Northwestern MSC Webinar: Hybrid or Custom – which format is right for you?

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OK.

Alright, I'm not sure what you did and didn't hear, but today's topic is the hybrid leadership program and the custom leadership program. And we're going to talk about some of the similarities and differences between these two different formats of the.

Masters of Science in communication program here at Northwestern to provide a little context. Again, my name is Toby Cortelyou. I'm the director of enrollment management and strategic initiatives for the program. I manage the admissions and marketing efforts for the program, and I'm also an alumni of the MSP program. I graduated back in 2012 and I am excited to talk to you today, so thank you again for joining the goals today are to provide a little bit of clarity around these two different delivery models that we have with MSP program.

I know a number of people are curious or considering the differences between the two models and it goes well beyond online versus in person and we wanted to have a conversation today about and take a deeper dive into the comparisons between the two programs and the trade offs for them and what they might mean for you and so as we move through out today. We're going to be talking specifically about the timeline.

A difference is there differences in the curriculum differences in the demographics as we move through out, though, I think that you'll learn that there are far more similarities between these two delivery models then differences, and those are important to consider as we move through as well as you can see you many of you have already taken advantage of the chat function, and so if you do have any questions, please feel free to submit those in the chat function and Kaylie Mullins who is also on here today can help me.

Moderate some of those questions and we of course will also leave time for questions at the end so to jump right in here first I want to talk a little bit about the timeline largely the timeline for the 2 programs is the same right and so the both programs take less than 12 months to complete you'll begin the program at the end of September and you will graduate from the program at the beginning of August northwestern.

University is on a quarter system so you will participate in for academic quarters as a student in the custom program and the hybrid program also quickly just to point out the acronyms we're using here custom leadership program is CLP hybrid leadership program is HLP and I'll probably reference both custom hybrid or CLPHLP as we move through out here so again both are less than 12 months.

For academic quarters and the custom program.

It's on Saturdays only meets in person on Saturdays on our Evanston campus and you take 2 courses per quarter and so it's 8 in person academic courses right 2 courses per quarter for 4 quarters and then we'll you'll also have a capstone course which we'll talk about in a little bit the Saturday schedule is that class starts at 9:30 in the morning a core course that will talk again in more detail about the curriculum in just a minute but you'll take a core course.

Um in in the morning from 9:30 until 12:30 and then you have lunch from 12:30 until 2 o'clock with your classmates and then at 2 o'clock until 5 o'clock you have an elective course there are 3 or 4 elective courses for you to choose from each each quarter and you'll have an elective course with a smaller group of students in the afternoon.

The hybrid program.

Um is a series of 5 week courses online.

Uhm you will take one course at a time.

And then you have 4 what we call in residence sessions spread throughout the program each in residency is 2 and a half days long and so in September at the start of the program the hybrid program starts with an in resident session 2 and a half days on campus and then after that in resident session you go back home wherever that is and you.

Excuse me, you go back home wherever that is and you complete 2 five week courses online with your classmates and then in December you have another in residence session and you have one week kind of mini course before the in resident session begins to prepare for that in person experience. And so the in residence sessions are in December. I'm sorry. September, December.

April and then in August around graduation, and so those are the four in residents sessions for the hybrid program. So the timeline of the two programs similar in that each is less than a year.

Similar in that you participate in for academic quarters and then that's where it changes with the in person delivery model in the custom or Saturday program and the series of five week and in residents sessions in the hybrid program.

Hum.

Moving to the next kind of area focus I want to talk specifically about the curriculum an how that's delivered first one big similarity with the with the 2 different programs is our philosophy in terms of what we're teaching does not change based on either delivery model and the philosophy being that these 3 core curricular learning themes are present throughout the entire experience for those unfamiliar.

The core curricular themes of managing complexity collaborative leadership and elegant communication are like I said present throughout managing I think of these learning things for me are easiest to understand when you think about your professional life and where these themes may have been lacking.

We have all been in situations where complexity has been managed poorly.

We have all been in situations where somebody has lead in a non collaborative fashion and we have all witnessed individuals or groups of individuals communicate and inelegant fashion and those 3.

Foundational themes are present and really kind of lead the design and development and execution and delivery of the MSC curriculum they're broken down further here you can see in what we call conceptual knowledge and applied knowledge the conceptual knowledge exists in largely in the faculty in the concepts in the theories that are presented to you and the concepts that come to you that are some you're familiar with some you're not.

Um come like I said largely through the faculty the applied knowledge is exists largely in you and your classmates in your real world experience.

And the MSP program really prides itself on combining marrying the conceptual and applied knowledge to each other to combine to form what we call produce knowledge what you and your classmates and your faculty experiences in your specific time in the program.

Come up with what is created throughout the year long experience with this specific group of people that you're a part of and so it is very important to us that what you learn is applicable in the real world and I think it's probably important to you as well and so this combination of.

Theory and practice of concepts and application is something that you can expect to experience in both the custom program and the hybrid program.

So moving on the big kind of view from 30,000 feet differences between the programs though I briefly touched down in the timeline and that is that the custom program has a series of core courses that all students take together and a series of elective courses that you get to choose the hybrid program has a set sequence of courses that are delivered to you in these 5 week sessions as I mentioned before and the in residence session so these are the kind of.

Biggest easiest ways to kind of bucket the 2 different delivery models and then both both programs participate and capstone project which I'll describe in more detail here shortly as well.

So like I said, the kind of big picture here is that the custom students have core courses and electives. Hybrid students have a set sequence of courses and there in resident sessions, everybody participates in a capstone. So for the custom students in the Saturday program, the core courses are here on the screen in order actually.

And we bring in about 75 students each year to the customer.

Program all of you will be in class together on Saturday mornings taking these core courses in this order.

Leading collaboration there are fairly self explanatory. Leading collaboration is a class that focuses on Team Dynamics, learning how to be a member of an lead, small, medium and large teams. The change management course is exactly what you think. It's a deep dive into understanding the barriers that exist to change the barriers that exist within and within an individual. The barriers that exist within an organization and tools.

And methods to help move past those bears and help implement change. An efficient and effective manner. Understanding and leveraging networks when we talk about networks and Network Science. At Northwestern, we're not talking about Facebook and cocktail parties necessarily were talking about how information moves through an organization. So if you think about traditional corporate environment and how does marketing talk to operations? Talk to finance. Talk to human resources.

Who are the jargon is brokers? Who are the brokers of information between those groups? And now think of those networks and how those networks interact with each other inside and outside of an organization. How do those networks interact with each other in your personal or family groups? And understanding the science and the methods to understand those networks and then leverage those networks for professional success is what you will discover and learn more about.

In the third core course and then finally, communication management and ethics. Now that you have these kind of superpowers of communication, we want to have conversations, important conversations about how to use those and the impact and influence that you can wield individually. An add an institutional or even industry level with these new tools and skills, and so those are the four core courses that everybody in the custom in the CLP program will participate in. And then I was saying before.

Each quarter students in the Custom Program have three or four elective courses to choose from. These are in no particular order here. They changed a little bit from year to year, not dramatically, maybe one or two of them will change from year to year based on a lot of different variables. But the idea behind offering electives is to give you some flexibility to give you some control or choice in your experience. Some students choose elective courses.

Um, based on?

Content or disciplines that they're already familiar with, and they want to take a little bit of a deeper dive into an area that they already know a little bit about. Some students choose elective courses.

You learn about something that they are completely unfamiliar with and add a completely new discipline or area of interest to their kind of tool, belt or repertoire. If you will. And so there are many different reasons, and there are a lot of resources at Northwestern in the MSP program to help you choose. We have academic advising. We have previous students evaluations, of course is for you to get understanding of what's involved.

But that's a longer conversation for actually a couple weeks from now when we have our core curriculum.

Web and R. So again, the combination of the core courses and the elective courses is what makes up the central delivery for the custom program. The hybrid program, like I said, has a set sequence of courses, meaning this sequences doesn't change and you take one course at a time as opposed to two courses at a time and the hybrid program.

Um?

The courses are designed to build upon each other and that is the reason that they are in this kind of set sequence and delivered in a specific order. So the information that you learn in the first course strategic communication, fundamentals of strategic communication will be used later on when you take your course in public persuasion. And again, the information you learn in public persuasion will be useful when you take the course on understanding and leveraging networks, and so these courses, like I said, build upon each other.

Are in a set sequence and you take one at a time and so that for that five week session you will only be asked.

Excuse me, you will only be asked to focus on that one specific area of interest, and there's a fair amount of research about distance learning and online education that says.

Taking multiple classes in time is just not an effective, efficient way for you to learn the likelihood that you're going to retain the information when taking multiple courses is not high, and so delivering these one at a time is a deliberate and I think, well informed decision for us in terms of how we deliver it and then the topics of the in residence sessions, those four visits, 2 campus that again are each 2 1/2 days long are here on the screen. Now you'll start.

In the fall with a conversations about cultural intelligence and issues of diversity equity and inclusion and then that lens is used throughout a lot of the program and how we manage communication and view a lot of what we do.

Internally and externally with the organizations that we work for is approach through this lens of cultural intelligence and EEI issues in December you'll come back for focus on crisis communication we have a very fun crisis communication simulation that you will experience as students in December with your classmates in the spring you'll come back for leading collaboration and negotiations and then finally in the OR the end of the summer back for executive presence these are all fairly.

Self explanatory topics and as you might imagine our topics that are best explored.

When you get to interact when you get to have some face to face in person again you can look at these negotiations executive presence talking bout presentation skills and delivering messages in person crisis communication working together as a team doing all of this in person and having that information delivered to you in person is something that makes the most sense us an we believe is the most effective way to deliver on these topics?

So again those are the 2 primary.

Kind of going back here to talk about the separation of delivery formats but the core courses and electives and the sex sequence in residencies and then like I said everybody participates in a capstone project.

Stone project makes it sound like it's one thing when really it's 3 things the capstone project is a couple things so I can walk through them here briefly you will all participate in what we call a visual portfolio and what that is is you selecting we call them artifacts and these are papers projects writings readings cases anything that you.

Experience or encounter throughout the program. That kind of speaks to you resonates with you. Applies to a specific situation that you have experienced or are experiencing in your professional life. You will add that to your visual portfolio.

And you will annotate that and make some comments about why it's important to you and make some comments about.

Why this this speaks to kind of where you are in your career at this time uh?

Before you graduate you will have a minimum I believe and maybe Kaylee correctly from it with you I believe you will graduate with 50 artifacts in your visual a minimum of 50 artifacts in your visual portfolio and the hope is that this is something that you continue to maintain not only throughout the program but you get to keep coming back to this you know for the rest of your life I have so like I said graduated in 2012 I have a spiral notebooks crammed into a Cardboard box that I have to dig through anytime that I want to try to remember.

Topics that we covered was in the program and this is something that you'll have at the of your fingers.

I'm going to skip over the applied learning and talk a little bit about professional identity the professional identity piece of the capstone project is our we believe that it's incredibly important now that you have all of these new skills as you consider leaving the program and graduating from the program that you're really an expert in explaining who you are what you gained from the program and what it is that you can deliver on what it is that you're now an expert at and.

So understanding your own professional identity and how to present that whether it be in a job interview on resume in a professional leave behind through video and also things like understanding what happens when somebody googles your name and how can you control your own personal brand online and maybe through a professional networks professional associations etc understanding.

How to improve and impress upon your own professional identity is something that you will work on throughout the program as well again there are different pieces that are kind of attached to all of that and then that middle middle piece the applied learning is the one piece that is different for the custom and hybrid students?

Hybrid students are only going to participate in an applied research project the case interview is not an option for students in the hybrid program so let me describe briefly what the case interview is the case interview some of you may have participated in case interviews for jobs that you have the case interview is common specifically in the consulting industry basically what we do is at the end of the first or second quarter of the program.

You will select a date and time and during that date and time 24 hours before that date and time we email and academic case to you and you have 24 hours to kind of solve for that case So what is the problem that is being addressed in the case and then you have 24 hours to put together about 10 minute presentation annual deliver that 10 minute presentation to a group of faculty alumni and staff in the next day so highly intensive project it's a lot in a little bit of lag time.

But as you might imagine the what we're measuring is kind of what you've been able to internalize you can't relearn an entire quarters worth of material in 24 hours and so in that short amount of time what can you draw upon what can you pull out of what you've learned that quarter and then use and repeat repeat back and describe an effective way and in a useful way to potential audience.

So custom students have a choice between doing the case interview or doing an applied research project and applied research project is probably exactly what you are thinking of it's a little bit different than what you might think of as a traditional research thesis project we want that word applied is really the important descriptor here and that is we want you to have a task of project and.

Issue a problem whatever you wanna call it in your professional world that you can use to conduct research on right and so it's going to require that you have a certain amount of access to data personnel etc to conduct the level of research required to do a project of this scale and so like I said this is an option for students in the custom program.

But the applied research project is what the hybrid students will participate in and so those are then I guess to go back the big kind of primary differences in the curriculum of the 2 different programs the custom program has students with core courses and electives hired students set sequence in resident sessions and then everybody is working on capstone projects throughout the program.

The next kind of bucket or area that we want to talk about where the demographics and so we talked about the timeline we've talked about the curriculum the demographics and who you're going to be taking your course is worth who you're going to be going through this experience with is an incredibly important consideration for students in the program and I want to spend some time talking about the differences between the custom and hybrid program there.

Cohort sizes are different uh the custom leadership I'm looking at my next slide and these are switch and I can't switch it back the custom leadership program so these are the opposite of what I have here in this slide I apologize the custom leadership program the in person Saturday program has 75 students each year approximately the hybrid leadership program has between around 25 or 30 students each year so I apologize for these being switched backwards but the custom students.

Custom program this Saturday program we bring in about 75 students each year hybrid program about 25 some of the demographic information is like I said important to consider the average age over the past 3 years of incoming students in the custom program hovers around 29 with an age range of 22 to 57 so we have AA nice size number of students coming right out of undergrad and then we've got you can see here over 30 years.

Age range of students in the program for the custom student.

And then in the hybrid program is a little more a larger number of experienced professionals in the hybrid program with the average age hovering around 40 with an age range of 2959 we don't have any kind of formula when it comes to admission or admissions or advising people what program to be apart of but suffice to say the hybrid program an the curriculum design and what you've seen so far is designed for a more.

Experienced professional a person who's going to be able to draw upon leadership or signif.

Second project management experience throughout their careers the custom program like you can see here is a wide range but the.

Majority of students in the custom program are going to be under the age of 30 on the cusp of.

Leadership positions potentially in their karere but probably not as much leadership or management experience to draw upon as they move through the program.

The next category their international students that number 25%.

Is an average we have seen an increase in interest?

In the program from international students I believe we have 7 different countries represented in this year's cohort but this year's group is over 40% of our custom leadership program is students who who citizenship is outside of the United States the hybrid program doesn't allow for international students as it is a part time program and visa requirements student visa requirements state that a person needs to be participating.

In a full time graduate program to receive a student Reese so students in the custom program are eligible as we are able to add a couple courses to the international student experience and thereby making it a full time experience an opportunity for them.

The next 2 sections are something we're particularly proud of and I think important to consider when looking at any graduate program and that is the diversity that's involved and so the diversity.

Uh the diversity is certainly important when considering especially the topics that we're talking about right so communication is an incredibly broad.

Subject and so the more opinions viewpoints experiences that you have contributing to those conversations the more rich to conversations and that's something that we work hard to maintain when making admissions decisions and putting a class together so here you can see that we have a very broad representation of professional industries and professional job functions represented in both the custom an hybrid program.

Um.

So this demographic information like I said is something that's important to consider and recognize and think about when you are deciding who you want to be in class with who do you want to be working on projects with who do you want to be experiencing this program with it's an important consideration.

I wanted to wrap up with just a couple slides slides of big picture similarities between the 2 programs right first and foremost it's important to know that the faculty are the same the same research faculty the same industry experts are teaching in the custom program in the hybrid program and the faculty and the MSP program I will compare to any faculty anywhere it's terrific as you would expect with.

An institution like northwestern the faculty is Top notch and I think that it goes beyond just the expertise that is delivered but the faculty in the MSP program are highly accessible they care a lot about not only the content that they teach but you as individuals and I think that there are a lot of institutions where a faculty is a person that comes in and teaches out of necessity and can't wait to get back to the research.

But at northwestern you're gonna get personal Phone numbers and you're going to go out for drinks and these people are going to become investors and advisors in the in the ventures that you pursue.

As you move me on the MSP program and the like I said the quality in terms of teaching and intellect is second to none but that level of access that you get to these individuals is something that I think really sets us apart from a lot of other lot of other places.

Another thing that's the same across the programs is a career services.

The assumption for us is that you are pursuing graduate education to somehow improve one area or another of your professional world and so we have a dedicated staff that specifically working only with students in the MSP program you have an endless amount of one on one career coaching available web and R speakers breakfast and lunch workshops for students in the custom program and the one on one sessions and all of the information that's kind of baked in.

To the curriculum and Co curricular activities is something that against us apart there are we were one of the first and I don't know very many communication graduate programs that offer career services period and none to the level or extent I believe that we do and so that's something that we're very proud of in next week's webinar on Wednesday is going to be a focus on the career services that are delivered and offered through the MSP program.

And then in 2 weeks we're going to be talking more about the student services in Co curricular activities that are available here's a short list of some of the things that are delivered to an available to students in both the custom and the hybrid programs but academic advising social events for when the students are in town in the hybrid program and a couple times throughout a quarter for students in the Saturday program cultural intelligence series and design curriculum I don't want to dive too deeply into 'cause we're going to talk about it in a significant way in a couple of weeks.

Uhm but then just again opportunities to engage with your classmates and engaged with each other across the hybrid and custom experiences through speaker series and another kind of social slash academic events to add even more flavor to the experience in the program and then last but not least our alumni are all created equally as I hope you would imagine you graduate with the same degree your transcript doesn't say custom program or hybrid program.

Regardless of the format that you choose you receive a master in communication measure of science and communication from Northwestern University and the MSC alumni Association is incredibly strong and very active group of people that we hope that you will participate in or approaching 2000 MSE alumni and you will join a group of 220,000 northwestern alumni spread all over the world and that's I think an important thing to recognize an.

It's a big number 220,000 people to be apart of that network and when you consider.

The kind of reputation and prestige and tradition of excellence that comes with an institution like northwestern that's 220 thousand people that.

Are pretty accomplished right and have done some pretty special things and to have access to that group of people at a different level where you kind of speak the same language and you have a pride in some shared experiences that connects you is something that you don't get a lot of other places so?

Uh if you if you're considering you know a lot of other opportunities were excited to be able to talk to you about what's available here at northwestern in that we have a couple of different formats for you to consider right and so hopefully today you've learned more about the differences between the 2 delivery models in terms of the timeline the curriculum demographics and also incredibly importantly.

What's the same what what what are these delivery formats share which I think largely in compass is a lot of the experience in the program as well so I'm a little bit overtime I appreciate your patience I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have?

After what we talked about so far um I see we've got one in there already so please feel free to submit any questions that you might have in the chat tool there krish asks what is the demographic breakdown of states in the HLP that is a great question and I don't know the answer to it let me.

Uh.

Get back to you on that I'm trying to think.

Hum 25 students I want to say.

Just over half of the hybrid.

Program students have been coming from outside of the Chicago land area and so.

I want to say probably 7 or 8 different states we've had I'm just going to say states now which doesn't help you a lot but students from washington state California Texas Florida New York Massachusetts Connecticut Washington DC to name a few in the past couple years so it's a pretty broad representation.

Um.

What are some of the industries represented in your current class ask Tia great question we work hard like I said on the admission site to have a wide variety of industries represented in the program to the next question asks what Java function are represented most often so I can talk about kind of both of those?

Hum.

At the same time, so we want to have a wide representation of industries and job functions in the program, and we also work to make sure that no one or two industries kind of our dominant or specifically represents a large percentage of the program. So I think that people would probably generally assume that we have a lot of people from marketing, public, public relations, communications functions, which is true.

But we also have a significant number of people.

This last year we had a higher percentage of students from the finance industry than any other industry, consulting healthcare, and so those kind of that kind of combination of industries. Generally Consumer Packaged Goods insurance. Those those are the ones that kind of round out the top 10 industries that are represented in the program, and job functions is equally diverse. Again, a fair number of students coming from traditional communications roles.

As well as public relations, advertising, marketing, etc. But also again accounting finance manufacturing, doctors, lawyers. I was in class with the priest with a Catholic priest in the program. So like I said we work hard to make a.

Diverse group of students coming into the program.

Um?

Any asks are there specific experience requirements for the hybrid leadership program. The short answer is no. We are going to talk in an interview, potentially about leadership experience, project management, experience that you're going to be able to draw a pawn while you're a student in the program, and so we're not going to say you have to have 10 or more years of experience to be a part of the hybrid program, but we are going to want to be sure that you have enough kind of people, management or leadership experience.

To to be able to participate, right?

In the manner that's kind of expected of the hybrid program.

Um?

Chris asks, do you ever get past alumni who lecture as part of the class and or in person residence? Yeah, absolutely, actually it's.

Well, our faculty directory action is name is Randy I'd and he's a graduated from the MSP program, went on to earn his PhD. An now is a lecturer in MSP. Program teaches in the hybrid an custom program both and. So that's kind of an extreme example of being a full time member of the academic.

Cohort.

At an MSP program, but we regularly draw upon alumni from the program to come back and present and teach an not necessarily. Maybe an entire course become. I'm thinking right now of Jeanne Sparrow, who was a television radio personality here in Chicago and comes and speaks to students and throughout the program on presentation skills and camera skills. An understanding your audience and.

Uh so many so many other things I'm not not speaking eloquently about all it is that that she provides and then other other students that are coming back to participate in and deliver on workshops in other sessions as well so it's something that's that's pretty common Chris thank you that's a good question.

Mahima asks for the custom program do we get.

Assistantship opportunities or other opportunities for network building uhm yes and no so assistantship no so uh.

Kind of teaching assistants fellowships grants those types of things are traditionally reserved for students in the PhD programs.

And uh.

Regarding other opportunities for network building I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with all of the opportunities for network building.

And I think that there's generally a focus on building the network and in your specific cohort but then there are multiple opportunities throughout the year for you to engage with other members of the alumni community and then as an alumna you're also invited to multiple events throughout the year to participate in a combination of social and academic events for you to to continue building your network in the northwestern community so hopefully that answers your question thank you.

Uhm I have a says 15 minutes over so again I really appreciate everybody's time and attention today thank you so much I do want to wrap up with a reminder that next week's session is focused on career services and we're going to be joined by our assistant director of career services Pat Messina who will talk about all of the services and assistance that we provide to help you navigate your career as a student and as an alumni.

Of the MSP program so like I said thank you again for your time today and if you have any other questions or would talk to like to talk about anything else specifically please feel free to email us our email addresses MSC at northwestern dot Edu again MSC dot northwestern dot Edu.

Uh look forward to keeping in touch with all of you in the future so thanks again for your time today and have a great day bye bye.