It is true that online universities are not exactly traditional in the sense that they only came about in recent years. The Web only came into being in the twentieth century, so that makes sense. Yet, the idea for these universities came into being ages ago, in the 1700s.
The idea of getting an education even while not in a physical classroom was long considered ages ago. This started distance learning, as seen in the first mail-mediating learning program for shorthand writers. He posted the modules regularly to the members of the course.
The University of London has asserted that it was the first university to truly add distance learning to their repertoire. Mailing lessons and quizzes was tried out first across the Atlantic by the University of Chicago. The new formats were embraced too by educators in the land Down Under soon enough.
Between the years 1964 and 1968, the medium was shifted from correspondence to radio and television. The latter part of the past century saw increasing interest and rapid growth in this sector. Merely a few years past, educators were treated to the creation of an accredited online establishment for learning too.
The very first of the major universities to create a masters school for business in particular was Dartmouth, though. It wasn’t known as Masters in Business Administration but was rather known as a Master of Science in Commerce. Harvard then created the masters in business administration program for several participants.
Certain persons had their doubts: at the end of the 1950s, there were already allegations of the MBA classes containing largely off-tangent topics. This was said to be a jest of a program at the time, one that served no purpose. For these reasons, many of the people associated with the course were shunned as unskilled ones.
This was why people in the academe started to mandate the study of even basic subjects in the graduate program. People began to get specializations in the program. The result was a more comprehensive, balanced program.
All of a sudden, though, the critics switched gears and started making allegations of over-academic approaches in the discipline. There were allegations of graduates being so theoretically-inclined that they had trouble with the less-than-predictable real world. The colleges were also looked down upon by real businessmen for hiring lecturers absent experience in their topics.
Corporations looking for fresh personnel began to avoid MBA-holders. It was clear that another revamp had to take place. This is why the MBA of today is largely different from that of the past.
Education needs to reflect what people have learned and are learning in commerce each day, hence the need for such mutations in the academe. Even now,
online universities as well as offline ones are making new modifications to the MBA programs they offer. A forward-looking course curriculum should be a fine indication of a good program.
