A. Outsourcing Distance Learning Components
This report continues the investigation presented
in the DLL's December 2005 report "Build
or Buy".
- The DLL began its previous report by suggesting
that distance learning was hard -- hard for faculty to implement,
hard for many students for whom the current distance learning formats
were not suitable, and hard for administrators to fund.
- The DLL reasoned that the substantial distance
learning achievements of HBCUs in recent years were attained in
spite of their tendency to try to build too many distance learning
components themselves.
- The report concluded by recommending that HBCUs
consider outsourcing the production of some of
their distance learning components (a) to other traditional colleges
& universities and (b) to private vendors of course components.
After completing that report, the DLL decided to explores
an additional outsourcing option that it had not considered: for-profit
colleges and universities.
B. For-Profit Colleges and Universities
In "Build
or Buy" the DLL noted that less than one third of
all HBCUs were offering any courses that were 100 percent online and
that no HBCU was offering more than five percent of its courses online.
In other words, HBCU online enrollments could be numbered in the hundreds.
By contrast Table
C in Part II of this report shows that the selected for-profit
colleges & universities measure their online
enrollments in the tens of thousands. In other words, the for-profit
institutions have been far more successful in their online distance
learning initiatives than the HBCUs. Furthermore, as noted by the
New York Times ("Online Colleges Receive a Boost
from Congress", Wednesday 11 March 2006, Sam Dillon, p1),
the recent elimination of the so-called "50 percent rule"
will encourage the for-profits to greatly expand their online offerings
in the near future.
The 50 percent rule stipulated that an institution
would be ineligible to participate in Federal student aid programs
if more than 50 percent of that institution's enrollments were in
online courses. This rule had been imposed by Congress during the
1990's to curb the "diploma mills" that were providing
degrees to students enrolled in bogus online courses. However the
importance of Federal aid for most students also caused this rule
to substantially curtail the legitimate use of online courses by legitimate
colleges and universities as well.
C. Strategic Partnerships
In principle strategic partnerships between for-profit
institutions and HBCUs should offer mutually beneficial advantages:
- For-profits institutions
have mastered Internet-based distance learning technologies. They
know how to produce online courses cost-effectively.
- As will be seen from Tables B2, B3, C2, and C3
in Part I of this report, some for-profit institutions have already
enrolled substantial numbers of African-American students. Strategic
partnerships with HBCUs would facilitate their expansion into this
important market segment.
- HBCUs offer the kinds of courses that would appeal
to African-Americans and other students in the for-profit expanded
target markets. "Black is Beautiful" -- and not just to
other Black people, a fact that is confirmed every day by massive
sales of sports tickets, club entries, records, and videos featuring
Black athletes and Black performing artists.
- Distance learning partnerships would enable HBCUs
to greatly expand their geographical reach and to broaden their
demographic scope. In other words HBCUs would be able enroll more
African-American students as well as more non-African-American students
from all over the country.
D. Is There Any Interest?
So the question becomes: would any of the leading
for-profit colleges and universities be interested in forming strategic
partnerships with one or more HBCUs?
The DLL contacted the institutions listed in the first
column of Table C
(Part II) to find out. To be specific, the DLL asked appropriate representatives
of each for-profit institution of higher learning the following questions:
- In principle, would your institution consider
letting HBCU students take any of your online non-credit courses?
- In principle, would your institution consider letting
HBCU students take any of your online credit courses towards their
degrees at the HBCU?
- In principle, would your institution consider letting
your own students take any online non-credit courses offered by
an HBCU?
- In principle, would you consider letting your own
students take online credit courses that are offered by an HBCU
towards their degrees at your institution?
- If you have responded affirmatively to questions
3 and/or 4, would your institution also be willing to assist your
HBCU partner to convert the HBCU's courses into the online format
used by your institution?
- Finally, what are some of the challenges that would
have to be addressed in order to convert these agreements "in
principle" into working partnerships?
E. Sources of Data
- African-American Graduates
Most of the data about African-American graduates that appears in
Tables A and B was obtained from the online portal Diverse
and originally appeared in its June 2005 and July 2005 editions.
The Diverse data was collected by the U.S. Department of Education’s
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
- For-Profit Data
The data about the for-profit institutions that appears in Table
C and D was obtained from corporate Websites, from SEC filings,
from the responses to the DLL's email survey that were returned
by corporate executives. The DLL expresses its appreciation for
the cooperation that it received from these executives. Every effort
has been made to present their responses as accurately as possible.
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