The University of Notre Dame will offer this fall its first online master’s degree program, in data science, intended for working professionals. The program will be done in partnership with AT&T and deployed on a custom Open edX platform.
This is the first time a university offers an online degree on an Open edX platform.
Notre Dame’s five-semester online master of data science will enroll part-time students who will take two or three courses per semester after attending an on-campus, weekend orientation at the start of the semester.
AT&T has contributed with “seed money” and ideas for program development, paying the up-front costs. Their employees will make up approximately 35 percent of the first 40-student cohort.
Elliot Visconsi, Notre Dame’s chief academic digital official, said that additional online master’s degrees will be added in the next few years with a similar focus on high-tech subjects, because the student demand for those majors is growing as the job market in those fields heats up.
Extension Engine deployed the Open edX platform, called NeXus. Funqan Nazeeri, partner at Extension Engine, disclosed details, including the architecture, on a recent talk.
