This dynamic threesome is making some serious headway into online higher education. C&A, for instance, recently rolled out two online graduate degree programs in K-12 teacher education that are currently being offered exclusively by WU: one in elementary reading and literacy, which launched last July, and the other in integrating technology in the classroom, which launched in December 2001. By the fall 2002 semester "we expect to have 3,000 students in the two programs," says Kathy Winberry, Canter’s general manager and senior vice president. "Right now we have about 1,600 students." The reading and literacy program attracted more than 900 students in under six months.

Such seemingly instant success "was due to the marketing know-how of Canter," which has great penetration in the K-12 teacher marketplace, delivering a wide variety of teacher professional development courses and programs (via online, traditional and hybrid distance education) through its affiliations with colleges and universities across the country for 25 years.

Success was also due to both Sylvan’s and Canter’s knack for being "very careful about the research we do in terms of what programs we are going to launch," says Singer. "One of the big things that is important to us as we move forward and look at other verticals is that we have the same know-how about the marketplace as we do about the teacher marketplace." For example, "we research what state’s are requiring, what districts incentives are out there, and we spend a lot of time doing up front research, talking to real teachers and real administrators, discovering what it is they need, what they are willing to pay for, and how we can best serve those needs."

Concerning reading and literacy, for instance, "every teacher needs to be an expert in the teaching of reading," says Winberry, who herself was a remedial reading teacher before she joined Canter some 22 years ago. She adds that teacher accountability in conjunction with accountability from a testing perspective have "ratcheted up in the last several years," resulting in new pressures being placed on today’s K-12 teachers. Consequently "we felt it was the right time to come out with the masters with a focus on reading for classroom teachers" in general, not for specialized remedial reading teachers. "This is for teachers who need to stay in the classroom."

Concerning the graduate program with an emphasis on integrating technology in the classroom, Winberry explains how "school districts have invested a tremendous amount of money in hardware and software and are not focusing (as much as they would like to) on getting teachers comfortable with the use of technology and the integration of technology. There are a lot of folks who are doing a wonderful job training teachers at the district level, and a lot of companies that focus on technology, but our feeling is that teachers need to be immersed in technology." By enrolling in a complete graduate-level program that focuses on this topic for a relatively long period of time, teachers are forced "to reflect and think about technology from a broad perspective. It also allows them to talk with other teachers over an extended period of time."

This notion of immersion is also what Susan Ko, Olnet’s executive director of online curriculum and instructor development, is a strong proponent of in regard to training faculty how to use technology and how to teach online (see "The World of Faculty Training According to Ko" on page 3).

Olnet was acquired by Sylvan’s OHE division in July of last year and has now merged with and serves both C&A, and WU. Olnet has been providing course development and faculty training, as well as student support services, for online teachers and learners since 1996, with its two primary clients being the University of San Diego and the UCLA Extension. Olnet is comprised of three divisions: web applications, curricular and instructor development and course management and customer services.

For starters, Ko and her team of eight faculty support personnel have been incorporating Olnet’s instructor-led, highly interactive and cohort-based online learning model into WU’s new online undergraduate degree programs in business administration and information systems management, which are slated to be launched in January 2003. The team has also brought their three-to-six week faculty training program into the WU fold.

"We believe we have the best courseware development solution in the country, says Paula Peinovich, WU’s executive vice president and Provost. "All the courses we are developing for these undergraduate programs have been pilot tested with the Olnet model and evaluated. Our faculty are just ecstatic. We have the best of everything."

Sylvan might also have the best of everything on the student services side through the time-tested and valuable help coming from Vi To, Olnet’s director of course management and customer service, and his team of 11 course managers, which is jointly referred to as the "online concierge team."

Mr. To explains that when he first worked for Olnet as a course manager himself, about five years ago, his job was primarily fulfillment processing, sending out welcome letters, software diskettes and textbooks to students. "When I first started we basically had one touch with students, which was a hard-copy welcome letter that said ‘Dear Student, here is your log-in info.’ Anytime they needed help, they would call or e-mail us. Now we proactively touch the average student 13 to 14 times throughout the duration of an online course."

Many of these communications with students are automated e-mail introductions and reminders; plus, every course has an online concierge assigned to it, who is "one voice, one person who is constantly there for them" for general support services available by phone, live chat and e-mail. Technical support is primarily handled by Blackboard - Olnet’s course management system provider - on a 24 x 7 contract.

The automated e-mails start with a welcome message and a reminder for the student to log into an online orientation "that tells them how to use their virtual classroom software, how to move around, how to navigate, how to access the different parts of a course, how to interact with their fellow classmates and instructors," explains To. All students have one log-in to a portal area of the Olnet website that gives them one-click access to the orientation, their actual virtual classes, the online bookstore, the online library, live chat with their course manager, and more.

Once the student logs into the online orientation, more automated e-mails are activated, such as messages reminding students to complete the orientation, as well as one congratulating them when they have actually finished it. Then, when a student’s real course starts, he or she is reminded to log in, and every three or four days thereafter, the student receives an e-mail reminder to participate in the class.

Everything in To’s department revolves around quality control and standardization. "When a course starts, the student is ready to learn," he says. "Technology does not get in the way of the learning. Same thing with instructors - they just teach and don’t have to deal with a lot of technical support."

Finally, Bryan Polivka, OHE’s vice president of program development who oversees Olnet’s curricular and instructor development and course management and customer services divisions, explains what he calls Olnet’s "driving principles," where "we measure everything. Our approach revolves around essentially two metrics for each of the groups - one has to be a cost metric, and one has to be a quality metric. The idea is to put them in opposition to each other so that you can track the quality and you can track the cost. The goal is to increase the quality and reduce the cost." For example, concerning student satisfaction, the average amount of time a course manager spends with each student is measured, and a cost per minute is assigned to that measurement. "We are in the process of developing a true quality to go against that," says Polivka. "The idea is to have both, because if you only track costs, then your quality tends to go down, because you drive toward lower costs; if you only track quality, then your costs tend to go up. Our philosophy is to measure both. In order to grow, we want to make sure that we are maximizing that value."