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 need for a more flexible type of educational option was acknowledged by persons in earlier times. This is referred to collectively as distance learning and was first done by Caleb Phillips when he offered to teach shorthand through the mail. The snailmail that we rarely use nowadays was the channel for his program.
Perhaps among the more forward-looking institutions back then was the University of London, which was why it was so quick to get on board the distance learning boat: in fact, it was among the formal pioneers of it. Just a little behind was the state university of Chicago, which also took on similar courses at the end of the 19th century. It was not long before Australians started to do the same.
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. Not long after, Jones International University was established and claimed to be the first regionally accredited online university in 1996.
Now for business majors, the first school to have established graduate school is Dartmouth College-Tuck School of Business in 1900. To people taking the course, they were taking not an MBA but a Master of Science in Commerce instead. At the very beginning of the 20th century, Harvard Uni developed and launched the first true MBA course.
At first, there were some concerns that the programs did not provide truly advanced studies that were useful outside of the academe. This was said to be a jest of a program at the time, one that served no purpose. It was thus that there were several dark years for the MBA program as a whole.
To fight the negative opinions, there were major revamps and improvements to the curriculum. Concentrations became possible soon after. This then provided students with a balance of management and subject expertise.
Unfortunately, the critique did not exactly stop: it simply changed. There were allegations of graduates being so theoretically-inclined that they had trouble with the less-than-predictable real world. The problem too was that several schools hired professors who did not have experiential knowledge of their subjects.
The MBA suddenly became a liability for people on the job market. However, it was evident that changes in the program were necessary. The schools thus began yet another major modification of their MBA courses.
It is clear that even educational courses have to change to meet the demands of the business arena. In fact, experts have realized that
online universities and conventional MBA training will need to shift focus to business ethics, morality and leadership. Thus, you should apply only to colleges that keep up with the times.
