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One Company’s Impact On The World Of On-Line Learning

by Sloan-C

(Editor’s Note: Convene International, San Francisco, is the biggest provider of on-line distance education services in the U. S. Convene offers a turnkey system, including faculty training, that can equip an educational institution to go on-line within three to six weeks. Convene’s clients include the University of Phoenix, UCLA Extension, Golden Gate University, Dominican College, JFK University, Baker College, Pacific Oaks College, and Harding College. More than 35,000 students worldwide have completed over 125,000 courses toward degrees, non-degrees, and certificate programs using the Convene System. This story outlines Convene’s pioneering contributions to the field of on-line learning. Convene can be reached by calling 415-782-0500, or by e-mail to info@Convene.com. Convene’s address on the World Wide Web is http://www.convene.com).

In the late 1980’s, when a North Carolina engineer named Larry Allen developed software in the basement of his farmhouse that allowed seminaries to train students collaboratively by computer, he didn’t realize he had created far more than a training program for seminarians. In fact, Allen’s early software helped pioneer the current revolution in distance learning, as well as the beginnings of Convene International, which today is the largest private competitor in the on-line learning market.

Over the last decade, Larry Allen’s seminary training program has evolved into Convene’s full-solution distance education system. In the process, Convene has served more students, by far, than any other company in the field of on-line distance education—more than 35,000 students worldwide have completed over 125,000 courses and degree programs at educational institutions using the Convene system.

The evolution of the San Francisco-based Convene has been spearheaded by Jeffery Stein, President and CEO, who during the past five years has moved the company from a theologically-oriented, DOS-based software firm into a service provider that is a power player in the education market--number one in the on-line distance education field--working with clients like the University of Phoenix, Baker College, and UCLA Extension.

Stein’s previous experience as CEO of a computer-based, service-oriented business served him well for assuming the reins at Convene in 1993. Previously the founder of On-Line Business Systems, a company that specialized in mainframe data services and software licensing, Stein grew OBS into the largest data services company on the West Coast.

In 1989, he sold OBS, and began looking for a new challenge to fit his vision of a changing, collaborative world. One year later, he met Larry Allen, and the two began talking, not only about the theological use of Convene, but about the company’s possibilities for the emerging distance learning market.

"I had very large dreams about people using the computer to communicate with each other," Stein said. "I saw the whole future where groups of people, rather than just individuals, would want to communicate. I knew colleges and universities were going to be fertile ground for fermenting continuing education. I believed continuing education was going to overtake all education that exists today, and that it would affect everyone."

By 1993, when Stein acquired Convene, the company had evolved from just using its software as a seminary-training tool into providing an "Ecunet" or ecumenical network for thousands of ministers. Stein and his staff began the process of evolving the company by first retooling the existing DOS-based, menu driven Convene software into a user-friendly Windows and MacIntosh-based system that could work on a universal platform.

Stein also plugged in his knowledge of client service to develop a complete support network for the product, expanding Convene from just a software company into a turnkey service company. Today, Convene’s reformulated software package serves over 12,000 ministers of major U.S. denominations (including Lutherans, Presbyterians, United Church of Christ, and Episcopalians, and many others), allowing them to communicate with each other asynchronously about church management, congregational issues, financial needs and other related concerns.

Before Stein’s arrival, Convene had provided an older version of its software, a DOS-based, menu driven system called BIZLINK, to the University of Phoenix. UOP, an early entrant into the field of on-line learning, and today the recognized leader in on-line distance education, began its fledging on-line program in San Francisco in 1989, with one class and eight students.

In 1993, Stein presented his retooled asynchronous learning platform to Terri Hedegaard, Senior Vice President of the University of Phoenix on-line campus. Hedegaard, the driving force behind UOP’s on-line distance learning program, soon went on-line with Convene’s retooled software.

The University of Phoenix’s introduction of the new software was a milestone for all the players involved. It marked the beginning of UOP’s rapid expansion into its current leadership position in the on-line learning field, and Convene’s rise as a star in the on-line distance education market. Today the University of Phoenix, now the largest private university in the U.S., maintains the country’s largest enrollment of on-line students.

"When UOP first adopted the retooled Convene platform in 1993, it had a few hundred students on-line," said Stein. "Today, UOP has over 4,500 students registered on-line, and employs over 600 instructors."

For Hedegaard, Convene was the natural choice for the UOP expansion. "It was important to have a program that would provide the right structure for our classes, and which could organize the group discussion format we rely on," Hedegaard said. "It was also important that our students be able to do most of their work off-line. Convene did this automatically. It is very user friendly. It has sophisticated messaging features, which support the UOP adult teaching-learning model. It has a very intuitive structure, and over the years, has evolved into the Convene that we use today."

Even now, Hedegaard disregards the option of going solely to a web-based environment for the UOP distance learning program.

"Convene offers us more control," she declares. "We can archive all the classes and have a database transfer of information like grades and attendance. The students are all on the same platform, and the client service application provides more speed, control, and reliability."

Convene, through its influence on UOP faculty members who have been named to top positions at other institutions, has indirectly influenced the growth of on-line distance education throughout the U.S. Professor Steve Williams, for instance, who used Convene effectively when he taught business and organizational behavior at UOP, took the Convene system with him when he became President of Baker College’s On-Line School. (Baker is the largest private college system in the state of Michigan with 13,000 students on 12 campuses). Within two years of Williams’ arrival, Baker had 2,300 students on line.

Williams, who recently left Baker to join the administration at Harding College in Arkansas, has now taken the Convene System there. Within 3 days of its inception, the distance education program had enrolled 100 students; 5 days later, 200 students were enrolled. Both Williams and Stein believe Harding will grow into another mega on-line school. Convene’s system is also used by many other higher education institutions, including Golden Gate University, John F. Kennedy University, and Pacific Oaks College. Convene is also conducting a pilot program to train faculty to teach science on-line at Johns Hopkins University.

The next step in Convene’s evolution is its just announced partnership with Microsoft to provide distance learning opportunities. In early 1998, Convene will convert its distance education system to Microsoft Exchange Server, becoming a full-fledged partner with Microsoft by incorporating web based technology for distance learning. Classes will be offered through the browser, along with a more graphic look. (Convene will continue to offer the asynchronous learning model also). The Convene-Microsoft association is expected to rapidly accelerate the process of providing a state-of-the-art distance learning system to colleges and universities.

For any higher education institution considering distance learning, one of the key questions is always: Should we go with our own MIS department and implement the program in-house, or should we consider using a private company.

For Stein, who answers the question from a bottom line perspective, it’s an easy win to select a outside provider. Not only is it more economical, he asserts, but it is also easier for a outsourced company to recruit and train faculty.

"Starting from scratch, it can take over a year for MIS to set up the infrastructure for distance learning classes," Stein said. "An MIS department would have to lease the communication lines, write and test the software, train the faculty, and convert the existing classroom material to on-line usage. It’s many thousands of hours, and that doesn’t include having the school’s courses ready for on-line adaptation. Convene can have a course ready in three to six weeks, with an infrastructure in place for the students. With Convene, there are no start up costs, no capitol expenditures for schools and institutions to incur. There’s no hardware or software that a school has to purchase."

The Convene infrastructure includes setting up and building a computer network, establishing a help desk, student orientation, and faculty training and course conversion.

"When Convene provides the turnkey solution to the school, the student calls Convene for technical assistance, the faculty member is trained by Convene, and Convene maintains the integrity of the network to ensure that the student is able to connect, retrieve, and send the information they need on a timely basis," said Stein. "It is the immediacy, the performance, and the reliability of the Convene system that sets it apart. Convene provides a complete solution to a university that wants to design, develop and evolve a distance education program. It provides all of the technical assistance, the network, network access, course conversion assistance, and support that a program needs to be successful."

Recent statistics from the U. S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement support Stein’s contentions that infra-structure costs are a barrier to the implementation or expansion of a distance learning program. Forty-three percent of higher education institutions surveyed by the DOE say development costs keep them from initiating or expanding their distance education system. Another 31 per cent cite a limited technological infrastructure; an additional 23 per cent name equipment failures and maintenance concerns.

Also important to administrators looking to cut costs is Convene’s fee structure. Convene’s fees are structured on a per student basis. If a school has 50 students enrolled, it is charged for 50 students; if it has100 students enrolled, it is charged for 100 students.

Convene also places a strong emphasis on training faculty to teach on line.

"If I’m an instructor, and I’ve taught a psychology 101 course for 20 years in a lecture hall, and now I’m being asked to teach it on line, it’s a great barrier," Stein said. "An internal MIS department has the same problem, but usually lacks the know how of imparting on line teaching methods. At Convene, we can teach the faculty person how to teach on line."

Convene’s consultants and training staff administer training for instructors, and can train train prospective faculty on-line in three to six weeks. At the end of the training, the faculty have their course converted into computer format and are ready to teach.

"Our staff makes sure that the faculty are comfortable with the technical aspects of Convene, comfortable with using the internet to communicate, and that the teaching aspects and learning aspects on line are incorporated to make the experience as rich and productive as possible," said Stein. "Once a core group of four to six faculty members has been trained, they can train others, serving as distance learning mentors to the entire faculty. One thing we try to impart is that the faculty role is going to change, moving from just lecturing to facilitating the learning process through a variety of methods, including discussion, feedback, and lecturing.

Stein says that the phenomenon of retraining is going to be one of the engines that drives the field of distance learning in the next few years. "Due to changes in markets and technologies, companies are pushing people out," he says. The market is making companies change and rethink their goals, so some people no longer fit in. The reason they’re pushed out is because they usually lack the latest business, financial, or technological skills. The people who stay are the one’s who’ve been educated, making themselves more valuable to the company. The delta factor in deciding whether they stay or go is education."

Again research bears out Stein’s theories of what drives distance education. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, thirty-nine per cent of institutions that offered distance education courses in the fall of 1995 targeted professionals seeking recertification, and 49 per cent targeted other workers seeking skill updating or retraining. Of public four-year institutions, 65 per cent targeted professionals, and 60 per cent targeted other workers seeking retraining.

Stein’s vision for distance learning is large, but such economic factors as the need for retraining are growing the market far beyond the expectations of many in the field of traditional education. And Convene, from its roots in training seminarians and its early days in working with the University of Phoenix distance learning program, is an industry leader.

As Stein puts it, "We have the best process and the full solution to help people get into the distance education business."