The Online Program Administrator

Each online program should have a designated “Online Program Administrator” (hereafter OPA) whose role it will be to oversee design and development of any new program, and then coordinate and manage the delivery of the program once it has been approved to be offered. In some cases, the same individual may develop a new online program and then act as the OPA after the program is launched, but often these duties are turned over to another faculty or staff member to act as the OPA once the program is being delivered.

OPA responsibilities are thus varied, and may include both tasks associated with new program development (e.g. completing a competitive scan, developing a budget, determining the pricing strategy, and obtaining appropriate approvals for the new program) and those related to program launch and ongoing delivery (e.g. developing a marketing plan and recruitment strategies, promoting the program, scheduling course offerings, ensuring access to student and faculty support, etc.).

See the side navigation for links to relevant resources under “For Program Administrators+”.  Note that in some cases, access is limited to current UWM faculty/staff, and you may be required to enter your UWM ePantherID and password.

UWM has a membership in the Continuing and Online Education (COE) Forum of EAB, a higher education best practices collaborative company. This is an excellent resource for online program administrators. To access EAB reports and research, see below.

 

Important note: EAB has graciously granted UWM permission to place some key reports on the Toolkit website. Please do not share those resources beyond UWM.