Development Roadmap for Launching Online Education: A Case Study of an Online Graduate Certificate Course

The advancement of technology is rapidly changing teaching and learning practices in institutions globally. The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has fueled a significant growth of the market demand for online education, compelling institutions to focus their attention on the delivery of effective online education. This paper reviews the benefits and challenges of online education and proposes a framework for launching new online courses that can optimize production costs, assure delivery quality, and extend learner access. Applying this framework, a case study of an online graduate certificate course, Industry 4.0, is presented. The proposed framework can act as a benchmark for the introduction of online courses in the disciplines of business management, social sciences, art, and engineering.