Online learning professionals at Stanford appointed associate deans

Stanford University has announced the new appointment of associate deans to lead e-learning schemes at three of its schools.

Positions have been granted in the schools of engineering, medicine and business to professionals in the subjects Bernd Girod, Charles Prober and Peter DeMarzo respectively.

Their responsibilities revolve around the running of innovative curriculum technology, according to a Stanford report.

As a professor of electrical engineering, Bernd Girod has been a key figure in the development of multimedia technology in online education.

Dean James Plummer announced Mr Girod's new position: "Bernd's appointment recognises the rapidly growing importance of online learning in engineering education."

Elsewhere in the school of medicine, professor of pediatrics, microbiology and immunology Charles Prober will share his experience of digitally supported learning as one of the main pioneers of the Stanford Medicine Interactive Learning Initiatives.

Mr Prober commented that most of his students reacted positively towards changing educational methods and that "learning is the embedding of the facts to create rich, interactive sessions".

He has been working on educational technology with other specialists and physicians to explore new formats of learning on the medical curriculum, as well as possible collaborations with other institutions.

Peter De Marzo, the senior associate dean for the academic affairs at the graduate school business, was placed in charge of online learning initiatives by Dean Garth Saloner.

He will be responsible for providing his department with a range of educational technology solutions such as a real-time analysis and investment lab for the study of market data.

Mr Saloner suggested that although the school's online courses are geared towards students at the university, in future it plans to share certain management content modules via online learning.

He stated that he hoped the new technology will "enable us to reach high-potential and high-achieving people around the world".

The university's school of engineering has championed distance learning since 1969 when it launched the Stanford Instructional Television Network and began video streaming courses in the 1990s.