Internet Safety News

Distance Learning's Lessons

by Anne Collier

Universities and distance-learning companies have found that web users don't want to pay for content. Universities have spent at least $100 million on web-based courses with disappointing results.¹ A case in point is Fathom.com. This two-year-old company financed by Columbia University "has an impressive roster of a dozen partners, including the London School of Economics and Political Science, Cambridge University Press, the British Library, the University of Chicago, and the New York Public Library."² Many of Fathom.com's courses are provided by its member institutions, and many offer credit toward a degree. "But after spending more than $25 million on the venture, Columbia has found decidedly little interest among prospective students in paying for the semester-length courses."³ It's now trying a different tack, based on a time-honored marketing tradition of giving away free samples.

Meanwhile, online learning is faring far better in grades kindergarten through 12 (K-12) in the U.S. In fact it's "e-defining" the K-12 landscape. A recent Education Week survey found that "already, 12 states have established online high school programs and five others are developing them, 25 states allow for the creation of so-called cyber charter schools, and 32 states have e-learning initiatives under way."⁴ The report estimates that "40,000 to 50,000 K-12 students will have enrolled in an online course by the end of the 2001-02 school year."⁵

¹Katie Hafner. "Lessons Learned at Dot-Com U." The New York Times. May 2, 2002, http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/02/technology/circuits/02DIST.html.
²Ibid.
³Ibid.
⁴"E-Defining Education." The Washington Post. May 10, 2002, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61269-2002May9.html.
⁵Ibid.

Anne Collier is editor of the SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter and president of NetFamilyNews.org, a nonprofit news service for parents and teachers of online kids.