Virtual Advantage

Online programs allow busy executives to get an MBA without going MIA, but how do they compare with the classroom experience?

Feb 1, 2010  

by Caitlin Crawshaw

The strange thing about success is that it seems to breed – not reduce – work. Every step up corresponds with new obligations that have a nasty tendency to spill into evenings and weekends.

Perhaps you’ve considered taking an MBA to widen your knowledge of the business realm and broaden your career options. But if you’re like many, time restrictions may be holding you back. Taking a leave from work, or even cutting back your hours to do a part-time program, can be a financial burden. You may also worry that by putting your career on hold, or working less, your career will lose momentum.

But there is an alternative to the brick-and-mortar classroom. Distance education may trigger flashbacks to cheesy TV ads with washed-up actresses, but there are now many respected programs to choose from. Even traditional institutions offer online versions of their programs; other accredited universities exclusively deliver online courses. You can earn everything from a diploma to a PhD by distance – and from respected institutions, not diploma mills.

Alberta is the physical home of one of the world’s oldest virtual institutions, Athabasca University (AU). The university emerged in 1973 as an educational option for Albertans who couldn’t access programs at traditional universities, like the University of Alberta and University of Calgary. Now, the virtual campus boasts nearly 40,000 students from across Canada and beyond.

In 1994, AU started the world’s first online executive MBA, says program director Deborah Hurst. Fifteen years later, the program has about 2,400 alumni and, at the moment, there are about 850 students enrolled. These students come from a wide range of industries and are overwhelmingly Canadian. The average student has eight to 10 years of managerial experience. About 34% of students are women.

In AU’s program, students are divided into learning groups of up to 10 students. They collaborate on class projects online using discussion boards, web conferencing and other virtual tools. Students are able to participate when it works for them – after a cocktail reception, following a hard day at work or after the kids have gone to bed.

Rather than hinder communication, the online forum creates “a great democracy of ideas,” says Marilyn Wangler, AU’s director of marketing and communications. Those who’d normally sit at the back of a traditional classroom are required to join in and those who are quieter may feel more comfortable participating.

The online format also mirrors the modern business environment, says Hurst. “You have people in virtual teams, people collaborating across time and space, people working together who may never meet in person.”

At first, communicating online with people he’d never met was a bit tricky for alumnus Mike McInnis. For a couple of projects in his first course, he and his fellow students arranged conference calls to sort things out; typing to one another just wasn’t working. “I think that was because we didn’t understand how to collaborate online.” But after that, electronic teamwork wasn’t a problem; in fact, it has its benefits over face-to-face communication, says McInnis. “In a collaborative online environment, everyone gets to put their comments down. No one gets cut off.” There was also more time to digest ideas and respond thoughtfully, allowing for a deeper discussion, he says.

But for Pedro Márquez, dean of the faculty of management at Royal Roads University, online delivery has limitations. “We believe there are many things you need to learn, especially in a business school, that you can’t learn that way,” he says. Negotiating and working on a team, for instance, are difficult to learn in a completely online program. Online programs can also be very isolated, lonely experiences. “You have to have lots of self-discipline and lots of motivation to go through that process,” he says, otherwise you’re likely to drop out.

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