Clearly, all the talk about distance learning is no longer just talk. For traditional providers of business education, the question is no longer whether distance learning will become viable, but how fast.
For Chicago, the answer is now. We are, with the approval of our GSB faculty and the university faculty senate, partnering with a company called Unext.com to provide the content for interactive course modules. Our faculty will help develop three courses in academic areas we’ll choose based on our greatest strengths. We will contribute the brand name and expertise for courses. Unext will combine the latest technology and educational psychology to create Internet-based courses and will market and distribute them. (See the related article for more details.)
We are one of several top business schools participating with Unext; others on the growing roster as of this moment include Columbia, Stanford, and London School of Economics. Unext expects to market courses primarily to large multinational corporations with middle managers who need to enhance their skills but are unable to enroll in a traditional degree program. Unext’s “any time, anywhere” courses will let these learners pursue a personalized course shaped by their needs, interests, learning style, and capacity.
Several of our peer schools have already entered the distance learning market in one way or another. A number of partners, including Microsoft and Financial Times, have approached the GSB seeking high-quality academic content. Sheer demand for business education will ensure that this trend grows. Chicago–the second-oldest business school in the country, with a rich history of innovation–cannot be left out.
We’ve chosen a terrific–and familiar–partner in Unext. Andrew Rosenfield, a 1978 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and a trustee of the university, heads the firm. Unext’s board contains Nobel laureates, including our own Merton H. Miller, Robert R. McCormick Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, and University Professor of Economics Gary S. Becker, who invented the concept of human capital. Former dean John P. Gould, Steven G. Rothmeier Professor and Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, is also on the board. Those ties make this partnership a comfortable fit for us. Because the key players know the GSB so well, Unext has structured the relationship so it doesn’t conflict with our culture and standards
of scholarship.
Unext’s courses will not lead to a GSB M.B.A. degree and will not detract from our degree programs. In fact, the technology advances refined for distance learning will transfer back to the classroom to aid our full-time and part-time students. We know there are good ways and better ways of learning; we’ll be able to take advantage of Unext’s expertise in educational psychology and quickly offer the best ways. Also, with our name on the course work distributed worldwide, we’ll enjoy increased awareness of the school. This venture will supplement our traditional activities at no cost to our core academic mission and bring in additional revenue from licensing the course material.
I think of distance learning as a speeding train heading straight for us. We don’t know precisely where it’s going, but we can’t wait and see–we must either leap aboard or be left behind. We don’t know which methods of technology-assisted learning will turn out to be the best. We’ll be learning by doing, with much to gain and little to lose.
Robert S. Hamada
Dean and Edward Eagle Brown Distinguished Service Professor of Finance
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