USG Teaching & Learning Conference: Best Practices for Promoting Engaged Student

Vahe Heboyan, Georgianna Laws, Maryshka Connolly-Brown

Recent years have witnessed a paradigm shift in the design and delivery of the academic curricula. This shift has established the distance learning platform as a competing alternative to the traditional, classroom-based system. Established programs are offering distance learning options and new programs are developing primarily based on distance learning platforms. Such moves enable programs to reach a critical audience among working professionals, military, and others constrained from attending university in the traditional way. It also extends the geographic reach outside of their traditional student recruiting markets to other national and even international localities. This presentation discusses the challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned when blending technology, tools and strategies to effectively design and deliver two graduate-level distance learning courses in methodologically differing ways.