IMS Global: In terms of assessing student learning in the classroom, would you agree the problem is compounded by the fact that many faculty also are reluctant to even measure learning outcomes?

MS: I think you can make a generalization in any industry that has been around for as long as education. Change can be looked at with a cynical eye. For many who have been in education for a long time, they're used to seeing the flavor of the week. I think the hypothesis being considered right now is that a lot of the learning that takes place has a lot to do with the instructor, their interactions with students, and how they manage their class. That this is measurable within online education can be disturbing to some. The way that I look at it, though, is slightly different-information can be very empowering. If I truly care about student learning outcomes as an instructor, I want that information. I want to know where I should be spending my time. I want to know what I should be doing better and I want to embrace those identifiable best practices.

IMS Global: We touched a little on this before, but what do you predict for the future of online learning and course management systems? Given the direction of higher education, what changes can we expect?

MS: My prediction for the future of online learning is that the concept of "online education" will go away and it will just become learning. When students go to school, they will have an expectation that the Marketing 101 course is going to be offered on campus, it's going to be offered 100 percent online, and it's going to be offered in some sort of hybrid model. Those three broad categories are just delivery channels of the same quality of education, the same content, and the same instructional approach. That's a beautiful thing. That is where we get the best of all worlds: access, flexibility, and seamless learning. The "e" in eLearning is simply going to go away.

IMS Global: Prior to joining eCollege in 1999, you served in the private sector. Traditionally, and particularly with regard to the use of technology, education has tended to lag behind business in wanting to keep all of its services in-house. Do you believe that gap is shrinking? Do you see colleges and universities adopting best business practices more quickly and working with third-party vendors to realize greater efficiencies?

MS: Yes, I think we are seeing that trend right now. What sets eCollege apart is that we're the only player in the industry to offer software as a service. We offer a very powerful model for organizations to be able to say, "Here are the things that I'm really good at, and here are the things that I'm not. I'm going to outsource those things that are beyond my core competency." Also, the outsourcing model allows institutions to pay as they go. For a long time, people were saying, "Gosh, online education is academics so we need to own that and control it ourselves." But the reality is the interaction and the content is the education. The technology that a company like eCollege provides is a means of that engagement. What we're finding is that administrators are definitely more open to saying we're going to outsource to experts the delivery systems so that we can focus on our core competencies.

IMS Global: You're a member of IMS. What role do you see the organization playing within the education community?

MS: As you know, I serve on the board, so I'm investing my own personal time in IMS. We're all in this industry to have a positive impact on student learning. And any resources we invest that are redundant between organizations, so we'd all be better off spending money on how we're going to have a positive impact on learning. I really look at IMS as being that organization that can allow the industry as a whole to come together and discuss, debate, and agree upon standards of flow of data, flow of content, and integration points. It is, indeed, a consortium, and it allows us to spend our money more wisely. Instead of us each having a means by which we're going to integrate to a back-office system, for example, we can all share one approach, not worry about that part of the process and spend more time thinking about tools and strategies that are going to have more impact on students.