Online universities were not introduced until the past decade. This could be right since the Internet didn’t exist commercially until the 1990s. The beginnings of this education are rooted in a far older learning format, nevertheless, one more than mere decades back in history.
The idea of getting an education even while not in a physical classroom was long considered ages ago. The pioneer of distance learning was said to be a man who was giving classes on shorthand writing via snailmail. The snailmail that we rarely use nowadays was the channel for his program.
The University of London has asserted that it was the first university to truly add distance learning to their repertoire. Just a little behind was the state university of Chicago, which also took on similar courses at the end of the 19th century. The University of Queensland in Australia, on the other hand, founded its Department of Correspondence Studies in 1911.
When fresh forms of communication came into being, the program molded itself to suit those forms better. It was not long before other colleges began to create similar programs. Merely a few years past, educators were treated to the creation of an accredited online establishment for learning too.
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. Harvard then created the masters in business administration program for several participants.
Initially, there was some criticism regarding the curriculum and relevance of the materials in the courses. 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.
This was why people in the academe started to mandate the study of even basic subjects in the graduate program. Moreover, students were allowed to take elective courses specializing in certain aspects like marketing, finance, accounting or economics. The skill sets of the degree-holders suddenly became formidable.
Then, a new negative perception arose: that of the MBA being a largely "test-tube environment" program. The true arena of business apparently tended to confound degree-holders who had been taught in a more sanitized environment with more controllable parameters. The problem too was that several schools hired professors who did not have experiential knowledge of their subjects.
Companies slowed down in their hiring of masters of business administration degree-holders. It was clear that another revamp had to take place. Universities then started to revamp the program to address concerns like soft skills, and globalization that is now reflected in most online degrees.
It is clear that even educational courses have to change to meet the demands of the business arena. 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.
