'Distance Education' Embraces the Web.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Brief Article

You don't have to be a Stanford, Harvard or a Princeton to be in the forefront of education, especially in the evolving world of "distance education," much of it done increasingly online. Small, little-known schools often take on a role far beyond what their name recognition might suggest.

Consider Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Housed in an extended campus that includes Broward Community College and Florida Atlantic University, Nova has been a pioneer in distance education, with programs dating back to 1972. Nova claims to have been the first college in the U.S. to offer graduate programs online and the first to use UNIX technology to host online courses. NSU says it began offering programs with some online component in 1983.

The world of distance education, of course, has been juiced by technology, and the Internet is setting a new standard for interactive instruction, much of it geared to financial management. Companies like BetterManagement.com, an Internet portal, offer courses on scorecarding and activity-based costing and management. And associations like the American Management Association have joined with Web shops like PrimeLearning.com to develop Web-based training featuring the association's content.

Even the Internal Revenue Service is on the Web. Arthur D. Little, the Cambridge, Mass.-based consulting firm, late last year signed a five-year contract with a dozen universities, law and business schools to provide online coursework to IRS employees. Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, for instance, has begun offering online courses in accounting to more than 1,000 IRS workers.

But a clear distinction must be made between online professional training or certification and more extensive (and expensive) degree-based instruction. Online MBA programs, for instance, are still relatively rare, and even online pioneers like Nova Southeastern have been offering Web-based instruction for just three years. Its programs are still somewhat small -- 200 enrolled in an online MBA program and 50 in the "eMACC" program that grants a master's degree in accounting. Still smaller are doctoral programs in subjects like computer science and information systems.

Randolph Pohlman, dean of Nova's Wayne Huizenga Graduate School of Business and Entrepreneurship, says that "my charge to the...