NEW CLASSROOM? Will Online Education Make Us Better Students? by Kevin Featherly Illustration by Jesse Lefkowitz

IN-DEPTH DISTANCE LEARNING

THE NEW CLASSROOM? Will online education make us better students? By Kevin Featherly Illustration by Jesse Lefkowitz

ocrates, perhaps the most noted teacher those students to recite those facts back on a test in all of human history, fairly bragged several weeks later. If this approach matched a stu- S that he really did not know anything. dent’s particular learning style, the student likely Twenty-four hundred years later, technol- excelled. If not, well, that’s another story. ogy seems to be bringing Socrates’ point into focus. Computers are different. They’re patient. They As online learning platforms proliferate, educa- don’t care if a student learns a concept in an hour tors are seeing instruction through a new set of or in a month. They’ll repeat instructions, churn digital prisms that alter basic precepts about how out hints and never get annoyed. They’ll collect and people learn. They’re grasping the implications of crunch data that can be used to redesign and per- an idea given lip service for generations: Different fect courses right down to the individual level. Was people learn in different ways and at different rates. Socrates more aware of the art of teaching than he In traditional classrooms, teachers have almost realized? Have we been getting instruction wrong always taught one way—standing in front of a these past two millennia? Can computers finally roomful of people, delivering facts and then asking help us get it right?

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New Alternatives although not offered for college credit. MOOCs are It might be good to take a step back. For all of its common now, but two years ago Stanford offered promise, there’s little consensus on what makes an the first in this latest wave: a course on artificial ideal online learning environment. And most agree intelligence. Millions of people have since signed that technology will never fully replace teachers or on for MOOCs through Stanford, Harvard, MIT and classrooms. numerous other institutions. “There will always be people who would like to It hasn’t been an entirely smooth ride. In an go away to college, stay in a dorm with interesting incident that was publicized in The Chronicle of people, have the entire campus social life as well as Higher Education in February, one professor stopped the learning experiences,” says John Mitchell, Stan- teaching his Microeconomics for Managers MOOC ford University’s vice provost for online learning. course partway through. The professor, who was Computers clearly provide alternatives that look teaching some 37,000 registered students (roughly well beyond the classroom. Stanford Online, for 740 of whom were active in discussions), report- example, aims to serve both its on-campus stu- edly bailed after criticism from students about the dents and the world at large. It’s an incubator and amount of work he assigned and about a required laboratory for digital education where researchers textbook that students couldn’t obtain for free. conduct experiments looking for new uses of tech- The class was offered by the professor’s school nology that might lead to new teaching models. It through Coursera, a private online education com- also looks for ways to offer digital course materials pany cofounded by Stanford computer scientists to other colleges and universities. Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng. Far from demon- Stanford has provided seed money to some 30 strating the failure of MOOCs, Mitchell says the Stanford faculty members and teams to the tune incident reflects the public’s “huge, huge interest” of roughly $25,000 each, according to Mitchell. in them. “If you’re not failing at something, you’re As a result, Stanford Online has offered 64 online probably not trying enough new ideas,” he says. courses since January 2012. Of those, more than 37 In a brief email exchange in which Koller was have been “massive open online courses” (known not asked about the incident, she suggested that as MOOCs), cost-free classes that are open to all, Mitchell was correct about MOOCs’ widespread interest, whether offered directly by universities, by Coursera or by other providers such as Udacity, edX and iTunes U. A Tough Sell? Since its 2012 launch, Coursera has processed 2.8 While a majority of academic leaders perceive the learning million student registrations. It lists 325 courses in outcomes of online education to be the same or better than its catalog (about 179 of which have launched) and face-to-face instruction, a consistent minority of those in its academic partners that furnish course material higher education still view online learning as inferior. include 62 universities, 24 of which are outside the United States. Higher Education Academic Leaders’ Perceptions of Learning Koller made her reputation applying artificial Outcomes in Online Education Compared to Face-to-face intelligence to the biomedical sciences, but she has put her research on hold to devote herself to Cours- 2012 era. “We want to offer a top-quality higher educa- 2011 tion to people around the world, for free,” she says. “We want to turn education from a privilege of the 2010 few to a basic human right.” 2009 Tailored to the Student 2006 Western Governors University, a Salt Lake City– based, degree-awarding online university, has 2004 crafted an intriguing model. Cofounded and spon- 2003 sored by 19 U.S. governors, WGU caught the eye of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who has 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% said that whereas such low-cost online models are Inferior & Same Superior & now the exception, “I want them to be the norm.” Somewhat Inferior Somewhat Superior WGU caters to working adults (the average age is 37), most of whom have some prior college Copyright ©2013 by Babson Survey Research Group, Pearson and Quahog Research Group, LLC. experience but have not yet completed a degree.

112 MAY 2013 deltaskymag.com From the President’s Office // Stanford University president John Hennessy on the “Wild West” of online learning

John Hennessy rose through the ranks of attempts to use the technology to improve learning so that computer science, cofounding MIPS Computer more students complete and master more material. Systems in 1984. Today, as the president of Stanford University, he finds himself again at What is the key thing we don’t understand about how to the center of a technological frontier—this time execute higher education online? in the space where digital communications and What the most effective online pedagogical strategies will be. higher education intersect. We’ve been teaching in conventional classrooms for a long time. We know something about what works—the role of What impact will the proliferation of online classes have exams, quizzes, homework, problem-solving recitations, other on access to higher education? kinds of exercises. We’ve had lots of years to experiment. All of Certainly it will impact access—and perhaps even more a sudden we are online, and now we don’t really know how well outside of the United States than inside the U.S. In sub- these classes are working. We’ve got to do carefully controlled Saharan Africa, less than 5 percent of students ever get any studies and ask how are students learning online? Are they access to higher education. One area I think is very promising learning the material as well as students who take it in a more is the issue of remedial courses. In some colleges, half the traditional format? Are they learning it even better perhaps? students take a remedial course and that should be done, maybe, in the summer before they begin college. So there is How important is it to find those answers? an opportunity to use online to attack that problem. I think it’s very important. And I think this is where universities and research-oriented schools of education can play a role and How will online learning affect costs? begin to actually look at how effective the learning strategies It’s a bit of the Wild West out here. People are trying lots of are. That will then set the stage for the next level of online things, throwing them up there, seeing what might work. I development. The promise is there. But it’s early days—the think we will see both attempts to reduce costs as well as beginning. —K. F. PHOTO: LINDA A. CICERO/STANFORD NEWS SERVICE. NEWS CICERO/STANFORD A. LINDA PHOTO:

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deltaskymag.com MAY 2013 113 IN-DEPTH The iGeneration isn’t comparing universities to each other. They are comparing“ them to the consumer experience Almost all are looking to education to advance their careers. For most programs, students are charged that they’re having online. That means $3,000 for each six-month term, regardless of the higher education is going to have to pro- number of credits they take or complete. Assess- vide a much better consumer experience.” ments at the beginning of a course measure their —Robert Mendenhall, president of Western competency levels, so students can move quickly Governors University through material they already know. In-state students who finish their bachelor’s at WGU finish, on average, after slightly more than course that’s part of WGU’s MBA track. Students three years. Total cost: roughly $17,500—compared operate simulated businesses as a computer pro- to roughly $34,000 (tuition only) for a degree from gram tracks their progress over several weeks as a state university obtained over five years. WGU they make decisions in an effort to keep their busi- enrolled its first student in 1999 and has since nesses afloat. All the while, students are competing awarded more than 20,000 bachelor’s and master’s with and getting feedback from their peers. degrees. It has not raised tuition in five years. “If we can ask questions, require interaction One reason WGU can keep costs low is that and then give students immediate feedback as to it doesn’t develop its own course materials but whether what they are doing is right or wrong, instead licenses curriculum from Carnegie Mellon that is motivating,” Mendenhall says. “And it is very University, the lynda.com software-training Web instructionally sound.” service and many other sources. It maintains only But aren’t the old tried-and-true methods of four basic colleges—teaching, business, information teaching just as instructionally sound? “The teach- technology and health professions—in disciplines ing method that’s most tried-and-true—but in our where market demand for trained workers is high. view not as effective—is the lecture,” Mendenhall Students are assigned a faculty member who says. “But that’s how we do education.” communicates with them every week until they Stanford University president John Hennessy graduate, and each course’s instructor (called a might dispute that statement. Great teaching, “course mentor”) actively guides students through he says, takes clear, compelling and enthusiastic the material. “So there is this two-pronged mentor- presentation combined with student motivation ing approach that helps students persist and stick and buy in. There’s a danger that a movement to all- with it,” says WGU president Robert Mendenhall. online could produce students who are less engaged MOOCs go wrong when they lack this personal and drop out of college at higher rates, he says. touch, Mendenhall suggests. A class comprising of But Hennessy says the online learning medium videos of classroom lectures (the content for many is making great strides toward warding off that MOOCs) fails to take advantage of the interactivity eventuality. “I think we’re learning how to keep of the medium and the ways that it can enhance that emotional, motivational connection as we HOT learning. By contrast, Mendenhall points to a deploy more and more online,” he says. TOPIC There are few studies gauging the effectiveness of online education, but one in 2007 at Carnegie Mellon University demonstrated compelling re- THE “STIGMA” OF ONLINE DEGREES sults. It found that students in an online statistics course with minimal instructor contact learned a Does it still exist? “There still is a stigma, but the tide is shifting,” says Cheryl Oliver, director of graduate programs in business at full semester’s worth of material in half as much Washington State University. “The students in our online MBA program time and performed as well or better than students will be able to demonstrate the same competencies that our other receiving traditional instruction over a full se- MBA students can demonstrate. These students will advance through mester. In 2010 and 2011, the ITHAKA Foundation their companies and will be the evangelists about what an online MBA conducted studies on that same course, delivered from Washington State University is really all about.” in the same way (but offered at several large public How do you insure quality? “Our full-time faculty teach our online universities) and it got the same results. MBA program and our admissions requirements are identical. We Students didn’t simply watch videos or down- aren’t admitting students to the program who we wouldn’t admit to load written assignments, says Candace Thille, who our face-to-face program. And we do a lot of assessment of student developed the course and who serves as Carnegie learning to see if we’re really meeting our targets and our goals.” Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative director. “They What’s been the response? “Enrollment in our online MBA program is were engaging with the learning activities in the actually larger than our face-to-face program.” —Sydney Berry computer interface,” she says. “We did that so that we could give dynamic responses. If students were

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5-13 SKY Rutgers.indd 1 4/5/13 10:40:53 AM IN-DEPTH We’re going to pull college apart. But we are going to come up with new ways“ to put it back together. That’s what stuck, they could ask for a hint.” Michael Horn, executive director of education we’re having a national conversation at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive about. I think it’s thrilling.” —Mitchell Stevens, Innovation, a nonprofit Bay Area think tank, is an Education’s Digital Future, Stanford University advocate of mastery- and competency-based education. In traditional classroom learning, which Horn dubs the “stand and deliver” model, students move easier to build it into a digital environment, Horn on to new material after a predetermined amount says. “We can embed assessments and we can scale of time. In mastery-based education, they only very reliably and with great functionality across move on after they’ve mastered the material. huge populations.” Such learning instills “grit,” Horn says. Students Mitchell Stevens, an associate professor in learn the value of sticking with a task through Stanford’s Graduate School of Education is the co- completion because their advancement depends on convener of Education’s Digital Future, a one-unit it. The course in the Carnegie Mellon study differs Stanford course that each Tuesday brings together from Horn’s preferred system in its preservation of graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, local time as a pressure factor (students had eight weeks). K-12 teachers, software developers, venture capital- In Horn’s model, much like WGU’s, time isn’t a lim- ists and policy experts for wide-ranging conversa- iting factor. Students try until they succeed. tions about digital education. EDF is more than That same idea could be built into traditional a course. “It’s a website, a hub, a potential move- classrooms—if students were infinitely wealthy, ment,” declares the Stanford News website. That colleges had infinite resources and instructors were movement can’t arrive too soon for Stevens, who infinitely patient. But none of this is true. It’s far notes that even as states withdraw funding from

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116 MAY 2013 deltaskymag.com Where: Florida State University College of Business Why here: “The content of our online MBA doesn’t differ at all from our classroom-based MBA,” says dean Caryn Beck-Dudley. “It’s exactly the same coursework and exactly the same faculty. We don’t use adjunct faculty or professors from other universities. We are Get It also proud that it is relatively inexpensive compared to most MBA universities and costs of tuition Here programs. You can earn an MBA from us for right around $30,000.” continue to spiral, college is ever Online MBA Online stigma: “Most business schools of any stature have online more crucial to upward mobility. programs, so the stigma has really gone away,” Beck-Dudley says. “Universities are expected to “The current generation is used to online education. Starting in the do a lot more with a lot less,” he ninth grade in Florida, students must take at least one online class. As says. “They need to educate more students get used to taking them and their parents get used to seeing students for a longer period of them, the better they’ll be perceived.” —Stephanie Taylor time with greater efficiency and with clearer measurement than they’ve ever had to do in the past.” Stevens sees online delivery as one of education’s few bright spots. However, its focus needs to broaden, he says. It needs to shift emphasis away from exclusively college-level instruction and include K-12 learners, and it needs to encourage nonacademic op- tions such as Degreed, UnCollege and Codeacademy, in addition to formal, degreed schooling. In effect, Stevens advocates rewriting the chronology of education. The glide path from K-12 to college—with a high BEST school diploma in between—may ONLINE PROGRAMS not long reflect the way that WSU Online Graduate Business Programs people best learn, he says. GRAD BUSINESS Ranked #1 by U.S. News & World Report WGU’s Mendenhall has a simi- 2013 lar take, suggesting that pressure to change is building from the Washington State University College of Business MBA ground up. As the iGeneration reaches college age, he says, it will World-class faculty; AACSB accredited make demands of higher educa- 100% online – no residency required tion that reflects its own lifelong Complete your degree in as little as 22 months immersion in online culture. “The iGeneration isn’t compar- A global perspective with an optional 10-day, faculty-led ing universities to each other,” he international trip says. “They are comparing them Foundation courses available for non-business graduates to the consumer experience they are having online. That means In-depth concentrations in marketing, ﬁ nance, or that higher education is going to international business have to provide a much better consumer experience. And, of topmba.wsu.edu course, most of higher ed doesn’t Five programs and locations even want to talk about students EMBA Online | MBA Online | MBA Vancouver as consumers.” MBA Tri-Cities | 1-Year Pullman MBA “We’re going to pull college apart,” Stevens vows. “But we are going to come up with new ways to put it back together. That’s what we’re having a national conversation about. I think it’s thrilling.” //

deltaskymag.com MAY 2013 117 IN-DEPTH

ONLINE, ON DEMAND BUT NOT A SCHOOL Lynda.com, Code Academy and other online instructional sites are redefining what it means to get an education. By Kevin Featherly Illustration by Jesse Lefkowitz

nyone with a camera and a YouTube experts and its courses primarily target media pro- account can be a teacher today. Mostly, duction professionals trying to stay up to date on, A that’s a good thing. say, the Canon EOS 5D Mark III camera’s new fea- Say you’re a guitarist desperate to tures or the latest Adobe Premier Pro video-editing learn Skip James’ spooky blues “Devil Got My software iteration. Woman” in James’ eccentric D minor tuning. You “People are using us as their skill insurance,” can find YouTube lessons that will help you nail Weinman says. “They are relying on us.” it down note for note. But you’re just as likely to Hundreds of online, nonacademic skills train- stumble upon some kid scratching out his version ing services are out there now, bearing names such of the song with straight-up cowboy chords. And as Dev Bootcamp, Flatiron School, Hack Reactor you’ll never find your inner Skip that way. and Marginal Revolution University. There’s Code Student, know thy instructor. School, which borrows from the gaming world to “This is one of the huge questions of our time,” teach would-be developers how to program Ruby, says Lynda Weinman, co-founder of lynda.com. Ruby on Rails, JavaScript and iPhone applications. “How do you know good and bad?” Like gamers, Code School students don’t move Lynda.com is among the online instruction on to new material until they’ve mastered the chal- channels trying to help sort that out. It has posted lenge before them. Afterward, they receive badges more than 1,600 courses in more than 90,000 video that they can brag up on their resumés and on their segments since it became a subscription service LinkedIn accounts. While this is all fun (and in in 2002. All of its instructors are subject-matter some cases free), Code School is not for dilettantes,

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says Gregg Pollack, founder of Code School and its parent con- sultancy, Envy Labs. “Our target audience is most certainly not beginners.” The Orlando-based company offers no official certifications of the sort that Microsoft developers can earn. Still, Pollack thinks that the industry is catching on. After all, a Code School graduate knows how to code and that makes that student imminently employable. Certification, schmertification. The implications of the proliferation of nonacademic online training are only starting to shake out. Alex Tabarrok, an economics professor at George Mason University and co-founder of the online platform Marginal Revolu- tion University, thinks the impact is potentially huge. For example, universities may struggle to compete on costs with Get Buckley’s classic Strictly Speaking and his new book the nonacademic training sources on professional writing, Wresting Order Out of Chaos. that are now almost universally available. Conversely, online training may serve to improve teaching as a discipline as digital technol- Did you fail to make the sale? ogy allows instructors and course designers to observe and much better gauge whether students Win the bid? Close the deal? are succeeding and target their instruction more individually. Not getting your message across? Come to us. All of this may be good news for academia or bad news—or The ability to persuade brings success. The both. But there’s no question that it’s a direct challenge. Academia is Buckley School specializes in teaching executives already responding. Many univer- and professionals how to sell themselves and their sities, including Stanford, Harvard products: organize their thoughts, motivate people, and MIT, have entered the online and conﬁ dently address a crowd. fray in big ways, sometimes offering free, massive open-enrollment courses through platforms such as Each three-day seminar is taught by Reid Buckley Coursera and iTunes U. and his renowned Faculty. Classes are limited to Tabarrok thinks that nonaca- 12 participants. Be one of them and learn the skills demic channels are likely to force necessary for success! academia to make seriously disruptive innovations, particularly www.buckleyschool.com at nonelite schools. “Why,” he asks, The Buckley School “would you go to Podunk U and (803)425-4681 get your average professor when of Public Speaking [email protected] you can go online and get maybe the best guy in the world?” //

120 MAY 2013 deltaskymag.com Get It Here Online arts classes and law degrees.

What: For-credit online classes in music, theater, dance and What: Four-year, part-time JD program from the country’s visual arts from Rutgers University Mason Gross School of Arts. first online law school. Where: With more than 4,400 enrollments during the current Where: Concord Law School of Kaplan University academic year, Mason Gross Online is the largest provider of Tuition: $39,936 for four years. “That compares very online programs at Rutgers. favorably to virtually all private schools and, in fact, to many Coming this fall: Online courses in digital filmmaking, plus a public schools,” says dean Greg Brandes. 30-credit online master’s degree in music education. Fine print: Although not on the list of schools approved by Cost per credit: $330 (in state), $333 (out of state), plus a the American Bar Association (the ABA does not sanction JD $100 fee for each three-credit online course. programs delivered fully or mostly online), qualified Concord Law School graduates can apply for admission to The State Bar Why online: “The battle between supporters and detractors of California. of online education has been fought and largely settled,” says Antonius Bittmann, director of Mason Gross Online. “We can Why online: “It’s a great program for the right kind of argue the details—whether we should teach fully online or student—a student who wants to be in charge of their learning, teach in more of a hybrid format—and we can argue price who wants the convenience and flexibility that an online points of online education compared to traditional education, program offers, who understands the regulatory limitations but we can no longer write off online education as a fad. of where they can practice law and what they can do with the It is here to stay and embraced by a new generation of degree because online degrees are not as widely recognized as nontraditional and traditional students with their particular traditional ones. For students who want those things, Concord learning preferences and life circumstances.” —S. T. can be a great place,” says Brandes —S. B.

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LANGUAGE STUDY WITHOUT BORDERS Want to learn a language? Go online. By Eric Lucas Illustration by Jesse Lefkowitz

hough she spent an entire year back- The two needs could meld online and thus was packing around Asia and already spoke born a new phenomena: global online language T five languages, Marina Tognetti faced an instruction. It is, after all, the World Wide Web. unwieldy challenge about seven years ago Tognetti founded Myngle in 2007, the same when she decided to learn Mandarin: Where would year that two Seattle entrepreneurs started Live- she find a fluent speaker of the most common Chi- mocha, another Internet-based language-learning nese tongue—in the Netherlands? enterprise. In 1993, Rosetta Stone, one of the first Tognetti intuitively knew what language experts technology-based language-education companies, affirm: The best way to learn a language is through established its interactive CD-ROM courses, and it real-life interaction with native speakers. “A lan- has since added online instructional services. guage cannot be learned with a couple of lessons,” It is safe to say that today there are millions of says Tognetti, deliberately understating things. people booting up computers to practice French, Yet there were few Chinese speakers in the Spanish, Mandarin, Italian, German and dozens of Netherlands, let alone Dutch residents fluent in other languages with other human beings almost Mandarin, who were interested in instructing an everywhere. Livemocha, for instance, has 15 million Italian living in Amsterdam. Then Tognetti realized members around the world—“members” meaning she already had access to innumerable Mandarin subscribers who interact with speakers of other speakers who, by the way, were anxious to improve languages online. “That includes North Korea,” says their command of one of her languages: English. Livemocha spokeswoman Julia Bonnheim. “I say

122 MAY 2013 deltaskymag.com

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that and people respond, ‘What! North Korea?’ Well, why not? Our mission is to make language learning accessible to all. Anyone can join, learn and contribute.” There are modest distinctions among the offerings of Livemocha, Rosetta Stone and Myngle, but all three companies share a focus on interactive use of language, in real-life situations, with native speakers. That’s the key to language acquisition, says language learning expert Orlando Kelm. “Linguists talk about how we learn vocabulary in ‘chunks’,” says Kelm, associate director of business language education at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas in Austin. “Suppose you go to a market in Mexico and learn how to order your lunch—tortillas, roast pork, salsa—from the vendors there. Each new phrase is used in the context of buying things in the market, and it sticks in your brain Keeps pace with because you used it in association with that event.” Language learning is kinetic in your schedule the same sense that skiing is. Just as no amount of blackboard in- and career. struction will suffice to create an advanced skier (you have to get out on the slopes), the very best way to achieve fluency in a new language is by immersion. That means spending an extended time abroad, using the language every day. Our MBA is designed for working professionals. Available 100% Because few people can do online, it delivers real-world, practical information you can apply that, Kelm says, today’s technolo- to your career immediately. Earn an MBA, MSIOP, MSIS, MOT, gies provide viable substitutes. or DBA. Baker graduates reported an average 35% increase in income after completing the program. “Say you’re in the market trying to explain something to a vendor. After several tries, the two of you achieve understanding. We See how online classes work by watching a multimedia demo at bakercollegeonline.com call that ‘negotiation of meaning’ (800) 469-3165 and it’s exactly what you can do if you’re having an online Skype session with someone in China,”

An Equal Opportunity Affirmative Action Institution. Baker College is accredited by Kelm says. “He’s practicing Eng- OVER 100 YEARS The Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association / 30 North LaSalle Street, Suite 2400, Chicago, IL 60602-2504 / 800-621-7440 lish, you’re practicing Mandarin of successfully preparing www.ncahigherlearningcommission.org. Baker Center for Graduate Studies’ MBA program people for new careers. is also accredited by the International Assembly of Collegiate Business Education (IACBE). and you can repeat things and ask

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124 MAY 2013 deltaskymag.com Rosetta Stone’s language and-take is essential.” Livemocha products have calls its approach “whole-part- multiplied. whole,” meaning that commu- nication is offered, it’s broken into pieces to practice (remember sentence diagrams from English class?) and then reconstituted into understanding. “It’s skill-based training,” says Bonnheim. “It’s not like algebra. We call speaking a new language a ‘performing art’. ” If you want to advance your business career, Rosetta Stone, a $273 million– company based in Virginia, began you will have to earn our stripes. in 1992 with a similar method it calls “Dynamic Immersion” in which translation, explicit Earn a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the Florida grammar instruction and spell- State University College of Business and gain an edge in the ever-changing ing details are set aside in favor business world. Choose our flexible online program to further your education of simply speaking the language, without setting foot on campus. Or choose to pursue the degree on campus thus forgoing the classic instruc- in our full-time, accelerated program or part-time, evening program. No tional model in which students inevitably think in their native matter which path you follow, you’ll experience a cutting-edge curriculum tongue and translate into the new and individual attention that will challenge and inspire you to shape the language. First offered on CD, future of business. various iterations of Dynamic Im- mersion are also now available as Learn more at graduatebusiness.fsu.edu. software, downloadable apps and online in-person interactive programs called “Studio” and “World,” as well as online games designed to further language acquisition. “A vast majority of our learners FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY participate in games,” says Rosetta COLLEGE OF BUSINESS Stone spokeswoman Anne-Marie War paint for today’s business world. Walworth, “most in the comfort of ‘Solo,’ which is good self-practice. Learners seeking a challenge participate in ‘Duo’ or ‘Simbio,’ which allow one-to-one interactions with other learners—it’s akin to walk- ing down a street in the country and talking to people you meet along the way.” Walworth reports hundreds of thousands of online interactions among Rosetta Stone students every week. Costs vary widely. Livemocha members can pay as little as $1 for a single online session with a native speaker in whatever language they want to learn—38 in all, from Arabic to Urdu—and members can earn credits toward taking future lessons by offering online interac-

PHOTO: COURTESY ROSETTA STONE.PHOTO: tion themselves to learners else- Dr. Larry Giunipero Professor of Marketing and Supply Chain Management; Coordinator, China Trade Simulation Module IN-DEPTH

Everyone Is Learning . . . English // The universal language of business and commerce still claims the most language students.

The evening air was balmy on the balcony of our riverside Also claiming the most students on language-study sites: restaurant in Prague, and as we awaited our dinner, the French couple at the table next to us was chatting with the Czech >> Spanish is the No. 1 choice in the U.S., ranking in the waiter in a language foreign to both. top three elsewhere. It’s also the world’s second-largest native language after Mandarin. The language they were speaking? English, the most widely studied foreign language in the world, the lingua franca of >> French is Rosetta Stone’s No. 1 language in Europe and business, travel and commerce and also, arguably, the world’s in the top five almost everywhere. most widely spoken language, period, if you count its newfound prominence as a second language among the world’s 7,000 >> German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Mandarin, Arabic or so living tongues. It’s thought that more than 1 billion people and Russian also rank high, perhaps a recognition that speak English well enough to converse. even though English is becoming widespread, it’s discourteous and unimpressive to ignore other languages. It’s no surprise then that English is the No.1 language choice on the language study site Myngle and that it is Rosetta Stone’s So where is English the most popular study topic? GlobalEnglish, top seller in Asia as well as overall. It’s even near the top among a company specializing in teaching English for business use, has “foreign” languages that online students pick in the United almost twice as many students in India (20 percent) as in the States—No. 2, for example, among U.S. residents using the No. 2 country, Brazil (11 percent). Its top five are rounded out by language-learning service Livemocha. Mexico, China and Colombia. —E. L.

126 MAY 2013 deltaskymag.com where. Since language learning is direction.” Companies such as Myngle avow a desire to help their customers navi- such a two-way street, earning is gate the new global economy and culture—not just to make money, but to boost also instructive. “While you earn, intercultural understanding and connection. “Our teachers love having students you learn,” Bonnheim says. all over the world,” Tognetti says. “The Internet eliminates geographical barri- At Myngle, which offers 41 ers, and we’ve applied this principle to our company, running the business with a languages—from Bengali to Ce- team that’s scattered around four continents. This is the way of the future.” // buano—most lessons are private one-on-one interactions, and the student selects the teacher. Teachers are language instructors Become More. prescreened by the company (300 of the 7,000 who have applied have Advance your career with a been accepted), and the instructor’s popularity helps determine Master of Business Administration Degree the cost, which averages 20 euros from the University of South Dakota. per lesson, Tognetti estimates; the most popular Myngle teacher has given more than 6,000 lessons online. The Dutch company recently USD allowed me to work full-time with began offering a business-oriented a heavy travel schedule while pursuing my version of its services that’s more MBA degree. USD’s Online MBA program formalized and more costly. Rosetta Stone has many itera- was an exceptional value for the quality of tions of various products, ranging education I would receive in the program. from its classic CDs to high-octane I can say with great con dence that I cannot private coaching courses. Also, 24 imagine a more thorough or rigorous AACSB- languages—from Arabic to Viet- namese—are available in online International accredited MBA program, versions, with prices starting at traditional, online, or anywhere in the world. $179 for a beginning level course. Costs go up from there to custom- Steve Kalten ized courses for businesses that Senior Program Manager–Greater Atlanta Area package beginning instruction Automated Logic Corporation online, private coaching, apps that help boost learning and so on, into Earn an AACSB-International the thousands of dollars. Anyone who has called, Skyped accredited MBA online. or videoconferenced overseas knows that technology, while A ordable. Quality. Convenient. amazing, can sometimes be frus- trating. Poor sound or visuals, APPLY TODAY disconnects and difficulty finding The University of South Dakota’s Beacom School of Business has sufficient bandwidth can get in the way. Online language educators been continuously accredited by AACSB-International since 1949. acknowledge the drawbacks, but For more information contact: say that the situation is improving rapidly and the interactions that result resemble real-life situations, anyhow. “Technology gets better every day and is much better now than five years ago,” says Myngle’s Tognetti. “Online education is still DIVISION OF CONTINUING & DISTANCE EDUCATION in its early phase, but in this case 414 East Clark Street • Vermillion, SD 57069 consumer acceptance and technology are both moving in the same 800-233-7937 • 605-677-6240 • www.usd.edu/cde

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