Chapter Three
Types of Programs
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Now that you have an idea of what to expect and what to look out for
online as you navigate through the maze of websites related to MBA
programs, it’s time to discuss, in a little more detail, all the various
types and categories of programs available to you in the online learning
mode. You’ll find, perhaps, that there are more options than you may
have initially imagined.
Before you take this plunge, you should understand what kind of online
graduate-level business degree programs are out there. Some have
relatively brief mandatory on-campus visits, and others do not. There
are general MBA programs and specialized programs. There are customized
programs, independent-study programs, dual degree programs, consortium
programs, corporate programs, online certificate programs, online
programs available from schools outside the U.S., and programs for
military personnel. Moreover, credit-hour requirements, and the length
of courses and academic calendars are different from school to school.
Programs with
Residential Requirements
As
I mentioned in Chapter One, many online MBA programs have short
residency requirements that
require you to visit their campus once or multiple times over the
duration of a program’s complete curriculum. For business people who
travel frequently, these types of programs may not fit in with their
already busy travel schedules.
Residency requirements and what they cover once you are physically on
the campus are different from school to school. For many students these
residencies are welcome escapes from their daily grinds (although you’ll
have group-work and study- intensive exercises to deal with) and ideal
for establishing friendships and networking opportunities with
colleagues. Following are brief descriptions of what residencies are
like at three institutions that offer online MBA programs, Arizona State
University, Regis University and Syracuse University.
Arizona State University’s (ASU) residency requirement begins with a
four-day, on-campus orientation at ASU’s Tempe campus. The following
year, most students choose to participate in an optional two-day,
second-year orientation. Former
Faculty Director of ASU’s Online MBA Program M. Johnny Rungtusanatham
explained that the primary objectives of the mandatory residency are to
have students get to know each other, the faculty and the courses they
will take. The residency exposes students to the education technology
that will be used throughout the curriculum and the support staff that
will help them throughout the program. Hands-on educational activities
are included, and students engage in group-decision-making processes and
creative team exercises and challenges, such as a team case competition,
where students are given a business case, and, within a 12-hour period
of time, are required to give a case analysis presentation that is
judged by their peers. The team projects obviously help students become
acquainted with each other as well as foster the development of
networking channels. “When they are here, we tell them this is not a
vacation,” said Rungtusanatham. “Don’t think about bringing your family.
While you are here, forget about work. We are going to pretty much
control you from 8 a.m. until 9 or 10 p.m.”
ASU
has a very creative video stream with compelling music, located at
http://wpcarey.asu.edu/mba/online/curriculum_orientations.cfm,
that shows what their orientation week is all about.
Some residencies are optional, such as those offered by Regis University
called “summer intensives.” Held in mid July, the 5-day summer
intensives give online students a chance to take an accelerated course
that includes seminars and presentations. Students have the option of
staying in dorm rooms on the Regis campus in Denver, Colorado, or at
local hotels, and are responsible for arranging their own transportation
to Denver and their classes.
Residencies at Syracuse University’s (SU) iMBA program are not optional
and are relatively frequent when compared to most online MBA programs
that have residency requirements. The program runs on a trimester
academic calendar with each trimester (January, May, and August)
starting with a five-day residency on the SU campus that begins on a
Saturday and concludes on a Thursday. Students attend two classes -
usually one quantitative class and one qualitative class - taught by the
same faculty who teach in the full-time face-to-face MBA program at SU.
The format of classes is similar to a traditional program, except with
more intense class time and concentrated material. Outside of class
hours students spend time reading, working on assignments, and getting
to know classmates and faculty. SU also holds optional residencies in
locations such as New York City, London, England, and Florence, Italy.
However, all new students must begin with a residency in Syracuse, NY.
To conclude my spiel on residencies, my last piece of advice is
that you make yourself fully aware of all the costs that may be
associated with residency requirements, such as hotel accommodations,
airfare, rental car (if needed), and any textbooks that may be required
for classes.
General and Specialized
Programs
From an historical perspective, general MBA programs were created to
help students that did not have strong business backgrounds to get up to
speed in basic business theory and effective business practices. “If you
need general business preparation and don’t have a broad business
background, you should enroll in a general MBA program because you will
be surprised by what you don’t know,” explained Regis University MBA
Professor Ed Cooper. “You can’t do an emphasis in a business subject
area without cutting corners off the general content, which can be
critical in terms of the expectations of a company hiring an MBA.”
Nonetheless, some pre-MBA students have accumulated general MBA-oriented
knowledge through the business-related courses they took as
undergraduates. Plus, many prospective MBA students have gained
practical business experience working a variety of jobs while they
attended school or after they graduated. Others are entrepreneurs who
have gained valuable business experience by starting up successful
businesses themselves. This has brought about a change in MBA program
offerings over the last few decades.
While the general MBA program itself is still alive and well, there has
been tremendous growth in specialized MBA programs that are geared
toward students who already have the basic business preparation skills
but need to acquire more expertise in a particular area of study.
At
the University of Phoenix, for example, which is the largest provider of
online MBA programs in the United States, students can enroll in a
general MBA program, as well as an MBA with a concentration in
accounting, e-business, global management, health care management, human
resource management, marketing, or technology management. These types of
programs are ideal for students who are seeking highly specialized
skills.
It’s a good idea to determine if the school has a solid academic
reputation in any particular concentration area it might be offering
online. For example, at Florida State University (FSU), students can
enroll in an online MBA program with a specialization in Hospitality
Administration or Real Estate Finance and Analysis. Not surprisingly,
these are two areas of study in which FSU has built a decent reputation,
especially since Florida has a large tourism industry and
steady population growth.
Another good example of a specialty online MBA program can be found at
the School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas, which
offers a Global Leadership Executive MBA
program (GLEMBA) that is accredited by the Association to Advance
Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). (See the next chapter for more
information about accreditation.) The GLEMBA program is not fully
online, requiring five weekend classroom sessions.
Can
you customize an online MBA program so that you take only those classes
you are interested in as opposed to the typical set schedule of core
required courses that the institution says you must take in order to
graduate? The answer is yes and no. A perfect example, and one of the
very few examples, of where this kind of scenario might come in to play
is the Certified Public Accountant who wants to earn a general MBA. A
CPA might find the typical financial accounting courses that are part
and parcel of the core requirements of most general MBA programs to be a
waste of precious time. In this case, the accounting course will more
than likely be waived, allowing the CPA to replace it with an elective
course.
Electives allow students to customize their online MBA course of study
above meeting the required core courses of any curriculum. While most
online MBA programs offer a wide range of electives, other programs
don’t allow students to take any electives whatsoever and have a set
schedule of classes that must be taken in a particular sequence. More
information about MBA curriculums and electives is covered in Chapter 8.
An Independent Self-Study Program
Independent self-study is another online MBA format, but one that is not
widely available. Northcentral University in Prescott, Arizona and
Western Governors University based in Salt Lake City, Utah offer MBA
programs in this format. Here students do not take courses with other
students. Each enrolled student is essentially a class of one. The base
materials for independent self-study courses are typically a textbook, a
variety of online materials and resources, a study guide and a final
exam. Students are assigned mentors who support adult learners through
one-on-one interactions. Contact between the learner and the mentor can
be achieved through telephone, fax, e-mail, snail mail, and, on
occasion, person to person contact.
Another highly unique curriculum in an online learning format is the MBA
dual degree. The University of Maryland University College (UMUC), which
is the largest public state university in the country to offer online
degree programs, offers dual degrees that award an MBA in combination
with a Master of Distance Education, Master of International Management,
Master of Science in Biotechnology, Master of Science in Environmental
Management, Master of Science in Financial Management and Information
Systems, Master of Science in Health Care Administration, Master of
Science in Information Technology, Master of Science in Management and a
Master of Science in Technology Management.
Basically, a dual degree enables students to extend the breadth and
depth of their studies based upon the shared curricula of two programs.
Dual degree students earn two degrees for substantially fewer credits
than if each program were completed separately. For example, UMUC
students who first complete all degree requirements for the MBA degree
may then go on to earn a second degree by taking an additional 18
credits from one of the other available curriculums.
There are also a number of state higher education systems that offer
online MBA programs by pooling together the resources of a group of
schools within their state network. Systems that fit into this category
include the University of Wisconsin Internet Business Consortium MBA
Program, the University of Texas System Telecampus, and the Georgia
WebMBA Program. Following are brief descriptions of each:
The
University of Wisconsin (UW) Internet Business Consortium MBA Program
was built with the help of the University of Wisconsin Learning
Innovations support group, which is the arm of the UW system that
provides instructional design and development services to all 26 UW
campuses. The MBA program courses were created by drawing on the
combined expertise of business school faculty from the University of
Wisconsin-Eau Claire, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, University of
Wisconsin-La Crosse, and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. UW-Eau
Claire is responsible for reviewing graduate application files, so
prospective students use a UW-Eau Claire graduate program admission
application and send supporting documentation to UW-Eau Claire. Students
who successfully complete the program receive their degrees from the
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
The
UT TeleCampus is the central support system for online education
initiatives among the 14 universities and research facilities that
comprise the University of Texas (UT) system. Eight participating
institutions that offer traditional MBA programs - UT Arlington, UT
Brownsville, UT Dallas, UT El Paso, UT Pan American, UT San Antonio, and
UT Tyler - pooled their resources and expertise to create the UT
Telecampus fully online MBA program. Students must apply to and be
accepted by one of the participating MBA programs, which becomes the
home, degree-granting university. Criteria and deadlines for admission
vary slightly from one university to another but are the same as the
traditional residence programs. Students must take at least two courses
from their home university. All courses taken from participating
universities in the online MBA program can be transferred to the
student’s home university to fulfill degree requirements.
Five University System of Georgia institutions
– Georgia College & State University, Georgia Southern
University, Kennesaw State University, State University of West Georgia,
Valdosta State University –
provide fully online courses that comprise the Georgia WebMBA program,
which consists of 10 required courses. Each school of the five
institutions admits students according to its own admission standards.
Before starting their online courses, students must successfully
complete a two-day orientation, held at the Kennesaw State University
campus.
Some business schools have special customized online MBA programs that
are provided to employees of specific companies. For example, Indiana
University’s Kelly Direct online MBA programs are divided into two
categories: public and corporate. Its public online MBA is for anybody
who can gain acceptance into the program, which is competitive. Its
corporate programs are based on employers or affiliates that have made
arrangements with the Indiana University Kelley School of Business to
offer unique degree programs to their employees or contacts. Kelley
Direct has had corporate
students enrolled through General Motors, John Deere, Microsoft, United
Technologies, and other companies.
For
those who don’t want to commit to a complete degree, there are
graduate-level certificate programs in the field of business that are
offered in an online learning format. A graduate-level certificate
program is a non-degree-granting curriculum of graduate courses. Upon
successful completion, students are awarded a certificate. The number of
courses in any certificate program varies by institution. Most award
credit that can be applied toward earning a master’s degree. For
example, Capella University’s School of Business offers concentrated
16-credit graduate-level programs of study, comprised of four 4-credit
online courses, in the fields of diversity studies, management of
nonprofit agencies, and leadership.
Certificate learners who wish to pursue a master’s or doctoral degree at
Capella University may apply all credit earned from completing a
certificate toward a degree once admitted to the graduate program.
Another institution that offers business-related graduate-level online
certificate programs is Strayer University, which provides executive
certificates in business administration,
professional accounting, or information systems. The recipient of
any executive graduate certificate, which consists of six courses
totaling 27 credits (4.5 credits each), may apply all credits earned
toward an MBA with the same emphasis.
Credit Hours, Semesters and Quarters
The
number of credit hours required to complete an MBA, as well as the
length of courses, semesters, and/or quarters, varies greatly from one
institution to another, so much so that it can get very confusing at
times. “There is a lot of variability concerning what is required to
earn an MBA, says Jerry Trapnell, AASCB chief accreditation officer. “I
would dare say most - if you are using a credit hour model - require a
minimum study period of 30 credit hours, which is something like 10
classes.”
In
short, there is a wide variety of credits required, course lengths, and
academic calendars you can choose from when searching for an online MBA
program. Overall, it can be very difficult to decipher when exactly
courses are offered and how an entire curriculum is actually sequenced
for any given program, especially if you are only relying on information
you see on websites. Your
best bet for finding specific information about such important
time-related and scheduling issues is to get on the phone and call the
institution you are investigating and ask a lot of questions.
Before you make that call, however, please note that this eBook covers a
great deal more concerning what you will need to know in order to choose
an online MBA program and ultimately succeed as an online learner.
Also, please keep in mind that when calling institutions about their
online MBA programs, the first person you might have to communicate with
will be a customer-service representative who might not have all the
answers to your questions. If you want to quickly get to the finer
details about a program than what a customer service rep would typically
offer, cut right to the chase and ask to speak with an academic advisor.
“One of the hardest parts about choosing a program is that a lot of what you need to know is not public,” said Paula O’Callaghan, former director, Independent Study MBA Program, Syracuse University. “You won’t know until you get there. I have great sympathy for the prospective student. It is difficult to transfer or move around once you are enrolled in a program, which makes their choice that much more critical.”
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