Communication and Collaboration in an Online Masters Degree

Communicating with students and encouraging collaboration poses a major challenge in distance education.In this paper, the authors present lessons learned from an online master's degree program; each had successfully developed courses to teach engineers and managers project management at a distance.The first section introduces online learning and illustrates the tools and interactive technologies used to communicate with students.The second half describes the design and execution of three online project management courses, detailing the curricula and techniques utilized to encourage collaboration and discussions amongst students.We also include a special section that illustrates teaching project management through case studies.In each case, we describe the pedagogical approach and curriculum used to encourage collaboration and create an effective learning environment.The paper concludes with a narration of the challenges that remain when teaching online.The research results and experience shared in this paper will provide invaluable assistance to faculty and course designers interested in creating an online course.