The Brown & White

Some students register for online classes between semesters with goals of graduating early, racking up credits or avoiding more difficult classes at Lehigh.


"I took Finance 125 online over the summer to get ahead so I can go abroad next semester," Brooke Blythe, '10, said.


Joseph Connor, '10, said he registered for Marketing 111 and Accounting 152 online last summer.

"I took the accounting course because it was easier online and I didn't have to go to class and took marketing just to stay a little ahead in case I need to retake a class," Connor said.

With the increasing demand to take online courses at schools across the country, one company has developed a program that allows students to earn a master's degree online by partnering with prominent universities.


2tor Inc., which was created by The Princeton Review founder, John S. Katzman, uses Web 2.0 technology to create higher quality and more interactive types of online education.

"I have long felt that there is a gap," Katzman said. "On the one hand are great research universities like Lehigh, which have great faculty and students, but are relatively small. On the other are the for-profits like the University of Phoenix and Devry University, which are uninspired but large and growing quickly."

Katzman said he realized he could start something that was large in scope yet still high-quality by partnering with great universities and adding some key abilities.


For those interested in this online program, age and location are not important; 2tor is for anyone who has an undergraduate degree and is looking to earn their master's. 2tor is the first selective type of online education-to enroll, you have to apply through admissions and be accepted.


Another unique feature of 2tor is that, unlike other online education programs, 2tor's goal is to work directly with universities to provide the same level of education a student would receive had they been in the classroom, said Katzman. 2tor's first partnership is with the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education.

2tor's program with USC will launch in May 2009 and hopes to reach at least 10 universities within the next few years. For part-time students, completion of a master's degree requires three to five years of education. Full-time students generally need 12 months to complete a master's degree.

2tor is primarily looking to partner with large schools, including USC, Penn State University and the University of Maryland.

Some students and faculty said Lehigh's education is too dependent on classroom and student interaction for 2tor to be applied here in the near future.

Professor Matthew Melone teaches business law on campus and online over the summer.

"Certain things are the same in my course, such as the lectures and assignments," he said.

His course uses pre-recorded lectures, interactive recitation and discussion boards. He said students don't always take advantage of the recitations.

"Recitations are the time when students should have questions ready to ask their recitation teacher and fully understand the lecture material," Melone said. "Online, students tend to view recitations as nothing more than a lecture. It could be a lot better."

Melone said he still interacts with students in online courses, but it's still not the same level of contact as in a regular class.

"Online, you don't have the face to face contact that you do in the classroom, which makes it more difficult to make the material interesting," Melone said. "You can learn as much, but it is definitely not as fun."

Connor said that although he did well in his accounting class online, he was nervous to take accounting when he returned to campus in the fall.

"I wasn't sure that I learned the materials as well as I would have if I actually took it at Lehigh," Connor said. "It was hard for me to ask very specific questions that I had, say, on a certain homework problem."


Katzman also hopes to improve the education in urban environments with 2tor. For example, after a student completes his or her Masters of Arts in Teaching at USC, and then decides to teach in a 'high-need' school district for at least three years, the student's entire tuition will be refunded.

2tor will continue to partner with academically exclusive schools while offering master's degrees in the areas of teaching, nursing and engineering.

"We are looking to partner with great schools which believe you can be great in quality and great in scale," Katzman said. "Lehigh would be a terrific partner."