SIGNAL Executive Video: Tailored Online Continuing Education With Purdue University Online
As defense and government professionals must keep learning new skills to navigate a changing industry, educational institutions such as Purdue University increasingly offer high-quality online education that is accessible to working people and active-duty personnel.
Dimitrios Peroulis, senior vice president for partnerships and online at Purdue, outlined the advantages of the university’s online programs during a recent Executive Video with SIGNAL Media. Purdue’s flexible online offerings let defense and government professionals further their education while still working. The Indiana-based university also works directly with company and agency partners from across the country to tailor content to meet industry criteria for higher learning and maintaining degrees or certifications.
In his previous role for the university as the head of the Elmore School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Peroulis led the creation of online engineering programs for working professionals and military learners. In his new role as senior vice president, he created an online program strategy for the entire campus with the aim of reaching more professional learners.
Peroulis explained that continuing education has changed as technology has evolved. While people might have once needed to learn new skills 10 or even 20 years into their careers, developments like artificial intelligence have become relevant so quickly that people who graduated five years ago might not have studied it at all.
Purdue’s online degrees use the same faculty and coursework as its on-campus degrees, allowing the university to provide “excellence at scale,” Peroulis explained.
A variety of options for continued education allows the online program to serve people with different goals. Traditional full-length graduate degrees are offered along with graduate certifications, professional development programs and “microcredentials” for military and civilian learners. These programs are stackable, allowing students to transfer credits to certifications or degree programs.
Online programs at Purdue cover artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data science, hypersonics, microelectronics and semiconductors, and other topics relevant to the defense industry.
Professional programs are adapted to meet specific industry needs through partnerships with military and defense organizations. One partner is the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, which has a joint degree program with Purdue. The university studied the existing Navy curriculum and matched it with a Purdue master’s program, allowing students to graduate with two complementary degrees.
Partners share their professional needs with an online team that works with them to create an educational program to fill knowledge gaps. Peroulis said that one industry partner noticed its professionals were able to design a type of device, but lacked experience in handling the large data output. Purdue can adapt its programs to cater to that type of specific need.
Organizations that want to partner with the university in workforce development programs can contact the online team. Professional needs are addressed through existing or customized programs, with credentials and degree programs often sent out to companies within weeks of initial contact, Peroulis said.
“Even though Purdue is a world leader in online and on-campus education, we're always open to listen,” Peroulis said. “We're always looking at our partners with a sincere ability to learn and serve.”
Click to get more information about Purdue’s online programs.
