Executive Education
Building in Portability and the Right Pace

By Jeanne Spreier


Rocket scientist H. Jeff Durham's expertise is backed by several degrees,
an undergraduate diploma in aerospace engineering and master's degrees in
nuclear engineering and systems management. But in his position as payload
integration manager for the International Space Station Payloads Office in
Houston and an advanced engineer with United Space Alliance, the joint
Boeing Company-Lockheed Martin Corporation space systems operations
company, there was one thing he didn't have - time to get the project
management training he believed he needed to complement his skills.

He started the Online Project Management Degree Program in 2004 and
completed it this year. It is one of many online program choices the
Executive Education area in The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) School
of Management (SOM) makes available.

Exec Ed offers the Global Leadership Executive Master of Business
Administration (GLEMBA) degree as well as project management degrees
online. In other Exec Ed disciplines - medical management is one -
students can complete some of their courses via distance learning. Beyond
that, several of the area's many certificate and noncredit programs -
besides those discussed here - have gone online. In each case, SOM leaders
have found an untapped and under-served group of students who needed not
only the portability of these programs but also, in some cases, the
flexibility to work at their own pace.


Online Project Management: A doable path to a degree

"With my work and travel schedule, as well as family and church
responsibilities, 'online' was the only alternative that offered a
reasonable chance of completing the program," Mr. Durham says.

"Project managers travel a lot. It's the nature of the beast," says Jim
Joiner, director of the school's Project Management Program. About half
the students in the program complete their studies online, and half take
classes the traditional way - on campus.

"We put [the program] online because the market for project management
studies is really a worldwide market," says Mr. Joiner, noting about 40
percent of the online students live outside the Dallas area.


Students don't go it alone

Whether delivered electronically or in the classroom, the Project
Management Program has three exit points. After the first year and 21
hours of class work, students complete the certificate program; after 39
hours, students receive a master's degree; after 53 hours, they earn an
MBA with a concentration in project management. Students selecting the
online program must attend a three-day workshop on campus at the beginning
of course work and after completing the first 21 hours. "Our program is
heavily team-based," Mr. Joiner says. "That helps students get off to a
good start."

The team approach was a surprise to Mr. Durham, who didn't expect "the
degree to which we were made to be dependent on the formation and
operation of 'virtual teams.' I had expected our 'teams' to be temporary,
ad hoc groups formed for a short-term project or problem. Instead, we
developed into a long-term, effective collaboration that lasted for almost
the entire two years of my attendance."

Dave Prior, another online participant, also found the collaborative work
useful. "I never felt that a classroom would have made the experience
better," says Mr. Prior, who earned an MBA online from The School of
Management in December 2005. He is vice president of curriculum and
instruction for True Solutions, a project management consulting company
headquartered in Dallas, where he is responsible for overall management
and development for all educational programs the company offers. Teamwork
"allowed for frequent and lively interaction with other students across
the globe," Mr. Prior remembers. "The diversity in students was the best
part of the program. This would not have been possible if it had been a
face-to-face program."

About 125 universities worldwide offer master's programs in project
management, and 25 have online programs. Less than a dozen of those, UTD's
program among them, are certified as a registered education provider by
the Project Management Institute, a global advocacy organization for the
profession.

"Online programs are a new frontier for executive education," says David
Springate, Ph.D., SOM's associate dean for executive education. "We want
to be there. We can provide both pipelines and content to help."


GLEMBA: For go-getters

Anne Ferrante, Ph.D., director of the Global Leadership Executive MBA
(GLEMBA) Program, says one reason for the success of GLEMBA, which does a
tremendous amount of its class work via Internet, is that it seeks
"experienced, motivated learners."

"Research shows that for any method of online or virtual delivery,
self-motivation is key," says Dr. Ferrante. "That usually coincides with
an older learner, and that's the learner we go after."

Jeremy Chappell, president of JESA Inc., a Dallas-based business
consulting service, fits the bill. He earned undergraduate degrees in
mathematics and computer science in 1983, but because of his heavy
international travel schedule was unable to commit to a brick-and-mortar
based postgraduate program. The two concerns he had before enrolling in
GLEMBA, which he completed in 2004, were the quality of interaction with
faculty and whether he could commit enough time to make the most of his
studies.

He need not have worried. "I found all of my professors to be readily
available via e-mail and for telephone discussions by appointment," he
says.

Mr. Chappell also says the program gave him the flexibility he needed to
avoid time binds. "With the knowledge that an assignment needed to
completed within a window of a few days, I was able to plan adequate time
for my studies."


The 'blended' approach

GLEMBA also requires students to attend six on-campus "retreats"
periodically during the 27 months it takes to complete studies. Students
get together on campus to meet each other and professors. Dr. Ferrante
calls this a "blended" approach to an online program and attributes part
of the GLEMBA program's success to this requirement.

"Not everything can be put online," she says. This way, students realize
they belong to a class; they get to know one another, creating a
community. In the fast-paced global economy of today, it's a good fit.
"People are comfortable with the blended model," she says, noting
students, about 20 percent of whom don't live in the United States,
already are fluent in the technology GLEMBA utilizes and are doing
business online.


Executive and Professional Coaching Program: Tapping a broader market and
teachers across the country

Like GLEMBA, The School of Management's Executive and Professional
Coaching Program, which leads to a graduate-level certificate, was
conceived as a virtual classroom offering. Program director Robert Hicks,
Ph.D., says two primary issues drove that decision. First, The School of
Management wanted to tap into a broader market than just the Dallas area;
second, this allowed Dr. Hicks to assemble a faculty from across the
country, bringing together what he calls some of the best teachers in the
coaching field. Some of these instructors work at other universities; some
have their own executive coaching practice.

Students in the coaching program tend to be a bit older than other
distance learners, Dr. Hicks says. Many already have MBAs; some already
have their own coaching practice or want to augment their business skills.
"Our students come in with some trepidation in using the technology,
especially with executive coaching, since there's a lot of interpersonal
[material]," he says. "They're pleasantly surprised."

This spring, the second class has started this one-year program, with a
student population from across the country that includes a medical doctor,
a participant with a Ph.D. and several who hold master's degrees.


Professional Development Programs: Training update central

For John Fowler, director of SOM's new initiatives, the motivations for
offering classes online are somewhat different. The programs he oversees
offer non-credit training to those already in the workforce. Those who
attend may need skills they didn't master in undergraduate school or may
want to explore options before deciding upon a graduate-degree program. He
says engineers, for instance, often find they need training in marketing
or sales management as they move within a corporation and take on
additional responsibilities. "The Certificate of Management is clearly
designed as a mini-MBA," he says.

Two Exec Ed offerings now online are the five-course Certificate in
International Business and Trade, which is designed for those interested
in doing business in the global marketplace, and a sales management
program, which teaches how to build and lead winning sales teams. "There
is a void in sales management training," Mr. Fowler says, explaining the
popularity of this course.

The portability and flexibility that online technologies offer allow Exec
Ed programs such as UTD's to make their programs available to those
students otherwise prevented from enrolling, Dr. Springate notes. "Half
our executive-degree students are now online participants," he says.
"Online technologies represent an important market and opportunity for us,
and also an important service that we can offer to the business
community."