After purchasing a distance-learning platform for $1.53 million last summer, the Fuqua School of Business is considering whether to license the platform to other business schools.
Doug Breeden, dean of the business school, said an updated version--which will be called either the D2 or D4 platform--of the Pensare P3 platform has been completed. Fuqua uses the technology for three of its distance-learning programs: the Global Executive MBA, weekend MBA and Cross-Continent MBA. Duke Corporate Education, the school's year-and-a-half-old for-profit spin-off, also works with the platform for its individual corporate clients.
"I think we're coming to the conclusion that we should license out the D2 platform to other places and bring in some revenue to pay for the software platform," Breeden said.
John Payne, deputy dean of Fuqua, said no decisions have been made, but he will review the new platform later this week.
"We are thinking about those options; it's one of the plans we are considering," Payne said. "We're considering making it available to other institutions. Nothing's been finalized yet."
Breeden said that if the school were to license the program, it would be mainly for business schools and some corporations. "[I'd expect] big companies working with us on an educational basis [to be interested]," he said. "We expect an interest from universities."
The school had partnered with Pensare before the California-based company went bankrupt last June, and Duke bought the platform, outbidding Harvard University. Duke hired Pensare's software development team to work with DCE's software team to finish upgrading the platform, which had not been completed when the company folded this summer.
Payne said the now-completed platform is unique in that it is program-based--designed to accommodate an entire MBA program, not just one course.
John Gallagher, DCE director of computing, said he was excited about the possibilities of the new platform.
"They expanded the features set to give more support to teams, for student teams, more features and functions that support teamwork than was previously available, more generalizable and adaptable, able to use with corporate education applications," he said.
Gallagher added that the P3 version was restricted to a curriculum-based program that did not always accommodate DCE's programs.
"There are a lot of things we do in the corporate environment where it doesn't follow that model, [so the new version enhances] overall performance and scalability," he said.
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