Community Development Online
Master's Degree Program
A program of the Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance (IDEA)

In 2004, the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development won a Higher Education Challenge grant from the USDA to develop the Community Development On-line Master’s Program. The program involves six participating universities: Iowa State University, Kansas State University, North Dakota State University, South Dakota State University and the University of Nebraska, and it is a program of the Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance (IDEA).

Students in the program take a series of required core courses and choose electives from three specialization tracks; six hours are dedicated to the students’ capstone experience. The specialization tracks include Building Economic Capacity, Natural Resource Management, and Working with Native Communities.

This cutting edge, trans-disciplinary, inter-institutional program has been a major success since it started. Although the grant funding ended in July 2007, the NCRCRD remains integral to the coordination of the program. To find out more information about the online community development master’s degree program, please visit http://www.gpidea.org/prospective/community/cdProgram.html.

North Central Regional Center for Rural Development

For questions, comments or concerns about the NCRCRD website, contact martinl@anr.msu.edu