Online education: Think curriculum, courses, software, but also administration, faculty, and students.

Reviewed by Jeff Lippincott, 2009-01-11

I liked this book very much. I thought it was reasonably well written. And I thought its content was wonderful. That might be because I am in the process of putting together a mini online school (consulting/coaching company) of my own, and I thought there were some great points made in the book that will help me in my pursuit. The book does not have a Table of Contents. But it has six chapters and five appendices as follows:

0a. Introduction
0b. Foreward
1. Curriculum
2. Courses
3. Faculty
4. Students
5. Administration
6. Software
A. Content matrix sample
B. Roll-out schedule
C. Master of public health program
D. Master of health administration program
E. Master of geriatric health management program

The cover of the book informs us that the book will provide "6 steps" to starting an online school. I did not find any steps in the book. What I did find were 6 "topics" that one must address when creating an online school. And those topics are covered in chapters 1 through 6. Each of the chapters has numerious point headings: C1 (7), C2 (13), C3 (10), C4 (13), C5 (19), and C6 (5). Since the project I am working on will be a solo operation at least in the beginning, chapters 1, 2, 4, and 6 were of particular interest to me. Chapters 3 and 5 regarding faculty and administration might become relevant to me as my company grows and I have to start hiring people. But for now they were not of much interest to me.

The author created an online education program for a university. And after becoming successful doing it he has decided to operate a consulting practice to help other universities do the same. He has written the instant book being reviewed as a marketing tool for his consulting practice. But I suspect he also uses the book to help his clients understand his approach to consulting.

I think the book is a great resource. It is kind of short - only 127 pages including the appendix materials. And it could have been expanded and made into a full-fledged full sized book. But that would have required more emphasis on formating, layout, etc of the material - not to mention a little more text. The chapter titles probably could have been made into "Parts" and many of the point headings could have been made into chapters. However, the book covers the basics and covers it so well that anyone can read between the lines and fill in the blanks using their imagination. 5 stars!