A for-profit institution, it has the nation s largest online enrollment 13,000 of its 70,000 students and has offered online courses since 1989. Fifty-five percent are working toward undergraduate degrees, and 45 percent are in master s or doctoral programs. The university doesn t accept students who aren t in the workforce and over the age of 23. Adult learners learn best when they are in an environment where they can make application of what they are learning to a real-world work setting it means more, they produce better work and are more likely to finish a program, says Brian Mueller, who presides over the online program. The UOP online program relies on 1,200 part-time faculty who must be seasoned practitioners in the fields in which they teach.
Classes are high on written communication and collaborative learning.
The school has a centrally created core curriculum, which it says is devised by some of the brightest minds in their individual fields. The only thing we haven t replicated online is oral communication, in terms of students getting up and presenting work, Mueller says. Simple, he says. Students evaluate their professors at the end of each course. We don t offer tenure.