Institutional Decisions on OPM Market: Upcoming discussions on complicated questions

Following our recent webinar with WCET on the Online Program Management (OPM) market, I am excited to lead two sessions next week at one of my favorite events of the year – the #WCET19 conference in Denver. As background, see this post addressing the OPM market.

• Wednesday, Nov 6th at 1:45pm MT in Penrose 2 – #WCETOPM Navigating the OPM Marketplace: Picking the Right Partners While Avoiding Market Chaos This will have some overlap with the webinar but will focus more on the choices and decision-making processes that academic institutions face when evaluating OPM vendors or even deciding whether to use an OPM partner.
• Wednesday, Nov 6th at 4:30pm MT in Denver 1-2 – #WCETOPMUnconf OPM Unconference Session Our webinar from September is available online, and we had some great questions during the webinar but were restricted by time constraints on addressing them all. During this session we plan to focus on answer the webinar questions and new questions from attendees. Come for a discussion.

Some the topics that we plan to address in these sessions, partially based on webinar questions:

• Ideas for bringing OPM providers and schools together for more transparency and research on program outcomes;
• The relationship between the OPM (and broader Online Program Enablement, or OPE) market and all-too-common lack of institutional support/structures vs. demand/competition for online learning programs;
• Whether OPM critics, analytics, scholars, company leaders, and schools can come together for a collegial discussion;
• The increasing emphasis on quality course and curriculum design; and
• Advice for schools to consider with regards to policy, practice, and regulation when entering into a partnership with an OPM/OPE.

I don’t pretend to have simple answers for all questions – come, participate and expect a real discussion at the sessions.