Chapter Twenty
A Brief Review and a Bit of Advice
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This chapter consists of
some final words of advice sprinkled with my opinions about online education in general.
Also, just like in any online or on-campus classroom experience, there’s
a review of what you may or may not have learned from reading this book.
You
should have a keen understanding about how to choose the program that is
right for you, how to succeed as an online student, and what you need to
do to take your degree to the next level of your career.
But, like anything in life, nuances can alter your ultimate pathway. In
the online education world, those nuances deal primarily with how the
institution meets its promise to provide you with a meaningful and
effective education.
Unfortunately, you won’t discover how good a program really is until
you’re fully enrolled in the thick of it. I can say, however, that
through literally hundreds of in-depth interviews I’ve conducted with
educators who work in online learning departments across the country,
that I have developed a very strong sense of optimism about this form of
teaching and learning. At the same time, I have developed a sense of
cynicism about higher education, in general. Much of this diametrically
opposed philosophy comes out in an occasional column that I write called
“The Digital Optimist.”
People who work in online higher education are some of the
hardest-working people I have ever met in my life. I can’t tell you how
many Saturday-afternoon and Sunday-evening conversations I have had with
educators in this field who have no qualms about conducting business on
what should be their days off. A colleague of mine, who also works in
this field, jokingly says, “Only real men work on Sundays.” I’m sure
there’s some religious opposition to that statement. But, overall, the
people in the world of online education are truly dedicated
professionals who have a passion about making this kind of teaching and
learning work.
At
some institutions, however, these passionate online educators are met
with some resistance from colleagues who don’t see online teaching and
learning in the same light. In short, not all of the academic world is
jumping on this train. At some institutions, the resistance to online
education, especially to fully online degree programs, causes
administrations to not adequately support the passionate academics who
are creating these new and exciting teaching and learning environments.
Nonetheless, my experience investigating all these online MBA programs
and communicating with administrators, faculty, and students has shown
that all the regionally accredited schools are doing everything they can
to make online education work. These programs are always in a continuous
improvement cycle. The administration and faculty listen to students and
corporate America and merge changes into their courses to make these
programs better.
Of
course, a traditional face-to-face MBA program does have its important
elements that cannot be replicated online. A traditional program’s
culture and community, for instance, can never be converted to a virtual
space. Live classroom connections obviously has its
benefits.
Also online or on-campus, business and academia often can’t seem to get
on the same page. Just read some of Peter Drucker’s work to get a sense
for his views on the growth of our knowledge society and how traditional
higher-education institutions are becoming less important.
So
how do you find out which schools may be contributing to our knowledge
society and which schools are not? This will sound overly simplistic,
but you have to try to make contact with the faculty, administrators,
and students in these programs and make a judgment call based on what
information, or lack of information, they provide.
You
should have noticed that throughout this book I suggest that you call
the people who run and teach online programs and ask a lot of questions.
Don’t be satisfied with talking to only an enrollment counselor/sales
agent. Before you go through any admission process, make sure you speak
with a college dean, or program director, or department chairperson, or
some faculty members, and, if possible, some students (current or
alumni) of the program.
Look through all the chapters of this book and write down those questions I suggest, or devise some of your own, that can help you dig deeper into whether you are the right fit for any particular program. Keep this list next to the telephone as you make these calls. Take notes and compare schools as you sift through all this information. Also keep accurate records of all your online research.
Take Responsibility for Your
Path
When all is said and done, your assertiveness and your ability to
communicate and interact with faculty and fellow students in a
professional manner will make all the difference in your success. If you
sit back and wait for the institution to pour knowledge into your brain,
and guide you every step of the way, all you’ll become is a bucket that
can be emptied. If you take an active, somewhat outspoken but
professional and humble role in your education, you will reap more
learning rewards than you could ever imagine.
In
short, you are the master of your educational fate. Use your professors
to your advantage. Question them, ask them for help, ask them to clarify
things when you are confused or when you might disagree with something.
In
general, professors want to help you, regardless of their status as
part-time adjuncts or full-time tenure-track faculty. In fact, many
times that part-time adjunct with only a master’s degree and the
practical, on-the-job experience can provide a better learning
experience than the seasoned professor with a Ph.D. who is more
concerned about his or her research than teaching. Of course, the
opposite of that supposition is true as well. There are some poor,
overly stretched adjuncts out there, too.
Having said all this as the basis of your higher-education planning,
here’s a review, and some more opinions and advice, to bolster those
plans.
Many prospective students get all caught up in an institution’s
brand-name recognition. However, my opinion is that you should not make
that your primary decision factor. Remember, online MBAs are really
still a new and growing phenomenon that has yet to reach a full level of
maturity and recognition in the marketplace. In short, you can get an
excellent education from many not-so-highly-recognized institutions.
The
institutions with the big academic reputations may give you a better
chance of obtaining the best jobs, but they also come with the highest
price tags. It’s a tough decision to make. Personally, I would send my
application to only those programs that impressed me with details about
what I will ultimately learn from the faculty and students (review
Chapter 6), how it will affect my lifelong learning goals (review
Chapter 10), and how it will advance both my career and personal
aspirations (review Chapter 18). All these things are much more
important than a program’s brand-name recognition and perceived value in
the job marketplace.
In
the final analysis with regard to choosing an online MBA program, it
really all depends on the individual. In Chapter 1, for instance, I ask
you two all-important questions that need to be repeated here: Where you
want to take your career, and are looking for a credential or knowledge?
Applying and Paying for Your
MBA
The
application and financial-aid processes can be a real pain in the you
know what (review Chapters 11 and 12). Your best course of action here,
again, is to simply get on the phone. Have an enrollment counselor help
you with filling out the application and a financial-aid counselor help
you with loan forms. In short, taking the phone approach could save you
untold hours.
How to Be a Good Online
Learner
The
most vital skills online students can pick up are how to work in virtual
teams and how to communicate effectively through modern electronic
means, which I cover in Chapter 17 and alluded to in Chapter 18 as well.
Also review Chapter 16 about communicating online.
There’s a huge difference between online and face-to-face communication,
said Maggie McVay Lynch, manager of distributed education at Portland
State University. “Most people are not the best communicators in
writing.” Often, for example, a simple critique of a fellow student’s
paper can be misinterpreted when provided through an e-mail or
discussion board. “The student reads into it and says ‘Oh my God, I’m a
total failure.’ So, there is this whole psychological piece that
students need to work through to figure out what is formal communication
and what is informal communication. “How do you actually engage in interpersonal relationships when
you are not seeing people face-to-face? How do you check back and forth,
whether it is with your professor or with your fellow students, as to
what the meaning really is when you are confused or upset or wondering
how you are progressing?”
The
large Fortune 500 corporations, in particular, communicate online and
work in virtual teams all the time. At the corporate level, it’s always
referred to as e-learning. Basically, more and more employees are being
trained in the online environment, be it through self-paced CD-ROM-based
modules with add-on e-mail interaction and discussion boards to
web-conferencing events where employees gather synchronously across
borders and different time zones to collaborate on group projects and
basically learn from each other. Also instance messaging is frequently
the communication method of choice for many corporate employees today.
Moreover, all the information available through proprietary databases
available to you through your program’s online library services will
give the opportunity to learn how to conduct competitive research. For
example, valuable marketing and distribution data found online can help
companies make wise decisions geared toward boosting revenues and
production efficiencies. In addition, good online research can help put
you in touch with the best vendors and suppliers. So in addition to
being a skilled virtual team member and communicator, the modern
business manager needs to be information literate (covered in Chapter
16).
To
sum up how to be a good online learner, take your team projects
seriously, learn how to communicate online, and become a skilled online
researcher.
Personally, for earning any kind of online degree, my preference is to
go with a program that has a few short residency requirements. Of
course, I realize that this is not possible for many prospective online
MBA students, who perhaps don’t have the time or finances to travel away
from their jobs and families for any extended period of time. However,
if you have the flexibility of traveling to a residency, I think the
benefits of meeting in person with fellow students and faculty are well
worth it. These kinds of social/academic experiences can really make a
difference in forming valuable business friendships and networking
opportunities.
I would also pick an institution that has strong ties to corporate
America, perhaps is not overly academic in its instruction of business
theories and concepts, and has a strong focus on gaining practical
knowledge that you can immediately use in your workplace.
Another factor I would consider is how a program presents itself online.
I believe a poor website can be a red flag indicating some problems
related to a program not getting adequate institutional support.
However, a program without adequate institutional support can have an
excellent faculty and a good curriculum. So this is one of those gray
areas that requires you to dig deeper into the details of a program’s
curriculum.
Finally, take a close look at how an institution provides its
orientation services and other student services (review Chapters 7 and
15). Sometimes a quick face-to-face orientation at a residency is not
nearly enough to prepare you for what you’ll encounter in your first
class.
Also a relatively short online orientation class might also not be
enough. McVay Lynch, who did her doctoral dissertation research on
online orientation methods, said that an online orientation should “put
you in the environment that you are going to be working in for the time
you are in the curriculum, so you can experience and work through any
problems right up front before you actually take a class. It also gives
you the opportunity to figure out what kind of resources you will have
to assist you when the instructor or help desk is unavailable.”
The other vital student service you’ll more than likely take advantage of early on is technical support. The world of information technology is certainly less than perfect. When something goes wrong on the technical side, you’ll want to immediately talk to a computer geek who can pull you out of what can be a cyberhell.
Finally, review what a school’s alumni services are all about. Those
institutions with large alumni networks could turn out to be a great way
for you to make connections with other working professionals who can
help you with your career-advancement strategies.
Phew! It’s good to be at the end of this eBook. What a journey! To say the least, I wish you all the luck in the world. Online education is really a viable option, and it’s definitely becoming more a part of our educational systems, not just at the MBA level, but in all higher-education disciplines. So take a deep breath, and start flying through cyberspace to pursue what the Internet is really all about - that is, to learn and teach and share and grow.
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