The Coal Miner's Daughter: HDL On-Line

by Chris Cumo
HARCOURT LEARNING DIRECT began in 1890, offering courses
by mail to coal miners in Scranton, Pennsylvania who hoped
to complete high school or train for management. Since then
Harcourt has gone on-line, attracting students throughout
the U.S. More than 11 million students have taken courses
through Harcourt in programs that lead to Associate degrees
in business management, accounting, computer repair, child
care and the like.
Students can complete a program in as little as six months,
though they may take as long as two years. Because nearly
all students enroll part-time, they usually need at least
one year to complete a program. The cost for a program is
as little as $499, though others run higher. The accounting
program, for example, costs $699 per semester and requires
four semesters to complete, for a total expenditure of nearly
$2,800. Even this amount is inexpensive considering that a
single year of tuition at Bennington College in Vermont costs
more than $25,000.
Affordability lures students to Harcourt, which now has an
enrollment of about 3500 students. Education director Connie
Dempsey emphasizes that this figure is an estimate. “We have
new students enrolling every day,” she said. “It’s just not
possible to have an accurate number.” Students begin and end
a program at their own pace. The length of a semester is not
fixed; Harcourt calculates it to fit the needs of each student.
Students do course work at home using a course packet which
lists assignments and exams.
Students may take exams on-line and submit assignments by
e-mail or fax. Part-time faculty grade exams and assignments.
Full-time instructors are available for consultation by phone,
fax or e-mail, though students need not consult an instructor
at any time during their program. Harcourt has a total of
42 faculty, roughly half full-time and the rest part-time
according to Dempsey. Full-time instructors earn $18 per contact
hour with students whereas part-timers earn $13 per hour of
grading. “Harcourt is the perfect place for busy adult learners,”
said Dempsey.
She estimates that the typical Harcourt student is in her
30s with children and leads too frenetic an existence for
the traditional college routine. Indeed Harcourt is nothing
like the traditional college. Students do not take courses
in English, philosophy, history, anthropology or any of the
other staples of a liberal-arts education. The accent is on
vocational training. The emphasis on the pragmatic is also
evident in the instructors, whom Harcourt hires for their
business savvy rather than their education. Instructors need
hold only a Bachelor’s degree, and a graduate degree is no
asset.
To be sure Harcourt is not for everyone. “This is not for
someone who wants to join a fraternity or be active in campus
life,” said Dempsey. “There is no resident component here.”
Despite the differences between Harcourt and the traditional
university, Dempsey acknowledges that the two compete for
students. She believes that universities offer courses on-line
to woo students who might otherwise enroll at Harcourt. However,
despite competing in a technology driven marketplace, Harcourt
does not require students to learn on-line. They may complete
courses by mail, with no on-line interaction with faculty.
Students may submit all assignments and exams by mail, just
as the first students did in 1890. But the growing number
of students who are part of the new cyberculture can find
a home at Harcourt, which encourages students to take courses
on-line. “The future of higher education is distance learning,”
said Dempsey, “and we want to be the leader of that future.”