Hi friends, I am Toshi. Today I update my weekly letter. This week’s topic is about online MBA. If you have a plan to obtain an MBA, I hope it is good information to you.
I love MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). Because I can choose any topics from computer programming to languages. In addition, I can learn anytime and anywhere I want. Finally, Most of courses are free. You do not need to pay any cost to take these courses. So as CEO of start-up, this is the best choice to learn new things I need. However, it might not be applicable to persons who want MBA titles. Because most of the certificates on MOOCs are not regarded as formal academic credit, although MOOCs are provided by many famous universities. For example, I took “Machine learning” by associate professor Andrew.Ng in Stanford university last year and got the statement of accomplishment of that course. I think this is one of the best courses to learn state of the art algorithm of Machine learning. But unfortunately Stanford university does not provide academic credits to learners of this course.
But when I found this article of new online MBA course from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I thought it can be a game changer. Because, firstly this is a full MBA course with credits. Second, the cost of the MBA is around 20,000 USD and significantly lower than similar online courses. Third, we have opportunities to take courses without certain projects in the MBA program before paying fees. Third one is significantly important to lower the entry barrier, especially for the beginners of MOOCs. “Digital marketing“, one of the parts of the MBA program, is already open for everyone. So we can try this and confirm how this online MBA works before applying the admission processes. Therefore, there are few risk where we have mismatches between the contents of the program and the needs of students.
I think one of the reasons why this new online MBA is developed may be that a lot of students cannot repay student loans in the United states. Some financial experts warn that these bad loans might be the biggest risk in the credit market. So high cost of higher educations are not only students’ problems, but also society’s problems. This is not sustainable anymore. This new online MBA can be one of the solutions to this problem. Since major MOOCs platforms such as edx and Coursera opened in 2012, MOOCs certificate has not been considered as equivalent to academic credits. However, this new online MBA may change this situation. I would like to see what other top MBA schools do, going forward.
If you are beginners of MOOCs, how about start “Digital marketing”? You can do it without any fee. If you like it and want to be an MBA holder, this new-online course can be one of the candidates of MBA for you to consider in addition to residential MBA. I have already started “Digital marketing” by myself in order to enhance my expertise. Could you join us?
toshistats 