Motivating Course Completion in Executive Development

Authors

  • David Foster ExecOnline

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijac.v8i2.4362

Keywords:

executive development, management training, online learning, persistence

Abstract


An innovative online approach to executive development is described. The approach utilizes asynchronous and synchronous elements, required submission of assignments, and other features resembling those of online college courses. Design of the learning experience, though, has been observant of the various motivations of busy executives. The approach so far has resulted in high rates of course completion.

Author Biography

David Foster, ExecOnline

David A. Foster Chief Academic Officer David has been at the cutting edge of online education for the past two decades, with a particular focus in management education. His passion is combining the best of instructional design and technology to increase the effectiveness of business leaders. Prior to joining ExecOnline, David was Vice President of Curriculum and Faculty Relations at 2U (formerly 2tor), where he led curriculum development for the ground-breaking MBA@UNC, a successful online program in the Kenan-Flagler Business School of the University of North Carolina. From early on, David has had a particular interest in case-based learning for business. In his doctoral work at Northwestern University’s Institute for the Learning Sciences, he developed an interactive cases architecture that automatically coached students through the financial analysis process. He later commercialized the concept into a product that has been distributed by Thomson/Cengage over the past fifteen years. David served as Director of Online Course Development at UNext, where a partnership of the business schools at Stanford, Columbia, Chicago, and Carnegie-Mellon created an online MBA program for Cardean University. At UNext, David and his colleagues innovated a unique Problem-Based Learning approach in course design. At Accenture, David led the R&D effort in the development of simulation-based training for corporate clients. He also developed interactive training for the banking and insurance sectors with Omega Performance, and he has a patent for an educational macroeconomics simulation design. David obtained his MBA from the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley, and his Ph.D. from Northwestern University.

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Published

2015-06-02

How to Cite

Foster, D. (2015). Motivating Course Completion in Executive Development. International Journal of Advanced Corporate Learning (iJAC), 8(2), pp. 41–43. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijac.v8i2.4362

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 2 (2015)

Section

Case Studies

License

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