The University of Oregon is a sports powerhouse and a leader in sport education with the first-ever sports marketing program housed in a business school and—as of 2015—we added the first-of-its kind Sports Product Management program. Innovating again, UO Sports Product Management has launched and is taking applications for an online master’s degree with classes beginning April 2019.
The program is carefully designed to meet the needs of both the sports product industry and students who are working full time in their career. The program was developed by benchmarking best practices in existing online MBA programs and standards from Quality Matters, a nonprofit, quality assurance organization dedicated to advancing online teaching and learning.
By melding rigorous coursework with design thinking, students receive high-quality education at a distance. Students will learn the business of creating sports apparel, footwear, and equipment through the successful University of Oregon Sports Product Management master’s program curriculum.
For eight consecutive, 10-week terms, students will take two-to-three courses per term. Each course will feature a blend of live discussion and offline lectures. Five three-to-seven day on-site learning experiences, with the aim of creating sports and outdoor industry global leaders, are also part of the program.
In just one example of how we are designing online learning to fit our hands-on approach, each term students will receive a kit of materials from the SPM Innovation Lab to touch and feel the materials instructors describe in their lectures.
“We took the same standards in course design and student leadership development for the online program as we did when we first built the full-time, onsite program in 2015,” said Ellen Schmidt-Devlin, cofounder and executive director of the Sports Product Management program. “This is a world-class education delivered in an innovative format for sports product professionals who want to get ahead while staying engaged with their current job.”
Students who choose the online degree will work with cultivated industry partners from such companies as Nike, adidas, Columbia, Keen, Sorel, Yakima, Puma, Under Armour, New Balance, Brooks, Reebok, North Face, and LuluLemon.
Schmidt-Devlin added the online master of science is part of the planned, natural expansion of the Sports Product Marketing program’s education strategy, with an overall goal of better serving the global sports product industry.
—AnneMarie Knepper-Sjoblom ’05, Lundquist College Communications