Internet based MBA programs are not considered as second rate anymore Essay Example

Internet based MBA programs are not considered as second rate anymore Essay Example Internet based MBA programs are not considered as second rate anymore Essay Internet based MBA programs are not considered as second rate anymore Essay In the past, many people considered online courses as a â€Å"second rate† thing. The reason for this may be that the highest ranking institutions were staying on the side of this market for a long time. But now, things have changed. The highest ranking schools are offering their own online MBA programs and the student’s experience is better than ever with all the new technologies and the development of it. Just as everything else that is connected to technology needs time to evolve and improve, it’s the same with these online MBA programs. This evolution makes it more and more interesting to be part of the online courses. People that are part of high education are debating over technology issues and how far should technology be allowed to go and influence MBA courses. Both sides have valid facts and discussions. Harvard Business School’s professor of business administration, Clayton Christensen, believes that there will come a day when technology will take over the whole educational system and all classes will be online programs. Another professor from Harvard, Michael Porter, thinks that rather than replacing the old ways and online classes becoming new ways of studying, technology can only be a complement and a useful addition to the whole program. The debate speaks about all areas of studying, but mostly about business education. Technology has come that far that there are no more differences and gaps between in-class programs and online MBA programs. The student experience is the same. University of Maryland and Imperial College Business School both started their online MBA programs globally. One thing that everybody needs to know is that online courses are not a new thing. Some universities have had for around 20 years. Currently, the leading platforms for online education are Coursera and EdX. These platforms are products of Stanford University and Harvard/MIT. One program that proved to be really successful was the one that Georgia Institute of Technology created in cooperation with Udacity. The program was for teaching Master of Science and software engineering. The reason for taking online classes for granted and classifying them as second rate was because in the past, these classes were consisting only of video lectures. Now, the best ones are very interactive with videos as well as assignments and audios. Even in the schools where students are physically present, a lot of changes have happened. Business schools have thrown away paper and pens and students are working on iPads. Students take exams online and get graded online. The materials needed for the course can all be found online in electronic format. Online learning has been very popular amongst people who work but want to upgrade and keep improving but cannot move and live on campus. The same goes for students who live in different countries but want to study on a particular university. In order to have the students’ network, LinkedIn, videos and social media are used.