Excellence in design for online business education

Abstract

The Business School is one of the UK’s top ranked business schools, renowned for its expertise in Finance in particular, and its location in the heart of London. The School has been steadily expanding for more than a decade but was reaching the limits of its physical campus space. However, there remained the desire to develop innovative learning, expand and reach new audiences. Developing a new distance program, that built on the School’s existing reputation for Finance, showcased its world-class faculty and had a global reach was identified as the ideal opportunity to explore a new strategic direction. We built a fully online program with a high rate of engagement, satisfaction and achievement. Its enrolment continues to grow, increasing our international diversity. Online learning is now embedded as a core part of the School’s strategy and is seen as key to future expansion. Beyond this, our organisation cultivated far more expertise and best practice to draw on in a time of crisis than if we had outsourced. This shows the high impact an excellent learning design can make to the culture and capacity of an organisation.