The Wharton School yesterday announced the beginning of a partnership with IBM to develop new online continuing education programs for its executive education division. The technology initiative will be administered as part of a new education group within Wharton that will also include Wharton Direct, the school's current distance-learning program. Wharton Dean Patrick Harker said yesterday that continuing education on Penn's campus has been an important part of Wharton's mission for the past 15 years. "We now need to deliver it to the world," he said. Through the five courses already taught through Wharton Direct, Harker said, Wharton officials learned that "we need a strong technology partner to bring with us." "IBM is a great technology partner," he added. In a written statement, IBM Vice President of Distributed Learning Laura Sanders said the company is "looking forward to working with Wharton as the school expands its resources and faculty expertise." She noted that Wharton "has done extensive analysis of the impact of technology on both the learning process and organizational efficiency." The new program will offer courses designed to help companies with challenges that come from incorporating new technology into existing businesses. Managers at participating corporations will be able to get specific information they need when questions arise, and will have the opportunity to participate in other learning opportunities, including live online classes with Wharton faculty members. "Adults don't learn things [by taking] a 12-week course," Harker said. "People learn when they need to learn." Harker said the new agreement with IBM will also help ensure that Wharton's name is not used improperly by other online technology companies hoping to make money off of the school's prestige. "We're going to make sure we control the brand name of Wharton and Penn," he said. Harker explained that the new technology program will not just be limited to executive education. Wharton will use the new program to study the most efficient ways to get people to learn, he said, and then apply those techniques to Wharton's undergraduate and graduate degree programs. "The overarching reason for doing it is to start to bring strong learning technology into the school," he said. When appointed permanent dean of Wharton in February after a stint as interim dean, Harker said one of his main goals was to find ways to enhance Wharton's educational programs through better use of technology. Harker said he hopes to have the first new distance-learning programs in operation this summer, with existing Wharton clients receiving the first opportunity to use them. The education group running the new programs will be headed by Robert Mittelstaedt, who is currently Wharton's vice dean for executive education.
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