ExtensionEngine Blog

It’s a well-known physiological fact that if you don’t continually use a muscle, it becomes weaker and will eventually atrophy.

From a Talented Learning podcast with the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants

One challenge associations face is providing value to members and member employers. Done right, online learning can help meet this challenge.

As industries change, there is a need for building professional skills. Education today has to be fluid and responsive enough to accommodate a continuing series of “current needs” rather than a predictable set of of future needs.

This was one of the messages, albeit not in those exact words, in the latest episode of the podcast The Talented Learning Show, with host John Leh.

At ExtensionEngine, we’re experts at creating custom online learning experiences for all of our clients. That’s because learning itself runs deep in our culture.

As universities move toward unbundled degrees — most often referred to as “microcredentials” or “microdegrees” — we have to ask, “What’s going on here? Is this the next wave in online learning evolution? Is this some sort of shift to blended learning? Is this really about technology at all?”

ExtensionEngine’s perspective — We believe that online strategy should be set at the highest levels and that excellence should be prioritized over standardization. What did recent webinar attendees think?

ExtensionEngine’s perspective — We believe that excellence should be prioritized over standardization when it comes to developing online programs, but that’s not what we hear when we speak with leaders in higher ed.

The New York Times recently ran an editorial, “Online Courses are Harming the Students who Need the Most Help,” that paints a picture of online learning as a wedge further dividing those with strong academic skills from less proficient students.  

It used to be simple. If a university wanted to create an online program, they had two choices. One was to outsource to an Online Program Manager (OPM). The other was to do it in-house. Neither was perfect, but both had advantages.

Management consultants sit prominently on the leading edge of business — which explains why so many of them have implemented online learning programs.

Educational outreach that teaches basic and advanced business skills can not only be a profitable venture in its own right, but it can also help a consultancy to differentiate in the market, leverage their intellectual property or brand, generate new client relationships, and consolidate long-term relationships with existing clients.

Recently I was on a panel at the LearnLaunch Across Boundaries conference. The panel — titled “Outsourcing Online Programs: The Shape of Things to Come or a Bad Moon Rising?” — was moderated by Howard Lurie, Principal Analyst at Eduventures and author of a soon-to-be-released research report on the state of the Online Program Management (OPM) market.