An MBA from Lehigh is now available through the Internet — last month the university joined other schools that make their MBA programs available online.

Mary Gulick, assistant director of recruitment, said the admissions process is the same, the high standards are the same, the curriculum is identical and students have access to all of the on-campus resources that traditional students have.

“The only difference is that the method of delivery is in a virtual environment,” Gulick said.

Gulick said although sometimes there is a negative stigma attached to online educational programs, she thinks the program offers everything an on-campus course can provide.

Although program development and providing quality education was difficult, Gulick said Lehigh eventually succeeded.

“We did not develop a new program,” Gulick said. “We just migrated an already successful program to an online format.”

Lehigh is no stranger to distance education; the university has been offering online certificate programs for years.

Enrollment for Lehigh’s online programs is open to anyone, and the programs are not restricted to location. Gulick said taking the MBA program online was the next logical step.

Gulick said that although she doesn’t think online programs will overtake traditional programs, there is plenty of room for online growth.

An online school with an MBA program helps older, non-traditional students get an education from a good school, Gulick said. Such was the case for Fotinos Panagakos, ’86, who enrolled in the program.

“The advantages are that I can fit in much of the work around my work and home schedules,” Panagakos said. “I travel quite a bit for my job, so being able to log onto Blackboard from anywhere and view classes is a big plus.”

Business major Alexander Zachariah, ’06, said graduate students aren’t the sole beneficiaries of the online program.

Zachariah said he thinks the program gives Lehigh positive national exposure.

“I think it allows the school to reach potential students who otherwise would not be able to obtain a Lehigh MBA due to location,” Zachariah said.

Some students said the personal interaction they get in the classroom at Lehigh is an invaluable experience that an online program cannot replicate.

“I think that if I were doing an MBA,” Chris Mailloux, ’07, said, “I would want to do it in the classroom.”

The Lehigh program offers some interaction: a residence period at Lehigh is required prior to the start of the online program.

The residence period is designed to allow online students to become acquainted with the faculty and university and develop relationships with other MBA students, while providing an opportunity for students to work with their MBA teams.

Melissa Rohland, ’86, pointed out the many advantages she found in the program: professors are attentive, available and responsive to student needs and Lehigh provides all the materials students could need for the course.

Rohland warned that the workload of Lehigh’s online MBA program is the same as other MBA programs. With a full-time job and a family, she said, the workload of an MBA program could be somewhat overwhelming at times.

“I know Lehigh’s reputation for high quality education,” Rohland said, “and I have not been disappointed in their standards and expectations from the students.”

Source: .bw.lehigh.edu

This entry was posted by Taman Siswa on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 at 12:42 am and is filed under Education News, Online Education. Tags: Alexander Zachariah, Chris Mailloux, Education News, Lehigh, Mary Gulick, Melissa Rohland, online certificate programs, Online Education, online format.â, online program, online programs, online school, online students, Student, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.