Duke Environmental Leadership Program

Program Format

A first-of-its-kind degree program, the Duke Environmental Leadership Master of Environmental Management (DEL-MEM) melds the Nicholas School’s multidisciplinary environmental curriculum with the renowned “place and space™" model of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. This model capitalizes on the advantages of both online and traditional learning models and is comprised of courses taught through written and electronic formats, case studies, and weeklong intensive on-campus sessions.

Place
Place is the face-to-face component that gives participants the opportunity to experience the campus, meet fellow students, and interact with faculty. The place-based sessions are held at the Nicholas School of the Environment, headquartered in the Levine Science Research Center (LSRC), an interdisciplinary, state-of-the-art, research facility situated on Duke's West Campus in Durham, N.C. Wireless access points abound on campus and in the LSRC to permit “anytime/anywhere” connections via the DEL laptop computer. Students are required to come to the Duke campus five times over the course of two years, including the orientation course.

Space
The “space” or distance learning portion uses interactive technologies to complement face-to-face sessions. Students use the Blackboard online learning platform to complete individual and group coursework and participate in chat sessions and online meetings. In addition, DEL-sponsored bulletin boards, webconferences and conference calls using Accuconference reinforce the curriculum.

Duke e-mail accounts (name@duke.edu) are available through Duke’s Office of Information Technology.

Technical support is kept simple due to the common platform shared across the program. Answers to specific questions are available online or, for personal support, via e-mail and telephone during business hours with limited times on weekends and evenings. The IT orientation during the first place-based session introduces students to the programs and packages pre-installed on the DEL laptop; and much of the curriculum the first session is designed to familiarize students with online education and learning techniques.

Sample Semester: