E-college 'Web-ifying' Higher Ed.

On May 6, 2000, Joleyn Larson will get decked out in graduation garb to receive a bachelor's degree from Montana State University at Billings. The ceremony marks only the second time that the 25-year-old Larson has set foot on campus.

Instead, she attended classes from her Bismarck,

The college was founded in 1996, and Larson is among its first graduating class. "We like to say we're web-ifying universities and web-ifying education," said eCollege.com President and CEO Robert Helmick, who compared the Net's impact on education to Gutenberg's impact on the written word. The difference: "You're harnessing the power of the Internet to increase human interaction - you're increasing the amount of student-faculty interaction, and you're increasing the amount of student-student interaction." Another benefit: convenience. eCollege.com's typical student is older, and more likely to have children or work full-time than average undergrads.

To date, eCollege.com has 'web-ified' 192 campuses nationwide, helping educators design, build and manage an audio- and video-packed online curriculum. Students apply, register and take classes online, utilizing nifty tools like interactive syllabi and online financial aid departments. The company sets up online supplement to traditional classes and stand-alone, Net-based courses, bringing economics of scale to Internet education.

"We can do it for about half the cost that (a university) can do it themselves," Helmick said.

While eCollege.com lost $20.8 million in 1999, Helmick expects the company to be profitably by 2002. By then, he noted, 85% of American colleges will offer online classes and 15% of their students -- or 2.2 million -- will be enrolled in such a course, a 300% increase over 1998.

"The real challenge is going to be managing the growth," said Helmick. eCollege.com employs about 300, more than double the number of New Year's Day 1999. To help finance growth, eCollege.com completed an IPO last December (NASDAQ:ECLG).

For eCollege.com's first graduates, Helmick offered this snippet: "Apply to eCollege.com, because we need some more people."