InformationWeek

Virtual MBA

Going back to school doesn't have to mean sitting in a classroom again

By Laton McCartney
Issue date: Nov. 4, 1996

At the Masonic Temple on San Francisco's Nob Hill, several hundred students, all working adults, recently received graduate and undergraduate degrees in technology, business, and management from the University of Phoenix. What's unusual about these graduates is that none of them set foot in a classroom. Instead, they earned their sheepskins through a so-called distance-learning program, taking courses exclusively online.

With distance learning, the instruct or and the students are separated physically and courses are offered electronically via the Web, E-mail, satellite, compressed video, CD-ROM, and other technologies. Thanks to widespread adoption of the Internet and online services, these programs are burgeoning. The Web abounds with sources for earning online degrees or taking courses in everything from art appreciation to Web page design to dream interpretation. Many of the courses--like much else on the Web--are aimed squarely at IS professionals and managers.

Programs vary. Thirteen western states are launching the Western Governors University, a virtual school that will make accessible electronic courses from western colleges and universities throughout the region. Other traditional educational institutions, including prestigious colleges such as Duke and the University of Virginia, have added online programs. The Internet has given birth to a slew of online campuses. President Clinton has even promised Internet access in every classroom as part of h is campaign platform.

But in business, online training is well past the promising stage. Gartner Group Inc., the Stamford, Conn., IT advisory firm, projects that demand for technology-based training will increase 10% a year in the next two years, to $12 billion. Another research organization, Quality Dynamics Inc. in New York, anticipates that half of all corporate training will be delivered via technology by 2000.

The courses offer IS professionals and technology managers a chance to advance their careers by obtaining certification or an advanced degree like an MBA. Some online programs offer full-fledged degrees, while others offer only the odd course or two. Some examples:

Federal Express, Motorola, Xerox, and other companies train employees through online and multimedia education programs. Among the training organizations developing the materials are software-hardware distributor Ingram Micro Inc. in Santa Ana, Calif., and Allen Communication in Salt Lake City.
Texas Christi an University in Fort Worth and the University of Texas at Austin are among a group of business schools that let MBA candidates join international virtual teams chartered with meeting a particular business challenge. "More schools today are using the Internet to create cross-functional and cross-cultural teams," notes Beata Lobert, an assistant professor of MIS at Texas Christian.
Several IT vendors, most notably Microsoft, offer technical education through distance-learning programs accessible via the Internet and online services. The Microsoft Online Institute (MOLI), via authorized training outfits, offers training and certification in Windows NT, networking and network technologies, Windows 95 support, and other areas. MOLI even boasts a student union, library, and faculty club on its Web campus.
Online educational services have emerged, including The Home Education Network (THEN). Affiliated with UCLA, THEN includes programming, business, and management courses among its six-week sessi ons.

"Corporate America spends $50 billion a year on continuing education to improve their employees' skill sets and retrain them to deal with the rapid pace of change in the workplace," says Alan Arkatov, THEN's CEO. "More and more of that funding is going to go into distance learning."

The University of Phoenix is the acknowledged model for many of the online training programs now being offered. It began offering electronic courses eight years ago to a handful of students using 1,200-bps modems and electronic bulletin boards. "Ours is the oldest and the largest of the online degree programs," notes Terri Hedegaard, VP of the university's Online Campus. "We now have 2,000 students enrolled in online programs. They're working adults, many of them in IS-related jobs, who want to advance their professional careers."

The University of Phoenix offers a variety of undergraduate and graduate degree programs online, including a bachelor's program in business/information systems, MBA in technology m anagement, and master's program in computer science. Students rely on some traditional educational tools--textbooks are mailed out in advance of each modular, six-week-long session--but the instructors' lectures are delivered via E-mail and downloaded by the students onto their PCs. In turn, the students use E-mail to communicate with their teachers and one another, write weekly summaries of what they've learned from the course, and take exams.

The primary appeal of distance and online learning, says THEN's Arkatov, can be summarized in three words: Convenience, convenience, and convenience.

"With traditional 'ground' courses," Arkatov says, "you may find yourself working late so you can't make a 6 p.m. class. The following week, you miss class again because you attended your kid's Little League game. Soon you drop out. But with distance learning, you can take the course when, where, and however you like."

Road Scholar
That appeals to many IS professionals. "I have a tough work sched ule with a lot of travel," notes Tim Meyer, a manufacturing manager whose responsibilities include systems management at pharmaceutical manufacturer McGaw Inc. in Irvine, Calif., and an online student in the MBA/technology-management program at the University of Phoenix. "I can log on to the Internet when I get home at night, even when I'm on the road, and do assignments when it's convenient. Everybody is pretty dedicated, and the dropout rate is relatively low."

Meyer is midway through his online MBA program. The courses are divided into six-week modules such as financial accounting and the strategic management of R&D. Each week, the students must write up a summary of what they learned during the previous week. "There's no sitting in the back of the electronic classroom," Meyer says. "Every student has to participate."

Meyer and other University of Phoenix students like the fact that the school bases its online programs in real-world experience. "We work closely with a number of corporations suc h as AT&T and US West," Hedegaard explains. "Their representatives have input into our programs. In addition, our instructors have work experience--they're not just academics." In fact, many of the instructors come from industries that use online connections.

Money-Saver
Another attraction of online learning: It's relatively inexpensive. Meyer says that the University of Phoenix's 2- to 2-1/2-year MBA program, at $21,000, is roughly half the price of an equivalent ground program at nearby University of California, Irvine.

Cost is another reason why corporations are quick to espouse online training programs. "Putting a technical person through a training program can be a very expensive proposition," notes Joanne Carle-Accornero, manager of distance learning for Ingram Micro. She says a typical three-day course costs as much as $1,800, plus travel expenses. "If you're a consulting company, you lose $1,500 or more a day in billable time that the technician would normally bring in," she a dds.

By comparison, the online training programs that Ingram Micro develops--used by both Ingram Micro's resellers and others such as Xerox--cost participants about $600. And there's no air fare or hotel bill to pay. In addition, students usually take courses on their own time, rather than taking time away from their jobs.

And online programs are far less expensive than onsite training. Bringing someone onsite to train a half-dozen technical people will cost $12,000 to $17,000 for a three-day session, according to Sam Rosenbalm, director of product development at American Institute, which provides both traditional and online technology training for individuals and corporations. "For small- and medium-sized companies, that's not cost-effective," he adds. Rosenbalm estimates the cost to train the same number of employees online at about $3,000.

Another benefit of online learning: It exposes students to many of the challenges they're likely to confront in the real world. That's especially true if the y work for a multinational corporation. Last year, for instance, Texas Christian, in conjunction with eight other schools in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia, established what they called the Virtual Learning Environment project for English-speaking MBA students. The students came from different disciplines--including IS, marketing, and organizational behavior--and from different countries. This kind of exposure would be difficult to achieve in a traditional MBA program, Texas Christian assistant professor Lobert explains, adding, "As a result, in working together as virtual teammates to create a Web-based project, they were exposed to different disciplines, different cultures, and certainly, different perceptions."

At the same time, the Texas Christian project fostered knowledge about electronic commerce and virtual organizations. Using the Internet, E-mail, and Web-based decision-support tools, the virtual teams created prototypes for various commercial endeavors. "We were effectively se tting up a business with someone from across the globe," says Anupa Gharpurey, a second-year MBA student at Texas Christian.

Gharpurey's virtual team produced a business plan and home page for a Web-based investment advisory service it dubbed Asia Watch. The service specialized in Pacific Rim securities. "We actually had to turn away some would-be customers who thought it was a real business," she says with a laugh.

Similarly, the University of Texas has initiated several ambitious virtual-team projects as part of its MBA program. The school started the projects in 1993 with MBA, computer science, and economic students from foreign universities as well several other U.S. schools. The initial project consisted of 12 teams, totaling 84 students. "The Web as we know it today wasn't even in existence then," notes Kathleen Knoll, a doctoral student in the
university's graduate school of
business. "The students had to use IBM computer conferencing to communicate."

The University of Texas's virt ual team projects have grown so rapidly that the most recent effort was made up of 75 teams from 20 U.S. and foreign universities, for a total of nearly 400 students. Knoll believes these programs provide real-world lessons in conducting business and managing projects online. "Students learn they've got to be flexible," Knoll says. "In communicating via E-mail, they discover how difficult it is to negotiate with someone without being able to walk into his or her office. Theyhave to use their communications skills to influence their colleagues."

Faster Feedback
This kind of experience will be essential for technology managers as virtual projects become common and business takes an increasingly global orientation, Knoll believes. Even so, she and other proponents of electronic education concede that the approach--and the technologies that make it possible--still have distinct limitations.

For one, bandwidth isn't in place to allow high-speed communications or the optimal use of CD-ROM and o ther multimedia capabilities. "It often takes 24 hours to get the feedback you need to make a decision," Knoll says. Adds Gharpurey of Texas Christian, "It's frustrating waiting for someone on the other side of the globe to respond to an E-mail. It's also difficult to establish trust when you're dealing with someone entirely on a virtual basis."

Students also complain that chat-room discussions can drag on tediously, if only because everyone has to keep mum, electronically speaking, while one student enters a question or comment.

Another unforeseen drawback: Students are often more rude online than they would dare to be in a traditional classroom. According to one technology instructor, the unruly atmosphere of the Net has led several companies to avoid online training for their employees altogether.

Nonetheless, online education is clearly here to stay. Earlier this year, when Quality Dynamics asked 100 corporate university heads--directors of training at major companies--if they intend to use th e Internet for training, 62 responded yes.

See related story: " Go West, Young Onliner "

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