by Sandy Womack, Ed.D., Director, EduPlan www.eduplan.org
I'm not sure if colleges and universities use the term "Blended Degrees" in their listing of majors. It is a term I made up to describe new majors offered by online schools, private, for-profit colleges and even a few state universities. The new degrees "blend" classes from technology, business, leadership and project management.
Starting in early 2000's, corporations wanted employees to be flexible and able to move into many fields, many jobs. The companies expected employees with master's degrees to have business skills, even if they were "technical". Employees had to work with clients in technical sales, technical marketing and technical support. Project Management skills were also needed.
University of Oregon's Master of Applied Information Management is a good example of a blended degree (also called Multidisciplinary). The degree offers Core classes in Project Management, Business Administration, Information Design and Applied Research. The sampling of Short Courses include: Business Ethics, Data Mining, Search marketing and Sustainability.
This degree and other blended degrees may be alternatives to the MBA, MS Information Systems, or MS Computer Science.