MBA programs are a popular alternative for many
mid-career professionals who want to get a credential in management to
prepare for their career advancement. Nowadays, with the available of
online education programs, you have a choice to earn your MBA degree
from traditional MBA program offered by a campus-based university or
through an online MBA program. What are the differences between the
online and traditional campus-based type of MBA programs? Knowing the
basics would help you to decide whether or not these programs are right
for you.
In term of educational goal, both online learning
and traditional MBA programs general share the same goal of preparing
the students for many fields, functions, and industries to help them
progress toward a specific career goal. Both online and traditional MBA
could be considered equally difficult and have a similar type of
curriculum. Both MBA learning types are able to help you achieve your
career goal, but instead of spending hours in class as in traditional
MBA program, online MBA students are expected to dedicate their time to
study independently.
Traditional MBA program would have a time table
which you require to follow to attend the classes on time. If you
decide to pursue your degree through campus-based MBA program and at
the same time maintaining your current employment, you may require
adjusting your working schedule to fit the time table of your MBA
courses. Most working individuals who sign up for traditional MBA
program would normally enroll into evening classes or time after work.
They also require commuting to and from school and they might miss the
classes if they require staying after work due to important assignment
or project. For those working individuals who are frequently travel on
job assignment, they may have difficulties to fit their time to the
fixed time table of the MBA courses.
Online MBA programs solve the above problems with
the features of flexibility, self-speed and convenient of attending
classes from any location as long as the location has internet
connection for the student to login into the online classes. The online
students who pursue their MBA online could attend the classes,
downloading their training materials and assignments, submitting their
courses from their comfort location through internet connection. The
flexibility time tables of online learning allow students to plan their
own study time based on their learning speed and convenient schedule.
The features best fit for most working persons who have busy working
schedule. The frequent travelers are able to take advantages of
studying anywhere and at anytime with online MBA program.
While traditional MBA courses require you to
attend the physical lectures and work with your physical peers on group
assignments, online curriculum generally consist of lectures, reading,
assignments which are all in text, multimedia and audio configuration
which you require to login to the school's online system to view or
download the materials. Most of time you are using online channels such
as online discussion board, online chatting, email and sometime phone
calls to communicate with the lecturers and online classmates. In
general, online MBA and traditional MBA programs are similar in term of
curriculums but different in term of the learning media. Online MBA
programs require the students to be more self-motivation and
self-discipline to make development to complete on their degree
program.
