BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : JULY 10, 2000 ISSUE
UP FRONT From B-School to E-Venture Duke University's J.B. Fuqua School of Business on July 1 will become the first B-school in the country to spin off its online coursework into a separate, for-profit venture, Duke Corporate Education. Crossing the border from nonprofit to moneymaker is a big step. But the corporate e-learning market is projected at $11.4 billion by 2003, and Fuqua wants its share. The B-school will hold 60% of the venture, with the balance going to venture capitalists, employees, and faculty. Taking a page from the private sector, Fuqua plans to lure professors to the venture with options--a nice perk if the business goes public. The faculty will first offer personal instruction to top execs of school clients such as Deutsche Bank. Those lessons will then be repackaged in short ''modules'' on the Web for lower-level managers so employees can learn specific topics, such as derivatives, without employers paying for a degree program. Some other schools are experimenting with e-learning spin-offs. Cornell University's eCornell sells online courses but doesn't focus solely on the lucrative business market. Babson College's B-school is also eyeing an e-learning spin-off. Says Rex Adams, Fuqua's dean: ''Universities have to find ways of creating wealth. It isn't going to be done with charity.'' By Mica Schneider EDITED BY ROBERT McNATT _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS From B-School to E-Venture CHART: U.S. Corporate E-Learning Market INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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