Online Program Management
To incubate new online and hybrid programs and help academic units ensure quality and sustain existing programs, the Online Program Management team provides free consulting services to degree-granting units. These support the planning, design, development, contract-negotiation, and sustainability of online/blended academic programs and adjacent non-credit/non-degree offerings. We prioritize activity in the following areas:
- Academic entrepreneurship including planning based on future market projections, enrollment prospectus, and portfolio management of a college’s programs.
- Program design and guidance on curricular approvals and revenue/cost sharing.
- Strategic sourcing of services and vendor management of external partnerships.
- Includes: Marketing Agencies, Educational Platforms like Coursera, Bootcamp providers, and Bundled Services Vendors/Partners aka OPMs.
- Please don't try to do this without us, we are a trusted partner of Procurement and OGC. The Provost expects us to help you negotiate agreements prior to signing, and monitor vendors during execution.
- Learning Experience Design for the design, build and improvement of quality courses.
- Professional development for program directors, and educators teaching online.
- Marketing the University’s collective online/hybrid offerings. (e.g. MSU Online)
- Core infrastructure for digital marketing of online programs and guidance on use.
Faculty develop curriculum of the programs they offer, and departments and colleges handle administration and management, so the consulting offered is collaborative with academic units. We help MSU develop quality programs for students that are well-aligned with opportunities and internal capacity. This service helps ensure a comprehensive approach to program (re)design and (re)development.
Marketing of Online Programs
With the large number of differing programs offered by MSU as online programs, no marketing plan is exactly the same. Being central resources to the campus positions the OPM team to leverage the successes of all MSU online programs through collaboration and the sharing of ideas. Whether your department depends on the faculty to communicate with potential students, or you have a dedicated communicator on your team, we can help you build a strategy that efficiently utilizes your resources and promotes your program to receptive audiences. We can help with:
- Recommendations for Management of Digital Ads
- SEO Research and Recommendations
- New Program Launches and Visibility
- Drip campaigns and Slate Training
- RFI Form Implementation
- Website recommendations and content improvements
Contact our Digital Marketing Coordinator, Kaitlyn Andary for more information or a consultation.
Academic Lifelong Learning (Continuing and Professional Education)
This team has also begun laying the groundwork to extend support to adjacent continuing education programs and build out infrastructure and programming to help academic units offer micro-credentials and more efficiently register non-credit / non-degree participants and provide customer service. Projects derived from the Academic Lifelong Learning strategic planning proposals that we see on the horizon include:
- Extending MSU's non-credit registration system (from Broad Executive Education) to become an enterprise-wide system
- Adding infrastructure for digital credentials (badges/certificates) to support Alternative Credentials and Micro-Credentials adjacent to MSU's existing programatic strengths
- Launching a new sub-brand for MSU that highlights all of MSU's Continuing and Professional Education opportunities to the public.
How We Can Help
The Online Program Management team provides early and mid-stage consulting for emerging programs and program re-designs, using an inquiry-based approach. This means that we’ll work to help identify departmental and program goals, definitions of success and how it might be measured, and assistance with market research and market research resources. This collaboration will help:
- Consider existing program support structures and identify strategies for both student and financial planning and success
- Develop assessment plans for benchmarking and strategic growth
- Identify gaps in the existing landscape that a program could fill
- Identify and connect with similar projects and corresponding people both inside and outside of MSU
- Identify opportunities for innovation and refreshment of course and program design strategies
- Understand new opportunities in the program space
- Find efficiencies and cost savings