Officials from US distance learning provider UNext stopped off in Hong Kong this week on a tour of Asia to mark their launch in the region.
UNext - which has teamed up with Cardean University in the US to deliver online courses - already has an office in Singapore and this week announced a new joint venture, UNext Korea, in Seoul. UNext has developed its curriculum based on content from five top universities, and the courses are accessed through Cardean, a virtual university that provides access to tutors and discussion groups through its Web site.
'Asia is a huge market for us because there is a demand - the ratio of higher learning institutions to people is smaller in Asia than in the West,' said Geoff Cox, president of Cardean University.
UNext's profile is raised by the universities with which it is associated: Stanford, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics.
UNext stresses that online learning is about more than hot content. 'We spent a long time thinking about how people learn and considering the user's perspective,' said Alan Drimmer, managing director of UNext Consulting Services.
Cardean University offers a problem-based curriculum with extensive role-playing. There are no lectures. For example, at the start of an online MBA programme students run hypothetical companies and face situations such as the CEO wanting decisions on whether to close facilities.