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UMass System’s New Online College for Adult Learners Will Complement UMass Amherst’s Multi-Modal Strategy
The UMass System this week announced an initiative to create a new online college for adult learners, which will strategically complement UMass Amherst’s recently announced expansion of its University Without Walls (UWW) program.
John Wells, senior vice provost for online education, observed that the new program, outlined by UMass President Marty Meehan in his annual State of the University address, is a purely online initiative, while UMass Amherst’s approach represents an integration of on-campus and online offerings, drawing substantially from the academic content provided on the bricks and mortar campus by UMass Amherst faculty.
“UWW will have a multi-modal approach, serving students when and where they want to go to school,” Wells said. “Traditional undergraduate students as well as life-long learners will be involved, and each group may well participate in face-to-face, online and hybrid courses.”
UMass Amherst will also benefit financially from the UMass system strategy, since the president noted that net revenue generated from the new online college will be returned to the campuses to sustain the university’s core mission of educating traditional undergraduate and graduate students.