1-866-295-3104 | Online MBAs: It's about time.
Travel, if you dare, to the distant past. Way, way back to a bygone era. Just after the dinosaurs, and just before Google's IPO. Travel if you dare to an ancient time on planet earth. All the way back to the year 2000.
In this long dead, primordial era, the world was a vastly different place. Alta Vista was a leading search engine. MySpace was but a web proprietor's dream, and online MBA degrees got less respect than Rodney Dangerfield at a Friars Club Roast.
It was in the year 2000 that Vault.com conducted an online survey of 239 human resource professionals. Vault wanted to understand their attitudes toward online degrees, and the results weren't pretty.
As one respondent panned, online degrees were like "earning a GED through a Sally Struthers correspondence course." Ouch. That's not exactly what online learners want to hear from their future recruiters.
But alas, that was the distant past.
Now flash forward to 2005. Dinosaurs are but a distant memory, Google practically owns the internet, and online MBA degrees are finally getting the respect they deserve. In 2005, Vault.com again surveyed employers about their attitudes toward online degrees and this time, an overwhelming 86 percent of respondents said they would have no problem hiring a candidate with an online degree.
Today, that trend continues. In a recent Money Magazine article, Alan Fisher described his company's stance toward online MBA degrees. Fisher, Manager of Corporate Education at Chip Maker Intel said, "Our perception is that an online education from a reputable college or university is as valuable as the degree offered on-ground." Perhaps that's why Intel reimburses its employees for both online and traditional MBA costs. As Fisher puts it, "We don't differentiate between the two."
Intel's perspective is driven by solid logic. As distance learners are quick to point out, online MBA degrees often require more work than degrees earned at traditional, brick-and-mortar institutions. One reason is that remote learning is often more writing-intensive, especially at the graduate level.
Brick-and-mortar MBA candidates can demonstrate competency through reading and in-class participation, but online students are forced to prove their mettle through writing assignments and essay exams. Strong writers are strong thinkers and the communication skills acquired in writing-intensive programs are invaluable in the information-driven world of business.
Yet despite their level of commitment, online degrees offer benefits that ground-based institutions simply can’t. Like flexibility, for instance. Benedictine University MBA candidates consistently report that flexibility was a key factor in their choice of schools and it's easy to see why. With flexible class-times and 8-week, one-at-a-time class schedules, Benedictine's working adults are better equipped to integrate professional and academic life.
Then there's the credibility factor. As it turns out, employers treat degrees from established, non-profit universities with the highest level of respect. Unlike recent, for-profit upstarts such a Capella or University of Phoenix, schools such as Benedictine enjoy a long history of brick-and-mortar education and that makes all the difference. In Benedictine's case, its 120-year history lends a credibility that its publicly traded competitors can't touch.
