Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/54894
Technology The London School of Business and Finance's Facebook page invites users to join its social networking group to access the content of its Global MBA. While educators debate LSBF's method of delivery, few question the demand for online business educa- tion that inspired it. More business schools are responding by offering more content in online formats. But in addition, new entrants, with new models, are emerging. Most recently, the American School of Entrepreneurship, a new online provider based in Phoenix, Arizona, announced that it was launching a series of online courses targeting entrepreneurs. ASE will offer a com- bination of recorded sessions and live chats with mentors for $29 to $49 per session. More Schools Move Content Online The London School of Business and Finance caught the attention of the media last November when it announced that it would post the content of its Global MBA program on Face- book. Users of the site can audit the entire MBA curriculum—including 80 hours of video and hundreds of hours of study resources—for free. If they wish, they can even pay a fee to be formally assessed—and earn the school's MBA credential, accredited by the University of Wales in the U.K., if they pass. LSBF's move isn't completely new. Many schools have posted vid- eos of their lectures on YouTube and iTunes. But few brick-and-mortar schools have posted the full line of courses for an MBA, few have done 60 BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011 it through Facebook—and few, if any, have offered students who access that content the potential to earn a degree with what they've learned. The school has invested £7.5 mil- lion (approximately $11.8 million) in the initiative. Aaron Etingen, LSBF founder, expects more than 500,000 Facebook users to access the courses during the first year. By giving students the chance to "try before they buy," he believes LSBF can drive more students to pay for the opportunity to earn the actual MBA degree. Even if people do not decide to pursue the formal cre- dential, he adds, "the LSBF Global MBA will, at no cost, better equip business students to deal with the global job market." ASE's mini-courses don't compete with full-fledged degree programs, but they do indicate a shift in the market, says Raghu Tadepalli, dean of Babson College's Olin Graduate School of Business in Wellesley, Mas- sachusetts. "As competition intensi- fies, there will be more opportunities for these niche players to come in," says Tadepalli. That will be espe- cially true, he says, as more students demand educational opportunities that are less time- and money-inten- sive than a degree program. Babson's Olin School is responding to this trend with a new online certificate program in entrepreneurship called "Global Venture Feasibility." As a joint program with EM Lyon in France and Zhejiang University in China, the course will require students to choose an industry to explore and compare in the U.S., French, and Chinese markets. "We are accepting the notion that not everyone needs an MBA, so we're developing these programs to deliver to a broad audience across the country," says Tadepalli. "We hope that they will also help us leverage JEFFREY COOLIDGE/GETTY IMAGES