minds also has distribution deals with UCLA, the University of Maryland, and Rochester Institution of Technology, among others.
Stuart Skorman, CEO of Hungry Minds, said that by bringing different online education sites together, they have more of a presence in the market.
"What's neat in this industry is having one central place where people can go," Skorman said. "We want to be the hub on the Web for people that want to learn."
Hungry Minds' Skorman added that he hopes to collaborate with UNext in the future.
"Our approach as a business is to sell lots of products and [UNext] will hopefully be one of our partners," Skorman said.
