An Online MBA For The Renaissance Manager

A NEW WAY TO TEACH THE MBA?

Working through complex situations and taking intelligent risks is something Olver believes can and should be taught in the MBA education. “Social psychological research shows if you have a low tolerance for ambiguity and are afraid of failure, you can move that needle at any stage or age in your life,” Olver explains. “You can teach yourself all of the accounting or marketing stuff—and could probably do it more efficiently. But dealing with more complexities and learning about decision making with little information requires more guidance and being pushed and tested. That’s what this curriculum is designed to do.”

Pulley agrees and adds that the guiding force to the new curriculum was feedback from recruiters and alumni. “We were thinking carefully about important customers, what employers say they are needing as business environments get more complex,” says Pulley. “We also listened to what prospective students think they need. The kinds of information and skills and understanding they need. We put together a program that speaks to this.”

Pulley says the research was gathered from their own conversations and surveys with recruiters, alumni and other employers combined with current research on the areas where employers think business school graduates need more training.

MARCHING AGAINST THE MOOC TREND

According to Karen Baldeschwieler, chief learning officer at Everspring Partners, the company helping with end-to-end technological support, the program is different from any other. “First, it’s a highly collaborative faculty,” Baldeschwieler says. “I’ve spent the past 25 years visiting a lot of business schools and you don’t see that at many others.”

Baldeschwieler also says William & Mary is approaching online business education in a unique way. “The trends now with technology is to increase automated teaching,” Baldeschwieler explains. “In a MOOC, you might have 10,000 students to one teacher. The Mason School is going opposite of that trend. They are asking how can they bring the online students closer to the faculty.”

Perhaps the greatest advantage to an online program, according to Baldeschwieler, is the diversity they can draw. “In terms of students, the network can be very powerful online as you have access to other students around the world and country,” says Baldeschwieler. “The top 10 MBA programs are going to have a large amount of diversity because they can attract that with their name. Online programs can also attract a great amount of diversity because they can draw on students from anywhere with an internet connection.”

A STEAL OF A DEAL?

Attracting top students from other top online MBA programs is something Pulley says is not the goal, although, they have looked at Indiana University’s Kelley’s Direct program and the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler’s MBA@UNC. “We have not done this in a vacuum,” Pulley says. “We’ve tried to pay attention to other schools and programs like Kelley Direct and UNC to see what they are doing. But we see this more as an opportunity to do something uniquely valuable for our students and uniquely William & Mary.”

At $1,020 per credit hour, tuition for the degree is $49,980, a very competitive price tag when compared to Kelley ($1,200 per credit for 51 credits is $61,200) and Kenan-Flagler (about $1,510 per credit for 66 credits is $99,675).

The first cohort will begin in August and Pulley says they have already seen an overwhelming amount of applicants. “We originally thought we’d have one cohort of 25 students,” Pulley says. “Now we’re planning on two cohorts of 25 to 50 students to start in August.”

DON’T MISS: THE ONLINE MBA COMES OF AGE or THAT LINGERING STIGMA OVER ONLINE DEGREES

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