Amidst COVID Uncertainty, Michigan Schools Collaborate to Create Sales Course Solution

Offline, Central Michigan University sits 30 long miles away from Northwood University. Online, however, these two highly respected schools have recently come together with a shared priority: get students the training they seek to transition to jobs faster and with an increased likelihood of success.

The COVID economy may have shut down their campuses, but administrators at both CMU and Northwood saw the wisdom of the course collaboration concept and were not discouraged. The two schools’ combined Professional Sales Program launched in late June, with CMU successfully serving a smaller-than-usual group of course enrollees, and Northwood offering a hands-on sales course in place of canceled summer internships.

Because both institutions use a Blackboard learning management system (LMS), technical course integration was a snap. Students from the two schools come together two evenings each week for six weeks in the virtual classroom, participating in discussion, employer presentations, and even collaborating on group assignments like role plays. Yet, they view online content, submit assignments, and receive grades in their own Blackboard LMS.

This successful course integration in Blackboard raises the opportunity to collaborate with other colleges and universities that use Blackboard and need to add virtual business courses to their catalogs. Schools can consider collaboration via other LMS such as Moodle, D2L and more. This type of partnership between institutions is definitely worth considering.

Traditionally, higher education has worked from a more centralized approach to maximize efficiency in an in-person, on-campus model. Competition for students, faculty, and other resources is fierce, so money and time are spent on hard assets like housing, student services, and athletics. With in-person attendance in question, collaborating, innovating, and sharing solutions across institutions is key. Outcomes for a diverse audience of students, an ecosystem of ALL sorts of learners, can be achieved in a highly flexible, always fresh and relevant, off-campus environment.

The push to online learning makes high-quality, competency-based education available to students who might never have considered education past high school. Parallel programs, apprenticeships, associate’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees, professional certificate programs -- these all become options for a learner with an internet connection and the drive to succeed. Income Share Agreements and financial aid from workplace development offices or sponsors are additional creative ways to support students in pursuing career readiness. 

In fact, fewer companies continue to view degrees as essential “proxies” for hard and soft skills. According to a 2017 report by Accenture entitled Dismissed by Degrees, “Shifting from degree- and pedigree-based hiring to a competency-based approach can open up new pipelines for organizations struggling to find talent,” writes Jennifer Arnold in an article for SHRM, The Society for Human Resource Management. Imagine how that trend of three years ago has accelerated with today’s shift to remote work and companies’ needs for practical skills to help them emerge as winners.

We are certainly at a turning point in higher education. Institutions who successfully pivot and  creatively engage and collaborate with other schools, forward-thinking companies and public sector leaders, with the goals of the student learner in mind, will lead a revolution of sorts for academia. Virtanza is a vetted, accredited, relevant and turn-key solution ready to help.

Join Virtanza on July 14, 2020, for a panel discussion with University and Employer leaders who are already forging ahead with online sales programs and getting students back into the classroom to train for the thousands of sales jobs awaiting them. We’ll hear from our partners at Quicken Loans, ARC Document Solutions, University of California - Irvine, Central Michigan University, and Clark State Community College. Register at www.virtanza.com/webinar. Schedule a demo at info@virtanza.com.