With experience comes the wisdom that you can envision and realize the best of times and escape the worst of times in any partnership endeavor with thorough planning, clear communication and pre-defined goals. Join this epic panel of seasoned, higher education professionals from both public and private institutions to explore their collective experiences in launching successful online programs in a competitive age.
Join us for this interactive panel discussion featuring a diverse group of seasoned higher education professionals who will describe, compare and contrast their collective experiences in launching successful online programs. Each panelist will offer a unique perspective around how their institution sought to achieve tactical advantage, gain momentum and reach scale by leveraging private expertise and resources through similar tuition revenue-share arrangements.
Montclair State University’s Feliciano School of Business, Montclair, NJ, and Concordia University Chicago’s College of Innovation and Professional Programs, River Forest, IL, represent two very different institutions at first glance but they share very similar aspirations to advance their respective brands and grow online enrollments to fuel increased revenue in an ever-competitive higher education market.
Montclair, with roots stretching back to the turn of the 20th century, is New Jersey’s second-largest public institution. Concordia Chicago, a private institution and member of the Concordia University System, has proudly positioned itself as one of the fastest growing graduate schools in the country. As online education continues its rapid-paced march well into the mainstream, both Montclair and Concordia have worked within the principles and framework of their existing institutional infrastructure, but also sought out strategic public-private and private-private partnerships to place their own flags in the landscape.
Montclair’s Feliciano School of Business launched its online MBA program in zero-to-60 mph fashion after a well-executed public proposal process, beginning with a general MBA and four concentrations over six-starts right out of the gate. Given the increasingly competitive MBA market, the results thus far are impressive for the institution, which is located nine miles from Manhattan.
Challenges always accompany success – Montclair’s panelists will attest to this reality and describe how they overcame the predictable and unpredictable obstacles around course development, marketing, admissions, financial aid and student success on their way to launching what is now the largest online program at the university.
With over a dozen different vendors working under separate and distinct contracts, Concordia is well-versed in leveraging the power of partnerships and its leadership has positioned the institution to be appropriately flexible and agile. The school has close to 60 fully online programs and continues to outpace its competition among many of its offerings in the Chicago market. Concordia’s panelists will convey a wealth of information about what has worked well and not so well on their way to redefining the trusted Concordia brand.
Panelists from both schools will openly debate the wisdom of their decisions and the moderators will encourage discussion with audience members by soliciting written questions prior to the start of this session and by inspiring live questions from the floor. Participants will be asked to actively engage throughout the discussion through interactive polling as well, using Poll Everywhere, which will allow participants to respond to a web address or via text message with their own smartphone, laptop, iPad or other web-provisioned device.
Participants will depart this session with valuable information from panelists who are truly committed to the success of their respective institutions, learn how to approach vendor partnerships with realistic expectations and gain new perspectives around what strong partnerships can achieve when both sides are invested in mutually strategic goals.
Slides and handouts for this session will be posted on the conference website.
Panelists:
Jonida Dervishi, MBA Asst. Director, Montclair State University, Feliciano School of Business
Dr. Tom Jandris, Chief Innovation Officer, Dean, Concordia University Chicago, College of Innovation and Professional Programs
Nicole Koppel, MBA Director, Montclair State University, Feliciano School of Business
Dr. Ross Malaga, Professor, Montclair State University, Feliciano School of Business
Moderator:
James M. Hunter, PhD, Emerge Education