Project Kitty Hawk update | 18 months later…

March 1st, 2024

It’s Saturday morning, and today we’re checking in on an initiative we covered more than 18 months ago: Project Kitty Hawk.
 
Project Kitty Hawk is technically a nonprofit, but it’s legally associated with the UNC System and received $97 million in state funds from the General Assembly in 2021.
 
The nonprofit’s core purpose is to equip the UNC System to educate adults, which the System has historically struggled to do.
 
So, what’s happened since our September 2022 piece? A lot. The organization has already launched degree programs at two UNC institutions with plans for more, and it’s working on a workforce development program that could prove game changing.
 
***
First, an explanation of what Project Kitty Hawk really is, because it can be challenging to wrap one’s mind around it.
 
Project Kitty Hawk is an education technology company that exists to benefit UNC System institutions. It’s primary offering is a suite of specialized services enabling schools to properly deliver an online degree program to adults.
 
Project Kitty Hawk is the utility that UNC System schools use to deliver their own degree programs – it is not a school in itself. Like all other degrees, the diploma will list the school’s name, not Project Kitty Hawk.
 
The suite of services Project Kitty Hawk offers includes the actual digital platform on which instructors interact with students, post coursework, grade assignments, and the like. It includes a marketing team that utilizes sophisticated tactics to inform prospective students about a particular degree program. It includes academic coaches and IT support staff that have a particular understanding of the unique challenges facing adult learners. It includes faculty training and recruitment, curriculum design, course design, and on and on.
 
All of this specialization matters. Adult learners are not at all like traditional 18-24 year-old on-campus students. Adults have jobs and families and a litany of obligations. They can’t just drive over to campus for six hours per day while also feeding their kids, caring for their parents, working their job, satisfying their military service, and more.
 
That’s why Project Kitty Hawk formally exists as its own organization. Its team has specialized expertise in adult learning, which most UNC System institutions do not have. The organization, as something of a public utility for the System, does the work on adult learning while institutions continue focusing on their core competency – educating traditional students.
 
At this week’s UNC Board of Governors meeting, leaders from N.C. Central University and East Carolina University – the first two schools with Project Kitty Hawk-powered programs live and underway – sang the platform’s praises.
 
***
Project Kitty Hawk is the first undertaking of its kind in the country, and it shows a level of bold and innovative thinking by the UNC System and President Peter Hans that doesn’t typically exist in higher education.
 
There will be naysayers, chief among them faculty who just don’t like any change. But the applications for a fully-mature Project Kitty Hawk are varied and exciting, and not just for online degree programs.
 
When fully built out, Project Kitty Hawk has the potential to partner directly with major employers and UNC System schools on training and certification needs specific to that employer. Project Kitty Hawk, together with a university, hopes to be able to develop an online certification program that the employer’s workforce then completes.
 
Such a capability stands to offer tremendous benefit to workers, companies, and universities. It would likely prove an easy sell for economic development recruiters pitching big companies to relocate here.
 
***
 
Project Kitty Hawk completed its technical buildout on budget and on schedule, and it’s just now beginning to enter the market. The organization expects to launch nine total degree programs by June, with more to come after.
 
The progress is striking for an organization that’s been operational for less than two years, and speaks to the wisdom of UNC System leaders in pressing for a separate but affiliated entity to lead the endeavor.
 
Curating higher education and workforce training programs specifically for North Carolina adults will surely pay dividends in the coming years.