CHANGING LANDSCAPE - There are 3,700 institutions and 15 million students in the United States today facing the challenge of integrating the past with the present, questioning how to mold the traditional model of higher education into a form that will not become obsolete in a world awash in an information explosion driven by electronic technology. There now exist four different types of educational institutions instead of the single, virtually unaltered model followed for the past 250 years of formal education in America.

The first type comprises the traditional notion of a college. The second includes "corporate universities," on-site training programs developed by individual companies to improve the skills and knowledge of employees. The third category contains mega-universities that recognize no national boundaries, combine the high-tech with the historical, and bridge the gap between the educational experience and the job market. The fourth types are virtual educators that operate nearly entirely online and offer the opportunity for practically anybody to become a teacher or a student. The Internet is restructuring society, shifting our educational market away from one in which producers define the nature of the educational product and the nature of its delivery, toward one in which the consumer is in charge and is no longer simply being fed information but is instead responding to and interacting with that information. Educators cannot be afraid of this new Internet era and instead must embrace it with creativity and understand that education is not an entity separate from the rest of life, but one that depends upon the successful combination of digital innovation and intellectual resources. (EDUCAUSE Review, Feb 00)

LEARNING PORTALS - The recent Learning Decisions Interactive Newsletter survey provides insight into the concept of learning portals. The Masie Institute surveyed 1,902 learning professionals on their plans to implement a learning portal. (Portals are public or internal sites that serve as single points of access for learning.) The data indicates that 22% of organizations are in the process of building a learning portal and 32% are investigating the concept.

One part of the study asked people to indicate the importance of eight learning portal capabilities, the following ranked Top 3:

#1 Pointing workers to a single site for all learning and training resources.

#2 Creating an on-line community with access to subject matter experts and peers to assist in the learning process.

#3 Increasing the quantity and range of learning offerings by consolidating offers from a wide range of vendors.

The complete results and analysis of the data, is being distributed to all Learning Decisions Interactive Newsletter subscribers. If you would like to subscribe, just go to
http://www.learningdecisions.com (TechLearn Trends 3 Mar 00)

CLICK2LEARN - Bill Gates' former business partner Paul Allen made his move in online workforce education this week, with a three-pronged strategy that puts his eLearning company, click2learn, in a dominant position as the the nation's largest professional development Application Service Provider (ASP). Thousands of courses linked to tracking software will be available through click2learn on a pay-per-use basis, along with a free browser-based course design and publishing program, click2learn.publisher. The goal: remove upfront investment in hardware, software and IT staff as a barrier to course creation and use. (E-News from UCEA 24)