With acknowledgements to the Wall Street Journal.

That's No Web Site, That's a Classroom At Georgia Tech

By Karen Lundegaard
The Wall Street Journal, April 21, 1999

Georgia Institute of Technology is hoping to attract more students who will never set foot on its crowded campus.

This fall, Georgia Tech will offer its first online-degree program: a master's in mechanical engineering. The degree will be one of just a handful offered on the Internet by major universities, and the only online degree in mechanical engineering.

It's the latest extension of Georgia Tech's 22-year-old off-campus education program, which started with a videotaped graduate course in electrical engineering. Atlanta-based utility Georgia Power Co. was the impetus then, as it needed to upgrade skills of its electrical engineers, but wanted to keep them working.

These days, workers, companies and competition are pushing top universities to develop new ways of teaching from a distance. And some videotaped- and online-degree programs from for-profit, relatively new institutions, such as Arizona's University of Phoenix, carry a prestige that correspondence courses of yore never achieved. "That's a threat," says George Wright, manager at Georgia Tech's Center for Distance Learning. Such schools have taken electronically transmitted education programs to a new level, Mr. Wright says, "hiring highly regarded professors, and putting a lot of money into the delivery, packaging and marketing" of the courses. For professionals already working but still wanting an advanced degree, "going to a University of Phoenix-type place gets the job done," says Mr. Wright.

For Georgia Tech, online classes offer a way to compete, and a solution to a homegrown problem as well: Its already-bulging city campus is nearing its enrollment cap of 15,000 students. "How do you meet the needs for the state of Georgia and the Southeast region if we're landlocked?" asks Mr. Wright. "One of the ways is through distance learning. We can provide for more people."

More than 70 students have taken four online courses from Georgia Tech in the past two years, including a current class in marketing. Tuition is the same as for regular out-of-state students. For the fall semester, enrollees can expect to pay $1,530 per online course. Admissions requirements are also the same, as is the degree.

Georgia Tech professors find both good and bad in the online option. Two years ago, Associate Professor Philip Shapira taught the school's first live class on the Internet -- a seminar in industrial modernization. Some 25 guest lecturers participated, including several Mr. Shapira had unsuccessfully asked to visit Atlanta for years.

Students, however, can be unusually timid, he says. "There's a feeling of everything's being recorded," Mr. Shapira says. "It makes you a little more cautious."