The university and Pensare say they'll make the fully accredited program, from the Durham, N.C., school's Fuqua School of Business, available in August 2000. Pensare says it can customize programs, and it will offer its Open MBA toolkit to companies who want to customize their own. Customization requires three to 12 months of development, according to Pensare.

The Duke program will include Internet and classroom training, which differs from some online MBA programs, says Doug Donzelli, president and CEO of Pensare. "The problem with online learning curriculums is that they isolate students," he says. "You can blend the models, Internet and classroom experience, and avoid turning a high-end learning experience into a glorified correspondence course."

Unlike some online-education programs that offer only selected MBA courses, the Duke program will feature a full course load. Pensare's Distributed Enterprise Education Platform will run the online portion of the program.

IT professionals need to consider whether an MBA will bolster their careers, says Peter McAteer, VP and managing director for E-practices at Giga Information Group. "Programs like these potentially remove barriers to people in senior IT roles who need to align IT with business," he says.

Pensare has begun courting businesses for the program and is seeing the most interest from high-tech companies and large consulting firms, says Donzelli. Pricing for the program was not available.