E-learning the Way to an MBA

Weekends and holidays spent on campus will soon be a thing of the past as technology gives students the freedom to study wherever they choose.

The MBA[2] is now the major business qualification around the world. Its full-time classroom programme involves up to two years out of the workplace, so such studies can require a daunting level of commitment from students.

For those unable to take a long career break and for employers unwilling to lose key staff, distance-learning programmes have proved popular. Originally distance learning meant years of late-night work and weekends and holidays spent on campus, but technology changes everything.

Among the most successful operators is the Open University. Based in the UK, Open University programme reaches students in more than 40 countries across Europe, the Americas and Asia. The University delivers more lectures and classes off-campus via satellite and two-way video at a fraction of a cost. Distance learning is coming on fast and this type of study could soon be the norm.

How can distance-learning programmes provide the element that many graduates rate as one of the most important features of the business school experience – the ideas and experience generated by contact with other students? People learn as much, if not more, from their peers during discussions as they do from lectures or textbook in a distance course. Whatever the benefits of being able to study remotely and to the timetable that suits the individual, mixing with ambitious people from around the world in the hothouse environment of the programme can also provide graduates with a valuable network of contacts for the future. Alumni from leading schools often admit that the address book they come away with is in itself worth the investment of time, effort and money.

A number of leading schools duplicate many aspects of their full-time programme in the distance learning option. They aim to maximise student/teacher contact through e-mail, fax and telephone. Workshops also form an important forum for direct feedback. Some schools combine online learning with classroom sessions to sustain the “peer group” element of the programmes, which feature a “virtual campus” that allows participants to work together on projects via the web. These online teams are brought together for classroom sessions held in different cities throughout the year.

Whatever the location of the physical part of the course, the creation of the virtual community of students may turn out to be the key to success. The communication facilities of the Internet may yet allow participants to learn what they need from their fellow students – even if they never meet in real life.