The UW MBA Consortium held its 10th Annual Faculty Meeting in early January, beginning with a series of asynchronous professional development activities in an online course and culminating in a live, virtual event on Friday, January 16th, 2026. Throughout the month, staff, faculty, and friends of the program engaged both asynchronously and synchronously to explore and workshop strategies to strengthen meaningful peer engagement in the asynchronous online learning environment.
Why focus this year’s theme on peer engagement? In 2025, the MBA program began an initiative to strengthen our alignment with the program’s flexibility value. This year’s annual meeting was an extension of that initiative. Research and student feedback show that peer engagement can add tremendous value to the learning experience for adults. The key is designing it in ways that align with our mission-driven asynchronous-first approach. The annual meeting is a crucial space for defining and workshopping these aspirations and opportunities within the program.
UW MBA Consortium faculty shared their perspectives on what they found beneficial from the event.
“I look forward to these meetings every year and this year was no different! I walked away with the theme: meaningful peer engagement requires more than participation—it requires purpose.” Melaney Barba notes.
Sarah DeArmond echoed a similar sentiment. “It is always really helpful to hear from others teaching in this program. They have great ideas, and I walk away with new things to try or questions to ponder.”
“What I appreciated the most about the meeting was the strong sense of shared purpose. The panel, discussions around peer engagement, and meaningful learning activities in breakout groups offered practical insights and reaffirmed how much we can learn from one another across disciplines,” Andreas Eklund said, highlighting the networking opportunities the meeting fosters.
DeArmond and Eklund both contributed to a faculty panel, Designing Connections, along with colleagues Jim Gross and Andy Miller. Each panel member presented an example of peer engagement design within courses they teach that promote the asynchronous-first philosophy. Their examples connect to one of the four Principles of Peer Engagement that guides how we design peer engagement while prioritizing a flexible asynchronous online learning environment. Following the faculty panel, meeting participants had breakout, small-group discussions to share additional insights.
Barba summarized the professional development activities built into the live event, bringing participants from all program disciplines and staff together to construct new understandings of peer engagement from each other’s experiences to expand the possibilities of the asynchronous online learning environment. “The panel and breakout discussions affirmed that effective asynchronous teaching is rooted in intentional connection. Clear structure paired with flexibility, authentic tasks, and accountability allows students to learn with and through each other, not just alongside each other. I always leave these meetings energized by the chance to learn from colleagues who are doing this work so well”.
Looking at the future of the UW MBA Consortium, this is the start of a broader conversation on the intersections of peer engagement, flexibility, and graduate-level asynchronous online course design.
In addition to the professional development activities, the live event also dedicated time to discussing the current state of the program and trends in online graduate business education, along with recognizing outstanding instructors. Read more about this year’s nominees and award recipient for the program’s Outstanding Faculty Award.
UW MBA Consortium Faculty & Staff Meet in Zoom
