Increase in Online MBA Courses is Part of a National Business School Trend

Last year, Brian Lago, 28, was about to move to Chicago from Delaware to enroll in DePaul University’s full-time MBA program after hearing great things about the university from his uncle, a Chicagoan and DePaul alumnus. But then Target Corp. offered him an attractive executive position as Operations Group Leader for the retailer’s distribution operation in Chambersburg, Penn. Although Lago took the job and now lives in Maryland, he didn’t have to give up his goal of MBA study at DePaul. He took advantage of DePaul’s expanded distance learning MBA offerings by enrolling in three online courses in management and marketing this fall.

“I like the program because, while it’s flexible, I can still reasonably plan to complete my degree within two years” Lago said. “It doesn’t interfere with my work schedule, and the program allows someone like me with a non-traditional work schedule to continue to increase my business knowledge.”

To address the needs of students such as Lago, DePaul’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business and a growing number of other business schools are offering more distance learning MBA courses tailored to the schedules of busy, working professionals. This trend was evident in the recently released results of a business school survey by BusinessWeek Online. The number of business schools with MBA students taking online MBA courses rose to 81 in 2003 from 71 schools two years prior, according to the survey released Aug. 27. The average number of students in each distance learning program grew to 81 in 2003, up from 45 in 2001, the survey found.

“More flexibility is the No. 1 reason professionals are choosing the Net for B-school,” BusinessWeek Online concluded, adding that corporate America’s embrace of distance learning is giving more credence to the programs.

“Today’s distance learning MBA courses are gaining acceptance because they aren’t ‘MBA lite’,” said Arthur Kraft, dean of the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. “They are being offered by well-respected institutions, such as DePaul, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, Maryland and Indiana universities, and are just as rigorous as traditional courses. Online classes are ideal for people who want to work while attending school but find other program formats difficult to commit to because of job transfers, business travel, unpredictable office hours and family obligations.”

Kraft said the business school expects to receive accreditation soon from the North Central Association of Colleges and Universities to offer an MBA program featuring all online courses. “Eventually, you will be able to receive an MBA from DePaul from virtually anywhere in the world. We’re going to enter markets that we currently do not serve and reach people who we otherwise would not have reached. We are offering people more choices and flexibility.”

While DePaul is not the first university to offer online MBA courses, the university has put a new twist into distance learning through the use of unique technology and links to international classrooms. Business students enrolled in online courses are linked to traditional, face-to-face DePaul MBA classes through Course OnLine, a synchronized streaming audio-and-video technology created by the university’s computer science school. The technology captures the sights and sounds and all blackboard notes of each class session and automatically downloads them to a Web site that online students may access at their convenience, 24 hours a day. Distance learning students also use a classroom Web site tool called Blackboard to interact with professors and classmates, access syllabi and other written materials, and submit work.

“The only difference is that students in the classroom are taking the course in real time, and the online students are not,” Kraft said.

While most DePaul online students are linked to MBA classes offered at the university’s Rolling Meadows Campus, some have an opportunity to connect to courses that are part of DePaul’s MBA programs in Bahrain and the Czech Republic. These classes are taught by DePaul business school professors who travel abroad to present the courses in classrooms that are equipped with Course OnLine and Blackboard. Such courses provide online students with an international insight into business issues from their Middle Eastern and European classmates, to whom they are linked through the course.

Students seeking distance learning MBA courses must apply to the program just as regular students would in order to be admitted, and the tuition is the same as for regular MBA students. Beginning this fall, 12 MBA courses are being offered per quarter. Every MBA core course, plus some elective courses, will be offered each quarter, Kraft said.

Rob Ryan, assistant dean and director for the graduate school, said the expanded online course offerings are part of the business school’s continuing efforts to serve working students. The school already offers a variety of part-time evening and weekend programs, as well as classes on multiple campuses. “It’s very important to be able to provide students what they need, when they need it,” he said. “Flexibility has been a big part of the degree program, and our goal is to serve students in the best possible ways.”

DePaul’s part-time MBA program has been ranked among the top 10 in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s graduate school rankings for the last decade. The school’s faculty of highly accomplished academics and experienced business leaders provides students with a current, high-quality, real-world business education. For more information about the school’s open houses on the Loop, Naperville and Rolling Meadows campuses, go to the Web site: http://www.depaul.edu/prospective_students/openhouse.asp .