Cathy Anderson

While the master’s program continued to attract a considerable number of applicants, it required students to study in residence at UVA.  

This was certainly an appealing aspect to many, but for others, this simply wasn’t feasible for any number of reasons. Some were not in a position to move to Charlottesville. Others couldn’t leave their jobs for a year.  

Cathy Anderson had collaborated with Don Brown and Arlyn Burgess during the early days of the Data Science Institute to deliver custom executive education programs while she was at UVA’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies.

A couple of years later, in January 2017, Anderson joined the Data Science Institute team as the Director of Executive and Continuing Education, with the mission of expanding the Institute’s offerings to new audiences.  

“Don had been interested in venturing into the online space for a while,” Anderson said. “And that’s, of course, most of what the School of Continuing and Professional Studies did, so I looked forward to applying my experience at the Institute.”  

Anderson was excited for the opportunity to expand data science education to new markets of students, and soon, attention turned to the idea of creating an entirely online master’s program.

The Data Science Institute, though, was still a lean operation, and establishing an online degree program would require extensive work, including marketing and student recruitment.

Anderson and others realized they would need an outside vendor to turn their vision into a reality and enlisted Noodle Partners, a firm that specializes in assisting universities with these very needs.

Beyond promoting the program, the institute, which did not have its own faculty, had to earn buy-in from other departments, many of whom, Anderson noted, were “very stretched” in terms of resources.  

“There was a lot of going around and meeting with people, talking about what we were hoping to do, and listening to their concerns” she said.  

With the provost’s office fully supportive, the online data science master’s degree was announced in fall 2018, with the program launching the following summer, one of the first of its kind at UVA.

Given the unique challenges that students in the online program would face, courses had to be designed to accommodate the needs of students and the extraordinary time demands that many faced.  

“They need to really know what to expect for planning purposes because many juggle full-time jobs and families,” Anderson said when it came to assignments, tests, and due dates. She also noted that faculty members would record lessons and other content, which allowed students to view them when their schedules permitted.  

While this required many instructors to adjust their teaching styles, the payoff was considerable, as data science education at UVA would now be accessible to a much wider pool of talented and passionate students, many of whom would no longer have to take a year off from work or uproot their families to pursue their goals.

“She never gave up,” Brown said of Anderson. “And sure enough, we got the program.”

“Everyone felt really good about this new student population and being able to serve them,” said Anderson. “They’re just so thankful that they have the opportunity.”

That’s true, Bourne added, “but there were moments when we were stretched so thin. I feared we would not be able to deliver classes.”

Indeed, while the expansion of programs and the ambition of the work of the Data Science Institute — and later the School of Data Science —brought success, it did not come without a cost. Resource limitations amid increasing responsibilities would continue to loom large and weigh on the team as the years went on and ambitions expanded.