Université de Stanford en ligne sur UNext
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. (...)
"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.
(Source: A Top-Drawer Education Online, by Katie Dean and Kendra
Mayfield, Wired News, 3:00 a.m. 12.Nov.1999 PST)
Heather Hayes, Vendors See Virtual Classrooms as Real-Time
Business, March 6, 2000, http://www.wtonline.com/vol14_no23/tech_features/1114-1.html
Brandon Hall, editor of Brandon-Hall.com, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based
site that researches the corporate e-learning market, estimates
at least 50 percent of private- and public-sector organizations
will turn to Web-based instruction to meet their employee
training needs within the next three years.
Michael Moe, director of global research at Merrill Lynch &
Co., New York, expects the e-learning market to grow to $5.5
billion between now and 2002, a compound annual growth rate
of nearly 95 percent. Approximately 85 percent of universities
will have online components by the end of 2000, according to International
Data Corp. of Framingham, Mass.