By IrishTimes.com

Students are likely to be either promoted or change jobs as they incorporate their new-found skills in the workplace, says course director Joe Houghton

The move to a fully online delivery model has proved highly successful for the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School part-time MSc in project management. “The programme has been fully online since September,” says Joe Houghton, director of project management and lecturer at the School. “We ran it on a hybrid format last year as a test. There was a clear preference for online delivery among the student cohort with very few choosing to attend lectures in person. We have seen a significant increase in student numbers for the online programme.”

The attractions are clear. “Busy professionals don’t want to travel to college lectures after a long day at work,” says Houghton. “This mode of delivery facilitates remote learning and enables students based anywhere Ireland or in appropriate time zones overseas to join our programme and build their professional networks. We have a number of overseas students this year including one from Grindavík in Iceland, the town that was hit by the volcano recently.”

Students who wish to experience in-person learning are catered for within the new delivery model. “The two-year part-time programme covers exactly the same material as the one-year full-time course which is delivered here in the Smurfit School,” Houghton explains. “If any of our part-time students want to experience the college environment, they are welcome to drop into the full-time lectures during the day.”

Article first appeared on IrishTimes.com on February 1st. Read the full article here.