Quick update...

First off - apologies to anyone who actually reads this. I've been quite remiss in any proper updates. For better (or worse!), I can attribute the bulk of that to school! ;-) The time commitment really turned up some with Organizational Behavior in the spring. As much as I enjoy putting excrutiatingly-detailed reviews together, they definitely take time.

That said, I'd planned on picking up the slack this summer. Clearly, that hasn't been the case. ;-) I just returned from 2nd Year Orientation last weekend - which was a blast, if not too short - but we'll be cranking back up with Marketing on Monday. I've had a few personal things going on as well - some really good; some not-so-good - that have sucked away the time, and will likely continue to for the near-term. So, sadly, I don't see much more detailed posting in the interrim - I'll try, but I apologize in advance.

Anyhow - it's a paltry offering, but since it's somewhat related to the above, here's an interesting take on work-life balance and the online MBA by the Telegraph.
Going online for a better life-work balance

To me, it's all in how you define "work-life balance". If it's not having to move, being able to study from geographically flexible locations (e.g. home with the baby; on an aircraft carrier; whatever), and maintaining a full-time salary, then yes - an online MBA definitely provides for a better work-life balance.

However, if you define or include "personal time" as a component of "work-life balance"... well... let's just say the MBA doesn't take zero time. ;-) As well it shouldn't take zero time. My personal take at this juncture - halfway there! - is that yes, though an online MBA allows you more flexibility, depending on the "compression" of the program, is that it can actually erode work-life balance, at least considering personal time. As in - great; I don't have to stop work, and I have the freedom to study from anywhere, but it for darn sure takes up some time, which is a key component of "work-life balance", especially if your life includes a significant other(s - for those with kids!). ;-)

This is not to say I'd have it any other way - less-rigorous, less-compressed, not now, or anything else - but to me, deciding to pursue a part-time MBA is deciding to do so knowing that your work-life balance will definitely change for the duration of the program. You're accepting the reduction in the "personal time" component of the work-life balance, understanding that (a) that's temporary, (b) it affects other areas of your work-life balance less than other options, and (c) it will hopefully improve your work-life balance in the long run.

Bottom line: It takes time. Don't think that it doesn't. :-)

CNN/Money: Earning a degree online just got easier

From CNN/Money: Earning a degree online just got easier

I've got mixed opinions on this one. The short of it is:

Slipped into a $39.5 billion budget package that passed both houses last Tuesday was a provision that repealed what used to be known as "the 50-50 rule," which required colleges and vocational schools to offer at least 50% of their courses in traditional bricks-and-mortar classrooms before their students could qualify for federal loan programs. Now that the 50-50 rule is history, long-distance learning is accessible to many more students.

The particularly good part of it is, the funds will only be available to accredited colleges. Now, it doesn't make mention of who does the accrediting - a question you should always ask - but my assumption is that it's one of the "Big Six" regional accrediting bodies.

Personally and speaking for myself - I wouldn't yet want to attend any online school without a "brick-and-mortar" existence. A large part of this is due to my educational goals - I want to be taught by faculty that do research and other academic field work. My inclination is that, at this juncture, a purely online institution generally won't have much of that to offer. This doesn't take away from the quality of the education provided, but it does somewhat limit the type or nature of education that can be provided.

Then there's still the issue of general acceptance. Though I still believe online education is becoming more and more accepted, I still don't think many people are quite ready to accept a purely online institution. With a "brick-and-mortar" institution, they might know the name, the sports team, their buddy that went there, that they've been around for 100 years - all these things add legitimacy. That's unavailable with a purely online institution.

Note that the above, to me, does not detract from the quality education that can or will probably be able to be obtained there - just don't expect a purely online school to carry the same name-value of a "brick-and-mortar" institution anytime soon.

BW: Online Education Never Felt So Real

An interesting read (chat transcript, really) with some students in the online program at Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, Spain

BusinessWeek: Online Education Never Felt So Real

One well-to-note point about their program is that at least part of it is synchronous (as opposed to asynchronous) - so you do have to be logged in at a specific time.

There were two particularly good quotes/insights that apply to online education in general that caught my eye, both by David Standen:

The truth is, businesses have been demanding more of this kind of program for a long time. They run their entire operations in a blended format -- presentational and online -- and are used to maintaining relationships using online media. They have no problem accepting this like any other MBA program.

And

From my side, one of the places we've seen a big difference is in the level of networking after graduation. In a traditional program, students are used to seeing each other every morning, so when they disperse around the world, they don't maintain close contact because they're not used to the daily Internet communication.

Anyhow - give it a read!

Lehigh goes online

I'm in the middle of finals week for Operations & Supply Management - which consists of a team and an individual portion - and my brother is getting married this weekend (far, far out of town, of course), so I'm quite busy!! Thereby, this one's just a quickie - Yet another school going online with their MBA - Lehigh:

MBA program makes move to online

Growing By Degrees

One of my fellow online students posted a link to Growing By Degrees (pdf; 280K), an interesting-looking paper by faculty at Babson (another institution very big into online education) and the Sloan Consortium. I have yet to read the whole thing - it weighs in at 28 pages - but another fellow student had this comment, which I thought was well-put:

I think we all had the foresight that distance learning had growth potential and we took the chance. Institutions that denied this market potential are presently in catch up mode. All the while, the WP Carey Online staff has had the opportunity to perfect their delivery model, and now have references (grads) to back up the program. ASU and the Online MBA staff have much to be proud of!!! The business risk paid off, and everybody will benefit from the program.

Anyhow - That's it!

AP: Some Students Prefer Taking Classes Online

Thanks to one of my classmates for the pointer to this, via our class forums:

Some Students Prefer Taking Classes Online

Interesting article. The profile a senior working on his undergrad in Business. The article seems to unofficially focus on undergraduate degrees online. Personally, I think for your traditional college undergrad - 18-22 years old or so, no exceptional circumstances - in-person is more valuable, if nothing else because it takes care of the discipline for you. Yeah, you actually have to wake up and get out of bed, but that's about it - between taking attendance and knowing that may be the only way you'll get the material, you have plenty of external motivators to participate, without self-discipline of your own accord. With your average 18-year-old undergrad, discipline is not usually the first thing on their mind. With online, you must have much more discipline - You have to overcome the "I can just do it later", or "There's no attendance" factors. This is also noted in the article:

Then there's the question of whether students are well served by taking a course online instead of in-person. Some teachers are wary, saying showing up to class teaches discipline, and that lectures and class discussions are an important part of learning.

But online classes aren't necessarily easier. Two-thirds of schools responding to a recent survey by The Sloan Consortium agreed that it takes more discipline for students to succeed in an online course than in a face-to-face one.

Personally, having done both, I feel qualified to agree with the Sloan Consortium' findings. ;-)

Anyhow - The aforementioned profiled student did do his first two years of school in-person - this is more amenable to me. A lot of maturing goes on in those first two years. I did take one course via distance (old-school - by video) while pursuing my undergrad, in my third year or so. It also took more discipline - I did it while co-oping - so after a full day's work, I had to come home and pop in a Thermodynamics lecture - not exactly your exciting evening entertainment. ;-)

I'll close with one last quote, from ASU:

Administrators say the distinction between online and traditional is now so meaningless it may not even be reflected in next fall's course catalogue.

I know I've said it 963 times, but sometimes I enjoy beating a dead horse: Online continues to gain more acceptance, and universities not distinguishing like this is both indicative of that and enhances that acceptance.

SHRM: Employers Warm Up To Online Education

A good read over at SHRM.org - the Society for Human Resource Management:

Employers Warm Up To Online Education

The main point that I found interesting was noted by PHH Mortgage and Drexel:

Even though the company also supports an MBA program taught on-site, employees favor the online school.

Sure, it's just one company and one school, but to me, that speaks volumes on how equitably those employees must view the programs.

The article also has several links to other articles referenced, which look like good reading, but I haven't had a chance to plow through them yet.

Comment Roundup

Well, I'm loving break so far - other than some car troubles, but so it goes - I'm planning to finish my Financial Accounting review in the next few days. Until then, here's just a few comments that have been posted here that I thought might be of interest:

• Anonymous on Penn State (Anonymous, or anyone else at PSU Online - I'd love to hear more!)
  
• Steffan on Online Degrees in general
  

ECN 502 - Managerial Economics

Okay - this post is long overdue, but hey - better late than never! I actually started this a good while back (10/24/05), but then Financial Accounting came along ... but that's for another post. ;-)

This course was really great - but it also kept me really busy! So, I didn't get any post in during the middle of the course, as intended - so this will be both a detailed review of the course, upon having just completed it.

Intro
Managerial Economics. Hm. So what's it all about?

Managerial Economics is not designed to "make you into an economist." Rather, the course is designed to provide you with the basic platform for all managerial decision making.

So, that said... Some background. This was our second class. For me, it took notably more work than the previous course, as was anticipated. I haven't had an Econ course in a good ... probably 5 years or more. I like Economics - as described by a classmate, it's a unique blend of history, psychology, and math, all of which I enjoy - but it's been a while since I studied it. So, I anticipated heavier time spent on this course, and that turned out to be a more than accurate prediction. ;-)

Faculty Interaction
We had two professors teaching this class - Drs. Burgess and Chade. Both of them were really great. Dr. Burgess demonstrated his commitment to us by posting the first week or so of the course from his villa on St. John. *drool* I guess maybe he does know a thing or two about economics! ;-) Anyhow, Dr. Burgess taught the first two and half or three weeks of the course, and then Dr. Chade took over. Both professors were very prompt with the message boards - they both seemed to really enjoy helping us understand - always the mark of a good teacher. Many different anecdotes, stories, examples - anything to help the material sink in.

Peer Interaction
The peer interaction for this course really jumped up for me. We were to work in our sub-teams on the weekly homework assignments. My group's interaction on the task was so-so - some of my group was very excited to work together to get it done, others rathered to go it alone. That concerns me some for future classes, where our team interaction will play a larger role in the course, but so it goes. Past that, I also really got to know even better and communicate with other members of my cohort outside of my team, which has been quite nice.

Thus far, this was probably the best course in terms of discussion of topics in the forums, in my view. This was primarily due to the content of the discussion. Where the discussion of the previous course was a bit more applied/problem based (e.g. "How do you do XYZ again?"), the discussion here was much more rounded, in terms of tackling implications of the topics. Economics as a subject lends itsself quite naturally to discussion, but I really appreciated all the different anecdotes and examples that were shared and discussed on the board, from people's "day jobs". To me this highlights yet again the benfits of a part-time program - online or otherwise.

Content
First off, I had Macro and Micro Economics in my undergrad curriculum, in addition to Engineering Economy, which is more "applied", in the sense of valuing projects, present value, etc. Granted, my undergrad econ classes were early in my collegiate career, so my memory may be a bit spotty - but I swear that we covered the high points of a full semester of Micro econ in the first week. Phew!

The course covered 5 basic topics (e.g. modules):

1. Foundations of Economics
2. Supply, Optimization, and Market Structures
3. Optimal Firm Decisions
4. Pricing with Market Power
5. Strategy: Game Theory for Managers
   

In addition to the modules, we also studied a number of individual firms by way of publications - Polaroid, American Airlines, etc. It was quite interesting to see the "real world" implications of the material.

As noted in other posts - the final was quite difficult. I did have a request to post some of the final, but I don't think I'll be able to do so - I will say that it was roughly half multiple choice, and half free response. The multiple choice was definitely tricky, but the free response was where it really amped up. However, I definitely appreciate the rigorousness - I wouldn't have it any other way. ;-)

Overall
Great course. This really reminded me of - or showed me - how much I enjoy the subject. I guess you could say it's the mark of a good course if it changes how you think about things in your day-to-day life - For whatever reason, I didn't get that effect out of my undergrad econ courses, but after this course, I definitely find myself thinking more "economically" day-to-day. I don't mean "cheaply" - I've always been cheap - but the economic reasons and reasoning behind decisions - in the news, at work, otherwise. I now follow several economics blogs in my regular news feeds - Adam Smith Lives, Cafe Hayek, EconLog, Marginal Revolution, and William Polley. Anyhow - highly recommended!

ASU/W.P. Carey Chat - Dec. 8

From the ASU/W.P. Carey Online Program homepage - as before, I'll try and be there, at least for a bit.

Chat with us!

Get your questions answered by Admission Representatives in our December 8th Chat Session. Simply log into the chat session on Thursday, December 8, 2005 from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. MST (1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. EST).

Anyone is welcome to participate at anytime during the two-hour session.

Business 2.0: A Degree of Respect for Online MBAs

Business 2.0 (December 2005): A Degree of Respect for Online MBAs

I won't spend a ton of time looking at this one, perhaps for obvious reasons. In short, I think it sums up my stance: Don't expect Harvard-level cachet or commensurate salaries/jobs, but do expect a quality education (if you've done your homework on the program!), and a degree that is widely accepted by many, and will be moreso by all as time goes on.

Pros:
Generally positive of online MBAs. Lists a wide variety of schools, which I think is good. Offers several profiles of different students, which offers a good feel of the different programs and reasons for choosing online out there. One quote was offered up by an HR manager at Intel that I also gave, just about verbatim, and I think really makes an excellent case for online MBAs:

“I work with people all the time whom I rarely meet face-to-face,” says Intel’s Fisher. “That is the real world of business today, and anybody who says online MBAs don’t work is just fooling themselves.”

Like it or not - in a knowledge-based economy, distributed teams is the name of the game.

Cons:
I do wish they had spent more time detailing the for profit vs. traditional institutions and the role of AACSB accreditation, and how to choose a program in general - I tried to impress that in my interviews, but so it goes. :-)

Overall:
A well-written, informative article - for anyone thinking about an online MBA or anyone thinking about hiring an online MBA - and I know that Krysten put a good bit of time into it. Give it a read!

Thanksgiving Update

No rest for the weary!

Whereas other schools are letting off for Thanksgiving (my buddy at Vanderbilt full-time is off an entire week!), we are ploughing on through! Ouch! We're currently in week 4 of Financial Accounting. This is all-new stuff for me, so it's been a good bit of work so far. I'm really appreciating what I'm getting out of the class - I feel that I've got a pretty solid fundamental understanding of accounting concepts, how to analyze financial statements, and the like. I don't appreciate the reading - not exactly the most entertaining stuff to read! But, it must be done .... back to it!

Google Analytics

Sorry for the mass re-publish, to those of you reading via RSS - I just added Google Analytics. Still working on that Econ post - Financial Accounting's new stuff for me, so it's keeping me quite busy!

Econ Final

Okay, I'm very delinquent in my overall post summarizing the Managerial Economics course - working on it, I swear - but I just had to break in on the final.

WOW, what a final! The course was, overall, a very valuable one - I really enjoyed it. It was also one that took a lot of work. The final, however... MAN, did they stick it to us! Okay, it may not have been the worst final I've ever taken, but it was definitely harder than I anticipated, and I think I go along with the rest of the class in that regard.

It was two parts - multiple choice and short answer/free response.

I just thought I'd pull out some "summary statistics", based on the class averages for the final - bear in mind, that if your GPA falls below a 3.0 (B average), you're on academic probation (I believe this is typical of most master's programs). This course's letter grade cut-offs were A=90, B=81, C=70.

• Final was worth 53% of the total grade(!)
• Average score on the Short Answer was 71.25%
• Average total score was 76.85%
  

	Final Pts	Course Wt.	Final Pct	Avg Pts	Avg Pct	Avg Pct - Wt.
MC	30	23.85%	45%	25.11	83.70%	37.67%
SA/FR	40	29.15%	55%	28.5	71.25%	39.19%
Total	70	53.00%	100%	53.61		76.85%

So anyway - the masochistic side of me really appreciates the fact that they stuck it to us - I appreciate the rigor. But then the other side of me just hurts! ;-) That means the average score on the final - comprising over half of the grade of the course - was a C. And not even a very high C, at that.

The overall course grade distribution was 46% A/A-, 36% B+/B, and 18% B-/C.

Anyway - hopefully this demonstrates that we are being held to a reasonably strict standard, I think. Not quite 50% A/A-'s may seem pretty lax at first glance, but where you're essentially limited to A's and B's to be in good academic standing... that nearly 20% of B-/C really jumps out. I mean, it's clearly not statistically significant evidence - we could just all be dumb, on average - but you'll have to take my word for the fact that those in my cohort are, by and large, very sharp people. ;-)

Halloween Homework

Well, I don't think ever, in all my school years, have I ever done homework/studied during Halloween trick-or-treating. Until now! ;-) Here I am, reading my financial accounting lesson, popping up and down for trick-or-treaters...

So, I guess that's either a pro for online MBA's, or a con - I'm even working on Halloween! ;-)

Online Degrees More Acceptable in the Workplace

Interesting article on BusinessWire, regarding Vault.com's Online Degree Surveys, with 107 employers responding:

Online Degrees More Acceptable in the Workplace

Basically, one of their quotes touches on what I see to be the biggest strength of an online degree:

One such respondent stated, "It takes a lot of discipline to complete an online degree."

In my experience thus far, I absolutely concur with that statement - it takes considerable discipline to sit down and hit the books when nobody's really making you. They go on to give some statistics gathered from the survey, summarized below:

• 34% have ever encountered a job applicant with an online degree
• 20% have hired applicants with online degrees
• 54% still favor job applicants with traditional degrees over those with online degrees
• 45% said they would give job candidates with both types of degrees equal consideration
• 86% would be willing to accept a job applicant with an online degree, while
• 14% said that both online bachelor's degrees and graduate degrees are not acceptable
• 91% would hire a candidate who had everything they were looking for, but only possessed a degree from an online university

Yes, for the next few years, online degree holders will potentially be subject to a bit more scrutiny than a brick-and-mortar degree holder. However, I think that will continue to become less and less of a factor, and if you are a truly qualified candidate for the job, the degree will be seen as complimentary, and not a detraction from your credentials.

If nothing else - Just wait until I go and take over the world. THAT will give online degrees some credibility. ;-) To be perfectly serious, though - as more and more people take online courses, it would stand to reason that we will have more and more people who "make it big" that went online. As that happens, the perceived credibility of qualified online programs will increase dramatically.

ASU / W. P. Carey Chat

From the ASU W. P. Carey MBA Online Program homepage:

Get your questions answered in our October 19th Chat session. Simply log into the chat session on Wednesday, October 19, 2005 from 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. MST (5 p.m. - 7 p.m. EST).

Anyone is welcome to participate at anytime during the two-hour session.

I will plan to logged in for most if not all of the session - for anyone reading this that's a potential applicant, or just generally curious - feel free to log in!

Online learning gains ground

Online learning gains ground

Interesting article in the Nashville City Paper - hardly a publication of the same caliber as the WSJ, but interesting, nonetheless - generally quite favorable of online learning.

Google RSS Reader!

Not really about my MBA, here, but another meta-post on blogging, and/or keeping up with bunches of regularly-updated websites - to my non-techie MBA friends and readers who haven't yet found RSS readers - Let me make yet another plug of them as a concept in general - they will increase the productivity of your web surfing tenfold, if not more. It may sound silly, perhaps, to increase the efficiency of your web surfing, but if you're like me and try to follow tons of websites - of both professional interest (e.g. business, economics, finance, etc) and leisure interest - it's no joke. This is another thing you'll want to be ahead of the curve on, not behind it.

Anyhow - As I wistfully posted a while back, I really wanted Google to buy out Bloglines, or otherwise offer an RSS reader of their own.

Wish no more - They've got it! Of course, it's still in beta and all that, but of course, as with anything Google, they've put their own spin on it and done it up even better! For those into the whole Web 2.0 thing, it is definitely a move in that direction.

Thus far, it's very cool. It took me a second to get used to the interface - they use tags ("Labels"), of course, instead of folders. All very AJAXy - quick, snappy, and all that good stuff. Though, with my 85 feeds (and counting), it does bog down every so often. ;-)

I was able to export my Bloglines list to an OPML file (hint: you have to view your blogroll publicly, and look at the bottom to Export Subscriptions - mine), and upload all my feeds - migration took all of maybe 3 minutes. God bless open standards.

There's still a few things they could do - again, still in beta - but overall, a very nice reader. I'll probably keep my Bloglines account active for a bit, but I sense a migration to Google's Reader.

Hardcore!

Our prof for our current class posted this message this morning:

Well, I have no idea how she did it, but [STUDENT] got her quiz done before the deadline last night (even though she didn't have to make that deadline). Since she had no internet connection, she phoned in the answers to [ADMINISTRATOR]'s voice mail! This ranks up there with the all-time hurricane award winners (from last year) for going above and beyond under unbelievably bad circumstances.

We all wish [STUDENT] and her family (and all of the others who are storm affected) the long run of good luck that they so richly deserve!

Wow! As some background, [STUDENT] was chased out of New Orleans to Houston by Katrina, and then again out of Houston by Rita. Recall, while we are in our classes, we have one quiz due each week, Sunday night (not to mention an exercise to Saturday night). Forget the act of actually taking the quiz; what is more monumental to me is that she was able to cover the material enough to feel comfortable taking the quiz, when she could have "taken a pass". This says two great things to me:

1. The caliber of students in our program is exceptional. I mean... Talk about dedication!
   
2. The faculty/staff really do care about your education, and will do everything reasonably possible to accomodate any extenuating circumstances.

Anyhow - just an interesting point of info - I thought it was really impressive.