Medill will launch an online version of the school’s graduate program in Integrated Marketing Communications in the fall of 2012 in hopes of expanding into the growing field of online education.
The new program mirrors similar initiatives by other top universities, including Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, schools that recently formed a partnership to offer free online courses to the general public. However, those in the program’s inaugural class will be required to pay tuition and will also receive credit toward a master of science degree in IMC.
“Education as a whole is starting to undergo a digital transformation,” said Frank Mulhern, associate dean for Integrated Marketing Communications. “We’ve already seen this in the news business, and the two models are comparable.”
Both Mulhern and Tom Collinger, senior director of the Medill Distance Learning Initiative, said the program would place a high premium on maintaining a level of instruction similar to that of an on-campus course. This would mean allowing online students access to the same faculty members that currently work with students on the Evanston campus.
“We were ready to take a step forward, knowing that we could only do it if we did it in a way that would create a superior learning experience at the level that Northwestern students have come to expect,” Collinger said.
Collinger said the program would allow instructors to incorporate technologies such as social media and interactive applications into their courses. He argued this could represent a step forward in the education field known as “instructional design,” which focuses on delivering course material in an engaging and efficient manner.
Greater use of technology in instruction could also reach beyond online courses. Mulhern said this phenomenon was already on display in certain areas, and he pointed to greater use of Blackboard and Twitter hashtags in the classroom.
“We are going to get better at crafting digital tools for campus courses,” Mulhern said. “Rather than going into a class and telling students to turn their devices off, we’re going to tell them to turn them all on.”
Candy Lee, a Medill professor and former vice president of marketing at The Washington Post, agreed that online-learning programs were attractive because of their ability to incorporate technology into the learning process. She said programs like IMC online courses had the potential to foster an inclusive environment, despite the distances that separate students.
“More and more I think online will try to mimic the experience of being there in person,” said Lee, who pioneered a program called PostMasterClass, which featured short-term courses taught by Washington Post reporters. “I think it will move toward opportunities to see each other and interact even at a virtual distance.”
Lee said an online atmosphere would prevent students from avoiding class discussions, largely because the instructor would be able to electronically monitor their participation throughout the course.
The inaugural class for the program is projected to be a small one. According to both Collinger and Mulhern, roughly 25 students will be accepted to the program. The students will take two classes every quarter and likely achieve a degree within two years.
