In case you missed it, BNET recently ran a comprehensive feature about online MBA programs. A few months ago, I weighed in on this myself when plans were announced for the launch of the online Jack Welch Institute.
The big draw for online MBAs is convenience. A middle manager who wants to keep her job and keep her family rooted would be a great candidate for an online program. She could receive the information needed to advance her career sitting at her computer just as she would taking notes in a classroom — provided, of course, that she gets her MBA through an accredited online program.
Yet there would still be something missing. Think about your closest relationships. Did the majority of them happen in front of a computer, or were they built over time, through face-to-face interactions? That’s where you find so much of the special value of an MBA: talking before and after class, cramming together during pizza-fueled study sessions or decompressing over happy hour chats. It may not seem like it at the time, but you’re building the relationships that will make up the core of your professional network.
Many proponents of online MBAs argue that those networking opportunities do exist, and that online discussions can facilitate close relationships. While this is possible, meeting your cohorts in person once or twice or chatting with them via Skype still doesn’t allow for those spontaneous interactions crucial to building friendships and key allies.
Let’s go back to the example of our middle manager. While she may be content with the job she’s keeping, imagine the future opportunities she may have encountered through her classroom MBA cohorts. Also, as Maggie Overfelt points out in her article “What’s an Online MBA Worth?”, some aspects of the MBA experience, such as “the intense, 90-minute case-study lectures at Harvard Business School, in which students do 80 percent of the talking and well-known business leaders often show up in person to spur conversation,” are not so easy to replicate online.
To me, the bottom line is this: online MBAs absolutely fill a need and have a valid place in business education. But those lucky enough to have two years to devote to a classroom experience will still have an edge in the form of their superior network.
Harvard campus image courtesy of Flickr user _Gene_’s photostream, CC 2.0
