The University of Queensland (UQ) has just announced a new master’s degree which will be the first UQ award program delivered online through edX.
The Master of Leadership in Service Innovation builds upon the UQx Business Leadership MicroMasters® program which UQ launched on edX in late 2017 and is nearing completion, with the first learners currently undertaking the capstone assessment.
UQ joined edX in 2013 and UQx has progressed from developing showcase Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), a number of which are in edX’s top 10 most popular, to X-Series in 2016, MicroMasters® programs in 2017, and with this announcement, a complete online master’s degree. Total global enrolments in UQx courses recently passed the 2.5 million mark.
UQx is managed within the Course Design and Development group in UQ’s Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation. UQx projects have been key in developing UQ’s capabilities and capacity for online and blended learning and have engaged with a diverse group of academics from across UQ and beyond. We are pleased that a number of these UQx alumni will be participants in the development of the new master’s program.
UQ Business School Associate Professor David Solnet is the academic lead for the new master’s program, and has previously collaborated with UQx as a member of the academic team for the Tourism and Travel Management MOOC. He is assembling a team of UQ Business School colleagues (a number of whom have also participated in UQx MOOCS and MicroMasters programs), to develop eight new courses over the coming two years. The expertise for the development of this new program links to a key cross-disciplinary research strength identified within the School in the area of service management and marketing, coupled with a very strong team in the area of innovation research and practice.
Today’s announcement marks the culmination of ten weeks of activity to develop the new program proposal, guide it through UQ’s rigorous academic programs approval process, and prepare UQ and edX systems and websites for the announcement. This activity has involved a vast number of academic and professional staff across the University and has surely set records for collaboration and speed of delivery!
The Master of Leadership in Service Innovation marks many firsts for UQ. It is the first UQ award program delivered via edX and the first online degree from the UQ Business School. It will be delivered on a trimester calendar with three intakes per year. The Business Leadership MicroMasters comprises eight (8) units of the 24 unit master’s leading to a total program cost of around 50% of a traditional UQ Business School master’s degree. Admissions are open today and students can start on the MicroMasters courses. The first intake of the new master’s courses will commence in September 2019.
You can read more about the program at edX and at UQ Business School Master of Leadership in Service Innovation program page.
For the external news announcement, please read the article on UQ News.
Contact: John Zornig, j.zornig@uq.edu.au, +61 7 3365 9131.
