Wayne A.I. Frederick, who was Howard’s provost when the initiative was announced but is now serving as interim president, said that the university had hoped to create at least 25 fully-online programs, expanding its reach to more low-income students as well as international students abroad.
At the time, Frederick said the 25-program goal was not set it stone, however, and the number of programs could increase or decrease as the partnership moved forward.
“We want to be flexible as we move on this,” Frederick said in August. “We have some established online programs already, and we’re going to start with expanding those we already have.”
Now, those established programs may be the only online courses receiving immediate attention from Howard, the university said. Howard will focus on bolstering those offerings, which include six online certificate and degree courses, and invest in faculty training.
It will also invest in “administrative support capacity” for offering online courses at a larger scale.
“Howard University and Pearson will revisit a broader rollout, including international offerings and a large-scale marketing and branding campaign around Howard’s online courses, in the future,” the university stated.
Pearson – which has similar partnerships at several colleges and universities, including Arizona State University, Indiana Wesleyan University, West Virginia University at Parkersburg, Rutgers University, and the University of Florida – declined to comment.
Follow Jake New on Twitter at @eCN_Jake.
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