It is a fact that online universities did not come into being until too recently. The very channel that makes this type of learning possible is a new invention in itself. Yet, the idea for these universities came into being ages ago, in the 1700s.
Although the technology is somewhat recent, the concept of learning in an informal environment, without the need for the educator and student to be in the same room, is centuries old. For instance, one can look at the development of a lesson plan by a man back then who was teaching shorthand to people through mailed letters. His lessons were sent through the postal system weekly for aspiring students.
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. Distance learning was then introduced to Australian shores.
There were some changes in the way the education was provided to distance learners when people invented things like TV. Various schools all over the globe started to develop their own program for distance learning from 1970 onwards and are often referred to as open universities. And then, just some time ago, accreditations started to be handed out to Internet universities, starting with Jones International.
And as for the MBA, some claim it really began when Dartmouth put up what would be the first graduate business school in the world. At the time, it actually had a different name. Soon after, Harvard was already offering MBA classes for just under a hundred starting pupils.
Certain persons had their doubts: at the end of the 1950s, there were already allegations of the MBA classes containing largely off-tangent topics. The argument included assertions of uselessness in the course. It was continuously assumed at the time that educators and students of graduate programs were always lacking in quality.
Hence, schools began to try to change the image of the program by making it more comprehensive. MBAs were suddenly courses amenable to the adoption of a focus of study. The training was thus sharpened and enhanced for maximum effect.
Unfortunately, the critique did not exactly stop: it simply changed. The lack of experience of students was widely criticized by detractors. The colleges were also looked down upon by real businessmen for hiring lecturers absent experience in their topics.
Companies slowed down in their hiring of masters of business administration degree-holders. However, it was evident that changes in the program were necessary. Universities then started to revamp the program to address concerns like soft skills, and globalization that is now reflected in most online degrees.
Education needs to reflect what people have learned and are learning in commerce each day, hence the need for such mutations in the academe. Ethics seems to be the next topic of interest to contemporary MBA programs, according to regular as well as
online universities. It is crucial to enter a university that actually cares about what the real business world demands of graduates.
