College online learning programs falter

It seems there might be a second burst in the dot-com bubble. Many colleges and universities that had poured funding into for-profit online learning programs in the late 1990s have had to shut them down recently. Although the for-profit branches have proven to be unsound investments, most schools still offer online courses through their non-profit ventures. Fathom, one such program initiated by Columbia University, "was conceived as a profit-making venture," said Eileen Murphy, executive director for communications and external affairs. The program was intended for "lifelong learners" interested in taking specific courses over the Internet but did not offer an alternative means to earn a degree from the university. "Fathom was really separate and distinct from the university," she said. "The intention was to make money." But Fathom's profitability never panned out. In 2001 alone, Columbia contributed around $15 million to the initiative and saw only negligible returns. While Murphy was unwilling to comment on a specific amount, she said that Fathom cost Columbia "a significant amount of resources," during the three-year experiment. Other schools, including New York University and Temple University have also shut down their for-profit ventures. Temple University's Virtual Temple program "never took off," according to Temple's Online Learning Program Interim Director Dominique Monolescu. NYU's program, NYUonline, shut down last year, in part because of financial difficulties. The Chronicle of Higher Education last year reported that NYUonline used nearly $25 million of the university's money before closing its doors. NYU spokespeople could not be reached for comment. Penn administrators always harbored reservations about the practicality of such programs, although a few specific courses are available online through the College of General Studies. School of Arts and Science's Learning and Technology Committee Chairwoman Cristle Judd said other schools' initiatives failed because of the "focus on distance-learning and the unrealistic expectations that there were mountains of money to be made." "Some of the earliest and most hyperbolic enthusiasm has proven to have been unwarranted," Deputy Provost Peter Conn said. Instead, Conn explained, Penn has tended to focus its technology initiatives on what he describes as "distributed learning" opportunities. Distributed learning is aimed more at using technology, such as the Internet and Microsoft's PowerPoint, to enhance the education of on-campus students, rather than reaching out to people "whose contact with the material is almost completely electronic," Conn said. To this end, SAS has developed the Distributed Learning Venture Fund, which provides money so that traditional courses can make further use of technology. Many classes use programs like Blackboard, and some courses in departments such as Classical Studies and German have begun making even more extensive use of the Internet, Judd said. While the University does have a number of online-only courses, it has so far shied away from the broader scale online-only movements of some other universities. Even with the closing of Virtual Temple nearly two years ago, there are over 1,000 Temple students enrolled in online-only courses. These are offered through a non-profit Online Learning Program designed to make better educational use of technology. The difference, according to Monolescu is that "Virtual Temple was going after new student populations. Online learning just aims to give traditional students more opportunities." Temple's current program is non-profit and tied directly to the university. Online classes use the same curricula and are taught by the same professors as more traditional classroom courses. And with the development of Temple's first totally online degree programs, including one on organizational studies, the program is growing fast -- online learning at Temple saw an increase of 20 percent last academic year, according to Monolescu.