The University of Nebraska and Leading Instructional Design Firm Collaborate to Create High Quality Online Courses; Expand Access to Top-Ranked Bachelor's and Graduate Programs

DALLAS, Nov. 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- iDesign today announced a partnership with the University of Nebraska (NU)  focused on the development of key online courses to increase access to online offerings for students and improve time to degree. Selected courses are currently not offered online, serve a high percentage of students and often have more students who wish to enroll than can be accommodated.

Instructional designers from iDesign will work in partnership with NU faculty and staff to apply the use of technology and innovations in course design to maximize student learning in these courses. Rooted in a commitment to balancing the application of emerging technologies with priorities of both faculty and campus leadership, the partnership will result in online courses carefully crafted to improve both learner experience and outcomes.

Built into the process will be a research element whereby the university will gain a deeper understanding of what instructional elements in online courses most influence student success.

"NU faculty and students will benefit from iDesign's expertise in learner experience design and their ability to leverage data to identify areas for improvement and enable ongoing success," said Mary Niemiec, Associate Vice President for Digital Education and Director of NU Online. "Each course will inform our larger instructional efforts through the research study designed as part of the development process. It is really powerful work and has been universally well received."

NU's partnership with iDesign will result in stronger online offerings that will attract more students, key to the university's goal to grow educational attainment in Nebraska and provide a skilled workforce for the state's economy. Niemiec noted that in just a few years, more than 70 percent of all jobs in Nebraska will require education beyond high school.

Through the collaborative effort known as University of Nebraska Online, the four campuses of the NU system currently offer more than 125 online programs and serve more than 7,600 students who study at a distance each year through the academic strength of four distinct campuses: University of Nebraska at Kearney, University of Nebraska—Lincoln, University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Many of NU's online programs are nationally recognized, including graduate education programs at University of Nebraska—Lincoln, which ranked fourth in this year's U.S. News and World Report rankings and the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Bachelor of Multidisciplinary Studies, the top-ranked online bachelor's program in the state.

"The University of Nebraska has a strong commitment to increasing access to high quality online education and to student success," said Whitney Kilgore, Chief Academic Officer of iDesign. "We are thrilled to partner with this institution on an initiative that will help make top-notch online programs even better."

About iDesign 
iDesign partners with colleges and universities to build, grow and support online and blended programs.  We are passionate about helping faculty harness the potential of emerging technologies to design courses and degrees that make an impact, whether they are fully online, flipped, blended, adaptive, or competency-based. Our unbundled, fee-for-service model is rooted in a commitment to flexibility and institutional autonomy, while our analytics platform supports continuous improvement through rigorous measurement of student engagement and course quality. From statewide university systems to private colleges, our custom solutions pair instructional design with technologies to enable great teaching. For more information, please visit http://idesignedu.org/.

SOURCE iDesign

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