The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville has reached an agreement with Washington, D.C.-based Blackboard for the company to market UA’s online programs, a news release said.
The university offers 29 online programs that include licensure and certificate courses of study, as well as bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs.
“Students must know about the university’s online programs before they can benefit from them,” said Javier Reyes, UA’s vice provost for distance education, in a statement released by Blackboard this week. “We trust that Blackboard will provide expert marketing guidance and give us a blueprint for future marketing efforts.
Blackboard already provides online educational applications widely used by UA students and faculty. The company also provides the technical platform used to deliver materials to students in the online-only programs, Reyes wrote in an email, emphasizing that UA faculty members develop the course content.
The marketing agreement was approved in December, Reyes said.
UA and other schools in the University of Arkansas System continue with online offerings despite the planned eVersity, an online-only university.
“The UA System eVersity will aggressively market our programs,” said Michael Moore, the UA System’s vice president of academic affairs, during a UA System trustees meeting in March when the eVersity project was announced.
The UA System signed a deal last April with Academic Partnerships allowing individual UA schools to negotiate with the Dallas-based company for marketing services, but no UA schools had done so as of last month, said Ben Beaumont, the UA System’s director of communications.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 04/18/2014