Online universities are indeed among the later developments in educational technology. 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.
People even centuries in the past were already interested in being educated out of university. This is referred to collectively as distance learning and was first done by Caleb Phillips when he offered to teach shorthand through the mail. His lessons were sent through the postal system weekly for aspiring students.
The University of London claims to be the first to incorporate the precursors of online programs into their portfolio in 1858, when they referred to it as the External Programme, which is now known as the University of London International Program. The end of the 1800s saw American schools following suit, starting in Chicago. 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. Soon, more universities got on the bandwagon for this kind of education. By 1996, there was already an accredited college: Jones International.
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.
Certain persons had their doubts: at the end of the 1950s, there were already allegations of the MBA classes containing largely off-tangent topics. It was even stated that graduate studies are no better than completing a vocational course. At this time, people thought the masters for business one of futility.
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 skill sets of the degree-holders suddenly became formidable.
Unfortunately, the critique did not exactly stop: it simply changed. The true arena of business apparently tended to confound degree-holders who had been taught in a more sanitized environment with more controllable parameters. Moreover, educators were said to lack the qualifications to be effective leaders when most of them didn’t have any professional experience to speak of.
It was because of this that the demand for MBA graduates declined and faltered. The program needed to be changed yet again. The courses of the moment are thus not entirely similar to the ones they had at the outset.
Colleges have an obligation to see to it that the programs they offer are appropriate for the current state of the industry for each program. Ethics seems to be the next topic of interest to contemporary MBA programs, according to regular as well as
online universities. A forward-looking course curriculum should be a fine indication of a good program.
