Berklee Names Carin Nuernberg Vice President of Online Education

Berklee announces the promotion of Carin Nuernberg to vice president of online education. A foundational team member of Berklee Online, Nuernberg played an instrumental role in creating the design and development model for teaching music online. Under her leadership, Berklee Online has launched more than 180 courses and earned recognition from the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), winning its best online college course award for an unprecedented eight years in a row as well as its Strategic Innovation in Online Education award.

In her new role, Nuernberg will oversee the development and expansion of Berklee Online’s graduate and undergraduate degree programs, instructor-led courses and certificate programs, massive open online courses (MOOCs), and campus events for online students.

In addition, Nuernberg will collaborate across the college to create flexible and affordable pathways for students in pursuit of their educational goals. She will oversee the college’s book publishing operation, Berklee Press, and provide leadership for assuring accreditation, accessibility, and a unified approach to program and curriculum development.

Building a Foundation in Online Music Education

When she joined Berklee in 2001, Nuernberg was challenged to answer the question: “How do you study music online?" Starting with a stack of handwritten notes on staff paper, she collaborated with piano chair emeritus Paul Schmeling to design Music Theory 101, Berklee’s first and all-time highest enrolling online course. By leveraging interactive technologies and principles of project-based learning, the course provided a framework from which to create programming in music production, harmony and ear training, business, songwriting, and performance. This experience laid the foundation for launching accredited online degrees and entering the MOOC space, where Berklee became the first provider of music-related MOOCs and has now reached more than 2 million students from around the world.

A leading voice for online education and its effectiveness, Nuernberg has spoken nationally at the Online Learning Consortium (formerly the Sloan Consortium), UPCEA, and eLearning Guild conferences, and has been published in the Continuing Higher Education Review. She serves on the advisory council for the Center for Online Leadership, and on the partner advisory council for Coursera.

Prior to Berklee, Nuernberg worked for the Ziff Davis startup SmartPlanet, where she oversaw its catalog of online technology courses. Before that, she worked at the University of Washington, developing its first web-based courses, and at Microsoft on its Encarta Encyclopedia team.

Nuernberg holds a master’s degree in communications from the University of Washington and a bachelor’s degree in communications and French from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.