Funding

2U Issues Research Grants; Builds Online Degree Programs for Vanderbilt, Pepperdine, Dayton

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 02/15/17

A company that works with colleges and universities in building and launching new online degree programs has announced its list of winners to receive awards for research in online education. 2U said the one-year awards, totaling almost $200,000, are meant to support the work of full-time faculty members and other academic leaders at the firm's partner universities. The areas of research covered by the funding are measuring student outcomes, developing strategies for faculty effectiveness, figuring out ways to share and grow best practices and interdisciplinary studies from large-scale data.

The company also announced agreements with three institutions that will work with 2U to develop new online degrees.

Grant winners were chosen by a committee of higher education leaders, according to the company. Recipients include:

• Judah Axe, an associate professor at Simmons School of Social Work, who will study the effects of oral quizzes on written exam performance in an online course;
• Eric Beeson, a lecturer in psychology at the Family Institute at Northwestern University, who will explore "community" among online graduate students; and
• Associate Dean of academic affairs, Julie DeLoia; Associate Professor Monique Turner; and Director of Online Learning, Andrew Wiss at the Milken Institute of Public Health at George Washington University, who will examine the relationship between contingent faculty's perceptions of institutional connectedness and student satisfaction in online graduate courses.

2U has also begun working with Vanderbilt U on the launch of two online degrees in the university's Peabody College of Education and Human Development. The institution will offer a master of education in school counseling for K-12 and a doctorate in education in leadership and learning in organizations. Both will be taught by members of the existing faculty.

Both programs will feature live, face-to-face classes online with course content created by the college's faculty and delivered through the 2U platform. Students will also take part in traditional learning experiences through practicums, internships and on-campus immersion experiences. The online programs are expected to launch in September 2017.

"These new online degrees will help to engage an even larger community of education professionals, which is central to our mission," said Camilla Benbow, dean of Peabody College, in a prepared statement.

The company will also be working with Pepperdine University and the University of Dayton on development of master's programs in psychology and business, respectively, over the next year. Both are expected to launch in October.