The North Dakota magnet of online education
UND’s online programs keep North Dakotans rooted and thriving in-state, while drawing new people and positive attention from far and wide
When Maggie Brockling began UND’s online Master of Public Administration program, she was living and working in Massachusetts. One degree later, she’s now in Grand Forks, serving as the economic development director for East Grand Forks.
How did that happen?
“They had me at ‘it’s the coldest, flattest place’ and ‘you can watch your dog run away for days!’” she joked.
But Brockling wasn’t just charmed by the dry humor and weather. Through her UND courses, she connected with classmates working in public service across North Dakota and Minnesota. Meanwhile, she’d hit a professional ceiling in Massachusetts, with few leadership opportunities opening up.
In contrast, “on my first walk around the Grand Forks community, I learned about all the young people in leadership roles here,” she said. “I was like, ‘Alright! This is awesome!’”
That move set off a career trajectory that would firmly root her in the Red River Valley. Brockling first came to Grand Forks to serve as director of Evolve Grand Forks, later joining City Hall in key business development roles before stepping into her current position as East Grand Forks’ economic development director.
“I would not have moved into this role, let alone this state, if I hadn’t had the networks I developed through my online coursework,” she said.
From snail mail to smartphones
Since 1911, UND has used distance learning to meet students where they are. Early learners received printed materials by mail. Later came video cassettes, DVDs and — as the Internet took off — fully online classes.
But a common thread stitches all of those patches into a homespun, map-of-North-Dakota quilt: Distance learning long has been a strategic tool for strengthening North Dakota’s workforce, extending UND’s reach and generating economic benefits statewide.
That’s the lesson of Maggie Brockling’s experience — and the mission the University is pursuing into its next decade and beyond.
Nearly 45% of UND’s online graduates now work in North Dakota or the surrounding region, said Jeff Holm, UND’s vice provost for Strategic Programming, Analytics & Effectiveness. In the College of Nursing & Professional Disciplines, that number rises to 59%.
Many online graduates work in fields such as education, health care, business and public service — areas where the workforce need is greatest.
That impact matters. The Lightcast 2025 Talent Attraction Scorecard shows North Dakota ranking high in workforce growth and attraction of earners but low in the growth of college-educated populations. UND’s online programs help close that gap — offering opportunities for North Dakotans to grow without leaving home, plus drawing new professionals into the state.
“The University has always looked for ways to meet the needs of our students, first and foremost,” Holm said. “For more than 100 years, it’s been important for us to understand what our students are looking for — and how we can reduce those barriers.”
By the numbers
Of UND’s total enrollment of 15,844 students this fall, 35% take some online classes, and just over a third — 5,354 students — study exclusively online. (For more information about that total enrollment of 15,844 students, click on the image below.)
No stranger to national recognition, UND was ranked No. 7 by ZDNET among America’s top self-paced online colleges. Forbes magazine last year also named UND the best online college in North Dakota, noting that the University “offers more than 200 online programs, including 67 majors.”
UND’s online programs continue to grow the state’s workforce in direct and meaningful ways.
“Even today, driving across North Dakota takes a long time,” Holm said. “We’re in a big and sparsely populated state, and people are going to be looking for options that let them save time and stay rooted while earning a degree.”
Nicole Burkhartsmeier is one such student. The chief deputy for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Fargo and a mother of three, Burkhartsmeier found online learning to be the best fit for her busy life.
“I live in Fargo; my program’s in Grand Forks,” she said. “I could seriously go from washing the dishes at 6:55 to logging into Zoom at 6:57.”
Like Brockling, Burkhartsmeier found connection and community through UND’s online courses.
“We have a group text, so we talk about school and our personal lives, too,” she said. “There’s one classmate in South Carolina, another in Virginia — and we’ve even talked about them coming up here so we can show them around.”
About 63% of UND’s online graduates are or were residents of North Dakota, its neighboring states or employees of the North Dakota University System, Holm said. And most of the rest — the 37% who don’t already know North Dakota — will get to know us by spending time on UND’s campus, fulfilling program requirements.
“Online programs add a lot of value to North Dakota — whether by letting students work while they earn their degree, advance in their careers, or fill workforce needs that might otherwise go unmet,” Holm added.
Online programs also help curb “brain drain,” giving North Dakotans the chance to earn advanced credentials without leaving home. “And, of course, that’s also valuable to employers, because their employees can stay in Williston while they go to school at UND,” Holm said.
Partnerships for prosperity
Accordingly, UND’s online offerings also can be shaped to meet state workforce needs, including in areas such as engineering, nursing, cybersecurity, education and business.
Through advisory boards of business and civic leaders, UND’s deans and department chairs regularly meet to identify skills gaps and opportunities.
As a result, UND has forged partnerships with companies such as Digi-Key, enabling employees to earn online degrees in fields such as electrical engineering and computer science. Digi-Key, a multibillion-dollar electronics distributor in Thief River Falls, Minn., employs more than 4,000 people — including many who commute daily from Grand Forks.
Another result is UND’s expanding suite of certificate programs, many designed directly in response to industry demand, including those addressing artificial intelligence and machine learning, energy systems and optimization, and petroleum engineering.
And of the 1,180 students currently pursuing certificates or nondegree courses, 866 study exclusively online.
Meeting state’s future school leaders where they work
UND’s Aspiring Principals Pipeline — a program funded through the state Department of Public Instruction’s Grow Your Own initiative — is another example of how a strategic investment in online classes directly can fuel workforce development.
The University’s fully online, asynchronous Master of Science in Teaching & Leadership program lets working educators earn their school-leadership credentials without leaving their classrooms, families or communities behind.
“For our graduate students — already certified, full-time teachers with deep community ties — meeting them online is one of the only ways this works,” said Laura Link, the program’s director and an associate professor of Teaching & Leadership. “If we didn’t have the online component, we likely wouldn’t have these students enrolled with us.”
All 10 members of UND’s inaugural 2024-25 cohort completed their 30-credit leadership program while serving full time in schools across Grand Forks, Grafton, Manvel and North Border, Link said. Each logged more than 400 hours of authentic, in-district leadership experience guided by principal mentors and residency coaches.
This hybrid model — academic rigor online, leadership practice in person — ensures aspiring principals immediately can apply new learning within their home districts. The results speak volumes:
- 100% program completion, with an average GPA of 3.95.
- 80% job placement into principal or assistant principal roles the following academic year. (Of the two remaining students, one took a leadership role as instructional coach, and another now is seeking a doctorate at UND.)
- Participants promised to serve seven to 30+ years in North Dakota schools, addressing both retention and leadership continuity.
“When you invest in your own people, they feel trusted and honored,” Link said. “That trust directly translates to long-term commitment in our schools.”
Ambassadors for UND
Online students living outside North Dakota often become global ambassadors for UND.
When viewers from around the world tune in to the 2026 Winter Olympics, they’re likely to see ski jumper Paige Jones take flight for Team USA. Then, when those viewers see her bio on screen, they’ll also see the name of her school: the University of North Dakota.
“I explored a lot of other programs, but ultimately landed on UND for their online biomedical engineering program,” Jones told UND Today. “When I transferred, I met with all the biomedical engineering professors. They were excited to have me and saw how my sports background added perspective.”
Michelle Di Cicco, Argentina’s 2022 national figure skating champion and now a professional skater in Connecticut, shared a similar story.
“As I do not have much of a choice in where my season takes me, UND’s online program allows me to stay connected with classmates from across the world,” she said. “I could not be more thankful to UND for fostering such a strong and understanding learning environment.”
From UND to the stars
As athletes like Paige Jones and Michelle Di Cicco show, UND’s online students extend the University’s reach, reputation and prestige far beyond state lines. And the same is true for Space Studies, one of UND’s most visible programs worldwide.
About 90 percent of Space Studies students learn online, said Pablo de Leon, the program’s chair, because many are working professionals in the aerospace industry.
“I recently went to Seattle for an alumni event, and saw so many students who took their studies online,” de Leon said. “They are such proud alumni, and they take a lot of pride in being graduates of the University of North Dakota. They really feel part of the UND family, even though they didn’t spend two or four years here.”
De Leon added that he often meets UND alumni at NASA centers, private companies and even Blue Origin — “graduates who are building rocket engines, designing capsules and helping the U.S. stay a leader in space,” he said.
De Leon says he can’t envision the same caliber of program offered without an online component — and Holm agrees: “Basically, out-of-state students help North Dakota maintain 11 higher-ed institutions,” he said. “They allow us to hire faculty and offer programs that, if we relied only on North Dakota residents, we couldn’t sustain at this level.”
That UND connection endures long after graduation.
“When I was here before, I felt like UND was home — because it was,” said Air Force Maj. Gen. Rod Lewis (ret.), in an April interview with UND Today.
A former Grand Forks Air Force Base commander, Lewis took online and on-campus classes while pursuing his doctorate at UND. He now serves as UND’s consultant in Washington to assist with national security research development.
“I built some great relationships with the community and with the University,” he said in the interview.
Honoring veterans and their families
As Lewis’ example suggests, online access is also essential for UND’s more than 2,000 military-affiliated students, nearly half of whom study online. Like the midcareer professionals enrolled in Space Studies courses, military-affiliated students would have difficulty getting degrees without online programs.
“When I think of our active-duty military, Guard members and military spouses — many simply couldn’t pursue a degree without online options,” said Angie Carpenter, UND’s director of Veteran & Military Affairs. “If they get called to deployment, that flexibility is everything.”
If anecdotes like the ones above prove one thing, it’s that online education at UND isn’t a footnote. It’s an engine that fuels workforce development, supports economic growth and keeps opportunity within reach for students everywhere.
In this way, the University’s commitment to accessible education continues to keep that engine chugging — for North Dakotans, for the nation and for everyone, everywhere who wants to learn.
Don’t miss the full series …
>> UND is on the case. While North Dakota’s workforce shortage is serious, it’s also the kind of problem that UND can and will help solve.
>> The North Dakota magnet of online education. UND’s online programs keep North Dakotans rooted and thriving in-state, while drawing people and positive attention from far and wide.
>> STEM U: New buildings promise to engineer student success. How UND’s STEM Complex and proposed Health Professions Collaborative Facility will grow key components of the state’s workforce.
>> STEM U: How UND educates the workforce of the future. Workforce preparation takes place in labs, classrooms and the Alaskan Arctic, among other locations across UND and beyond.
>> Growing our own physicians and physician assistants. With ND85, UND hopes to raise the number of North Dakota residents enrolled in M.D., P.A. programs at its School of Medicine & Health Sciences.
>> VIDEO: How UND is leading the way in STEM. The deans of UND’s College of Engineering & Mines and College of Arts & Sciences join President Andy Armacost for a conversation about STEM training.
