District officials should take a critical approach to evaluating products and services in the marketplace of for-profit online courses, experts on that growing segment of education say.
There are pluses and minuses, they say, to doing business with online-learning companies, and officials should be just as judicious as they would in purchasing any other service.
鈥淏y and large, we look at these companies the same way we would others,鈥� said Themistocles Sparangis, the chief technology director for the 678,000-student . 鈥淲e ask, 鈥榃hat makes good educational business sense?鈥� and 鈥楬ow are we assured our investment is doing what it鈥檚 supposed to do?鈥� 鈥�
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Districts have become accustomed to dealing with the for-profit sector in their purchase of everything from copiers to telephone systems. But buying online courses for students to use can bring another layer of complexity to the decisionmaking process.
School officials may believe a for-profit company in the classroom could bring added customer service or a higher-quality product, since the company needs to keep customers happy to make money, said Michael T. Moe, a partner in NeXtAdvisors, an education-focused merchant bank in Chicago that advises and invests in companies.
On the other side of the coin, some administrators may feel that if a company鈥檚 primary objective is profit, the educational aspects of its mission could be skewed.
Both can be true, or neither, Mr. Moe said. 鈥淥ver time, the distinction between for-profit and not-for-profit can become irrelevant,鈥� he said. 鈥淭oday, if you go to a hospital, you don鈥檛 know if it鈥檚 for-profit or not-for-profit. What you think about is the track record and quality.鈥�
The same should be true for educational materials and services such as online courses, he said.
Jan Streich, the director of instructional technology for the 24,200-student Spotsylvania County public schools in Virginia, agrees.
Ms. Streich said her district has worked closely with , the state education department鈥檚 provider of online courses. But the district has also forged a close relationship with the for-profit online-course provider .
We look at these companies the same way we would others. We ask, 鈥榃hat makes good educational business sense?鈥� and 鈥楬ow are we assured our investment is doing what it鈥檚 supposed to do?'
Ms. Streich said she signed a contract with Aventa Learning because the company provided online credit-recovery courses the district couldn鈥檛 get through Virtual Virginia. The district also examined the quality of the Aventa courses and teachers, the courses鈥� alignment to the Virginia curriculum, and the company鈥檚 flexibility and willingness to customize its products and services.
The process for assessing Aventa鈥檚 offerings wasn鈥檛 much different from the process school officials take when evaluating the product of a nonprofit organization, Ms. Streich said. Price matters in both cases, she pointed out, and quality matters in both cases.
鈥淥ur main focus was to meet the diverse needs of our students,鈥� she said.
Setting Clear Expectations
When dealing with for-profit education providers, school districts should look at the longevity and stability of a company, its commitment to customer service, and the educational quality of the product, experts in the field advise. District officials should do their homework, as with any purchase, including talking to others who have done business with a company under consideration.
That鈥檚 the route Mr. Sparangis said he follows in the Los Angeles district, which uses a mix of online course providers, including state-affiliated, nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies, such as Seattle-based .
The district goes through an evaluation of curricular materials, Mr. Sparangis said, and then overlays that with the district鈥檚 business practices. But that doesn鈥檛 always mean the lowest bidder is the company that鈥檚 hired, as it might be when looking at a transaction that doesn鈥檛 involve educational materials.
What鈥檚 critical is to have a clear expectation of what the district hopes to achieve with the service or product, he said, and to make sure the company meets that expectation.
鈥淲hen we鈥檙e open and direct and clear about what we鈥檙e doing together,鈥� Mr. Sparangis said, 鈥渢hen we have a really good system.鈥�
