In conversations with colleagues across higher ed who are leading campus online learning teams, I commonly hear about the following challenges:
- Post-COVID, online learning is snowballing — and we need to build up our internal institutional capacities if we are going to meet this demand.
- Building a deep enough bench on the campus online learning team is challenging, as there is lots of competition for learning design and project management talent.
The mismatch between the demand for institutional online learning capacity (high) and the supply of campus people who can do this work (low) has pushed many schools to sign agreements with online program management companies. OPMs may involve high revenue shares and long-term contracts. Still, they address scarcities in start-up capital and campus people resources and allow schools to move quickly in developing and launching online programs.
I don’t have all that many answers to the challenges of start-up
