Distance Learning | News

U Delaware To Build Online MBA

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 11/29/12

The University of Delaware¹s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics will be offering an online master's degree in business administration that's expected to launch in spring 2013. The new degree program is being built with the help of Academic Partnerships (AP), a company that specializes in working with institutions to take their existing programs online.

The online MBA students will complete 48 credits over the course of eight seven-week terms. Courses will consist of micro-lectures delivered in multimedia formats including readings, problems, cases, and discussion board participation. Students will also participate in corporate simulation exercises and individual and team projects and assignments.

The collaboration with Academic Partnerships has been underway since April 2012, when an online MBA planning group was created that included each of the college's five department chairs and the associate dean for graduate and executive programs.

The company provides a number of services to its institutional clients, including support with course design and conversion of traditional courses to digital delivery, enrollment help, data integration, program planning, marketing, and regulatory compliance. Frequently, in these types of arrangements, the vendor will have a revenue sharing arrangement with the institution that has contracted for the new program.

"Higher education is evolving as a result of new technology and the resulting changes in students¹ learning styles," said Rick Andrews, deputy dean of the Lerner College. "By using a new delivery modality, our MBA will be accessible to working professionals who travel frequently, to members of the U.S. military and to others who, for whatever reason, are not able to make it to campus for the traditional MBA."

"Sixty years ago, the Lerner College admitted its first MBA class, and we have continued to refine our program to keep ahead of business needs," added Dean Bruce Weber. "Our high-quality MBA, paired with AP¹s proven ability to enrich student learning online, furthers the college¹s academic mission to deliver superior management education to the next generation of business students."

Academic Partnerships' client list includes the University of Texas at Arlington and Texas' Lamar University, among others.