3 Things You May Not Know About Online MBAs

Related Articles

• Faculty Feared Distance Learning Course Would “Cannibalize” Traditional MBA 0 13.Nov
• The Online MBA Salary Blues 0 22.Aug
• Maximum flexibility for unconventional MBA students 0 14.Mar

Online MBA programs continue to expand in the graduate management education marketplace. According to the Graduate Management Admission Council’s Application Trends Survey Report, 47 percent of online MBA programs reported application growth in 2017. But some stereotypes persist regarding the kind of experience you’ll receive compared with a traditional MBA format.

Many wonder about the faculty for online programs, whether the instruction really rivals that of students learning on campus and whether such programs offer the types of scholarships or financial assistance found at full-time MBA programs.

The good news for prospective online MBA applicants – particularly women, whose interest in this format option has outpaced men in recent years – is that a number of these programs deliver an evermore competitive educational experience.

Here are three aspects many online MBA programs offer that you may not be aware of; keep these in mind as you consider where to enroll.

• 1. They offer top-notch faculty and instruction. The mark of a high-quality online MBA program lies in who is providing the instruction.

“Students take the same classes from the same faculty as they would in our on-campus programs,” Amy Hillman, dean of Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business, said via email.

“We began offering online degrees in the early 2000s, long before it was as widely accepted as it is now. So, we know from experience how to deliver great content to students and offer a flexible degree that will ultimately help them take that next step in their careers.”

At Temple University’s Fox School of Business, on-campus faculty create and deliver all course content. The part-time online MBA at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business offers flexibility to working students as well as the same faculty, curriculum, career planning resources and degree that on-campus students receive. Plus, candidates can switch to the full-time format at any time.

When it comes to instruction, the University of Southern California’s Marshall Online MBA takes an innovative approach, with faculty teams rather than individual professors often teaching courses.

“Each course is interdisciplinary, so rather than offering a series of courses on discrete topics such as economics or statistics, OMBA courses are structured around a particular topic such as Managing Inside the Firm,” Miriam Burgos, academic director of the online MBA program and associate professor of clinical marketing, explained via email.

“Faculty members, each an expert in a different discipline, teach the course together, providing students with multiple perspectives that may include, for example, marketing, accounting, data analytics and communication. This holistic approach to learning mirrors 21st century global business practices,” Burgos said.

Online MBA faculty often welcome questions from prospective students, so if you would like more information about a particular course or to learn more about the research interests of a certain faculty member, Burgos suggests contacting the admissions team to ask about setting up a one-on-one conversation with that professor before applying.

2.• They include experiential learning. While experiential learning is now the norm at most traditional business school programs, online MBA programs also recognize the value of bringing real business courses to life, and some have introduced similar opportunities for their students as well…