FATHOM OFFERS COST-TIERS - Fathom has been offering free access to about 800 lectures and articles. A new idea is to migrate people from free to low cost, then to high cost courses. To initiate that, Fathom will roll out a series of short courses that cost $25 to $50. The site recently tested such courses among Columbia University alumni and the results were beyond anything experienced with longer courses. The company is also looking to tap into the corporate market, by allowing other companies and organizations to offer online courses to their clients and members as a premium, or for a fee. Last week, for instance, AARP, the nonprofit association for people over 50, agreed to work with Fathom to offer online courses to its 30 million members. (New York Times 12 Mar 01)

THE QUEST FOR VENTURE CAPITAL DRIVES CONSORTIA FORMATION - Whether statewide, interstate, or international, consortia seem to be springing up everywhere in higher education these days. Is it a simple case of follow-the-leader, or is there a more potent driver of inter- institutional collaboration? Ed Klonoski, Executive Director of the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium (CDLC), believes that driver is the quest for venture capital. And, in the current issue of Horizon, he shows, dollar by dollar, how he and his colleagues successfully lobbied the state legislature to build CDLC into a $ 2.5 million organization serving 36 member universities and offering 13 online degree programs. But there's more going for consortia than just money, Klonoski argues. Freedom to experiment outside institutional constraints, and "plausible deniability" - institutional immunity from the mistakes of the consortium - are other potent drivers of the trend to higher education consortia formation. Read more on the Horizon website at CLICK: http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/default.asp?show=article&id=855 (E-News from UCEA, 21 Mar 01)

MAKING THE GRADE - Home Depot CEO Ron Griffin complains that too many college graduates who enter the corporate IT field have a good grasp of programming skills but do not understand how IT should fit in with a sound business strategy. The graduates lack customer-relation skills and do not comprehend the importance of the bottom line. However, Griffin is pleased with his latest batch of IT recruits from the University of Alabama. During the course of their studies, these students had to work with actual businesses as part of the university's new management information systems curriculum, which educators built with the advice of CEOs such as Griffin. Many other universities are also giving their IT programs a real-world flavor so that students learn not only how to make IT work, but also how it can improve business productivity and profit. Corporate donors gave $47 million to the University of Nebraska at Omaha for the founding of its Peter Kiewit Institute, an engineering and IT school. There, students work with corporations such as Boeing and IBM, while well-known CEOs visit and even teach courses. Pennsylvania State University launched a new program, the School of Information Science and Technology, in 1999. Students not only learn IT skills but also are exposed to important legal and social issues facing the IT sector today. (Computerworld, 19 Mar 01 - Edupage 21 Mar 01)

eLEARNING IN BRAZIL - At a recent eLearning briefing in San Paulo, Brazil, Elliott Masie fielded CEO comments and summarized observations:
- They want to make sure that the eLearning approaches of higher education and corporation are compatible.
- The CEOs want to be able to rapidly move towards eLearning, without starting with a huge capital investment right at the beginning.
- They have a strong desire to make sure eLearning maps to the culture and language of Brazil, while opening the door to worldwide knowledge access.
* The CEOs were intrigued by Time to Market and Time to Hire/Train ROI issues. (Masie TechLearn Trends #200 16 Mar 01 - The MASIE Center CLICK: http://www.masie.com