TechWatch
TEXTBOOK PUBLISHER
LAYS PLANS FOR AN INTERNET UNIVERSITY
Academic publishing house Harcourt General is joining the growing business
of distance education. It plans to expand its online offerings with
three ventures: Harcourt University; an Internet high school for students
planning to take high-school equivalency exams; and an e-commerce site
called Harcourt.com. Through its university, Harcourt may become the
first major publishing house to offer accredited college degrees, pending
approval from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Yet
Harcourt faces much opposition, particularly from college professors
concerned that Internet-based education denies students the personal
interaction central to a traditional learning experience. University
bookstores and other traditional distributors may also oppose the venture
because it competes with their sales. Last, Harcourt will face strong
competition from the companies and universities already providing online
courses. Harcourt maintains that its educational offerings will be unique.
Its university, which may begin to offer courses by September 2000,
will teach a range of subjects in arts and sciences. (Wall Street
Journal)
REPORT ON SUPPLY
OF TECHNOLOGY WORKERS INCLUDES COLLEGE RECOMMENDATIONS
Colleges and universities should offer more information technology training
to relieve the shortage of IT workers, concluded a report by twenty-three
university and industry experts. Although the report could not prove
definitively that there is a shortage of workers in the industry, enough
anecdotal evidence was found to suggest that the supply is limited.
Particularly strained areas are Java designers and programmers, Internet
and electronic commerce specialists, network designers, software-project
managers, and experienced college faculty members. Among the report's
thirty-seven suggestions to colleges and universities are increased
access to computer-science departments and stronger integration among
computer science, business, and communications curriculum. Graduate
programs should be more technology-oriented, transforming computer science,
computer engineering, and information science courses into certificate
programs that would entice mathematicians, physicians, biologists, and
engineers. (Chronicle of Higher Education Online)
IVORY-TOWER
OPEN SOURCE
Two Illinois scholars have created software that may open the door to
online academic collaboration and debate. The software allows authors
to post their papers to solicit outside reviews. Readers' suggestions
will be displayed in pop-up windows within the paper's text, allowing
authors to obtain feedback and other reviewers to read previously posted
commentary. The texts and suggestions are stored on a server and edited
using FileMaker Pro, which can be downloaded on the project Internet
site. The software may change the publication of a text from a solitary
event to a means of interaction, facilitating academic interaction that
once was present only within published journals and scattered Internet
bulletin boards. Co-creator Jim Levin, an educational psychology professor
at the University of Illinois, sees the new interactive software as
a method to raise new questions immediately, thus speeding the debate.
(Wired News)
IS EDUCATION
THE NEXT ONLINE MONEY-MAKER?
A number of education-related companies have announced plans to incorporate
distance learning into their educational methods. These programs will
be designed for professionals who want additional training in their
fields, as well as for children who want to supplement their school
education. 7thStreet.com is expanding its distance learning offerings
greatly, adding more than 150 information technology courses in a partnership
with Cytation.com and preparing for a joint venture with AOL to make
its courses available to AOL users. Learning.Net has also established
a distance learning site offering continuing education, recurrent training,
and certification programs for professionals and businesses. The program
notifies professional organizations or state boards when a student finishes
a course, and professional organizations can monitor a student's progress
in each course. Global DataTel and EDUVERSE are partnering to provide
Spanish and Portuguese versions of English as a second language distance
learning programs. The companies will offer EDUVERSE's programs on eHola's
Web site, as well as EDUVERSE's freeENGLISH.com Web site. (E-Commerce
Times)
ERP ROLE ON
CAMPUSES IS GAINING MOMENTUM
Although enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are usually the
domain of big corporations, the software is increasingly finding application
in colleges and universities, where funding cutbacks and increased competition
have led administrators to search for ways to streamline systems and
cut costs. Indeed, ERP is helping universities to re-tool their organizations
into a more corporate approach in light of the new competitive landscape.
The University of Alberta in Edmonton, for example, has implemented
ERP solutions in the school's core operations, as well as in finance,
human resources, and student administration. "The goal is to restructure
business processes and implement information systems that are appropriate
to and will advance the agenda of an ambitious and increasingly entrepreneurial
university," says the school's Glenn Harris. With the ERP systems, Alberta
has been able to boost licensing and royalty revenues from patent applications
and spin-off companies, as well as eliminate information duplication
and make better use of data. (Financial Times - Enterprise Resource
Planning)
EDUCATORS ALSO
RETOOLING FOR THE INTERNET
Richard Schmalensee, who testified on behalf of Microsoft in the antitrust
trial, is now dean of the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. In an interview with the San Jose Mercury News,
Schmalensee discussed the impact of the Internet on education and society
as a whole, gathering from his experience as an educator, an economist,
and a member of the Committee of National Statistics. The Sloan School
is altering its MBA program to prepare graduates for the Internet. Among
the changes to be made are an upgrade of its facilities and the addition
of a new program in electronic commerce marketing. The technology-heavy
education model has impressed corporate recruiters; Schmalensee said
Dell was the school's second-largest recruiter, hiring fifteen graduates.
Schmalensee believes that Sloan, as one of the first business schools
to make these adjustments to technology, is a leader in the growing
movement toward the Internet. He predicts that those schools and businesses
that refuse to embrace the growing Web culture will crumble. (San
Jose Mercury News Online)
DISTANCE LEARNING
IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR REAL-WORLD EDUCATION
Although some assert that the Web will imminently replace "brick-and-ivy"
institutions with online classrooms, Dylan Tweney, a writer for InfoWorld,
suggests employing the medium to improve bureaucratic rather than pedagogic
processes. For example, the efficiency afforded by the Internet can
strengthen offline campus communities with "portal" technologies that
enable centralized access to course information, campus events, and
administrative tasks. Meanwhile, although the face-to-face interaction,
independence, and diversity common to traditional college life can't
be replicated online, Tweney says two new startups offer technological
ways to bind communities of students, faculty, and staff. Jenzabar,
founded by Ling Chai, a veteran of the Tiananmen Square student protests,
gives colleges the ability to create portals from a Web interface. Campus
Pipeline builds a faculty and student-accessible portal system on top
of SCT's university back-office software. Using technology to expedite
administration, universities can lower costs and divert more resources
to teaching, Tweney says. (InfoWorld)
STATE UNIVERSITIES
FOCUS I.T. SPENDING ON COMPUTERS FOR STUDENTS AND FACULTY, REPORT SAYS
Computer upgrades for students and faculty form the top IT spending
priority forstate universities, reports the National Association of
State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. Forty-eight percent of the
association's 203 member schools participated in the survey to determine
uses and sources of IT funding. The report also notes recent acquisitions
of high-speed data and video networks for teaching, research, and public
service. Other funds are allocated to distance education programs. Most
schools surveyed allocate an average of 5 percent of their total annual
budget to IT, a figure that is expected to grow in the future. Although
IT spending is on the upswing, many universities report difficulties
in drawing together resources. Seventy-one percent of the schools use
student fees or tuition add-ons to contribute to IT spending, while
66 percent use state funds specifically intended for IT ventures. Lesser
sources of funding include federal money for IT projects, private donations,
and corporate partnerships. (Chronicle of Higher Education Online)
UNEXT.COM SIGNS
COURSE DEAL WITH FOUR MORE UNIVERSITIES
UNext.com has announced new partnerships with the University of Chicago,
Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the London School
of Economics and Political Science to deliver graduate courses over
the Internet. The schools will help develop course materials that make
it possible for business professionals to quickly learn advanced material,
including economics, accounting, and finance. UNext.com, backed by Michael
Miliken, had already announced a partnership with Columbia University's
business school. Ultimately, UNext.com wants to gain accreditation as
an online business school with the authority to grant MBA degrees. UNext.com
will compete with Caliber Learning Network, a company that has similar
goals and that has already signed up the University of Pennsylvania's
Wharton School and Johns Hopkins University. IBM is UNext.com's first
Cardean online business education customer. As a Cardean customer, employees
will be able to take courses online from remote locations. The courses
will be delivered to employees using Lotus' LearningSpace. (Wall
Street Journal)
IT'S ACADEMIC
Columbia University decided to jump into the online instructional market,
and to further that end the school hired Ann Kirschner -- once a Princeton
University English professor -- away from NFL.com. Columbia University's
for-profit venture, Morningside Ventures, is now Kirschner's charge
as CEO and president, and her goal is to put the university's core content
onto the Internet and to charge users a fee for it. Morningside Ventures
is scheduled to launch at the end of the year. Kirschner intends to
make Columbia's resources available to a wider audience than just students
and teachers. One of the markets that Columbia is seeking is that of
corporations that want to strengthen their staff's skills. The university
has already made a deal with UNext.com: it will provide courses and
materials in exchange for company royalties that can be swapped for
stakes in UNext.com. (Industry Standard)
SCHOOLS GET
DOWN TO THE VALLEY
Prominent business schools are opening satellites in Silicon Valley
to take advantage of the proximity to the epicenter of the growing electronic
business industry. Schools such as Harvard Business School and Dartmouth's
Amos Tuck School of Business Administration have been the first to create
these research facilities to prepare their students for jobs in Silicon
Valley. Through these outposts, students can make business connections
and experience the culture. The Harvard facility features a research
center in which faculty study Silicon Valley businesses and write case
studies while students study these cases and form solutions. The Tuck
satellite features an office for visiting students and faculty and,
later, will most likely have one or two permanent faculty members. Also
considering the idea are the University of Michigan Business School
and the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley,
while Stanford takes advantage of its existing proximity to Silicon
Valley. (Wired News)
SURF YOUR WAY
INTO COLLEGE
For many years, various companies have offered scholarships and prizes
to students who excel in one field or another. Now some companies are
looking for students who are whizzes at Internet research or who design
nifty Web sites or games or programs. ArsDigita head Phillip Greenspun
is looking for teenagers "who can contribute to an interesting and useful
Internet future," and ArsDigita is awarding $10,000 and access to the
company's digital equipment to a top young programmer with a useful
site. Accounting.Net offers scholarships for accounting students --
they must explain how the Internet has changed business. The Chicago
Tribune awards local children who design sites for nonprofit groups,
and the Technology Association of Georgia looks for Web sites by and
about Georgia high school students. (PC World Online)
