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technology MBA and BBA Programs Go Online This Fall WHILE MANY BUSINESS SCHOOLS are exploring ways to offer specialized online and blended programs, fewer traditional universities are offering their entire MBA curricula virtually. However, this fall, several new online offerings are entering the market, indicating that online delivery of degree programs is becoming less a novelty and more the norm at traditional business schools. This fall, University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School in Chapel Hill launches its MBA@UNC program with 19 students in the first cohort. Kenan- Flagler's not alone. This fall, not too far away in Raleigh, North Carolina State University also is launching its two- year Jenkins Online MBA. It will be taught by faculty from its regular MBA program and delivered primarily via asynchronous methods such as podcasts, streaming video, and online discussion boards. The Jenkins Online MBA is yet another indication that business schools' fear of entering the online market is on the wane. Given current trends, bringing the MBA degree online is in direct correlation to what a growing num- UMassOnline, the suite of online and blended programs offered by the five campuses of the University of Massachusetts, reports a 16 percent increase in revenue, from US$56.2 million to US$65.2 million, and a 12 percent increase in enrollments, from 45,772 students to 51,097, from FY2010 to FY2011. ber of students want—a degree program that fits their work schedules and family obligations. According to the 2010 Survey of Online Learning from the Sloan Consortium, the number of U.S. students enrolled in at least one online course grew 21 percent in 2009, to 5.6 million. By comparison, enrollments in traditional higher education courses grew by only 2 percent. The trend is also reaching into undergraduate educa- tion—not just for individual courses, but for full-fledged degree programs. This fall, for example, Pace University's Lubin School of Business in New York, New York, wel- comes its first enrollments to iPace, a part-time online BBA program that targets working professionals. Students can choose concentrations in either business communica- tions, which combines marketing and management, or internal auditing. The program accommodates up to 25 students. It incorporates Web chats and real-time interac- tions to help students feel connected to their class; lecture capture will allow them to view the content afterward. None of these schools has made the leap to 100 per- cent online delivery of an MBA or BBA program. All three include some face-to-face to components, adopt- ing a blended delivery model. But even so, these and other online MBA programs that have come before indicate that business schools are increasingly translat- ing the quality and content of their face-to-face curri- cula into online formats—and honing online models of business education for the future. The Sloan Consortium's survey, "Class Differences: Online Education in the United States, 2010," was conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group and the College Board. The full survey can be downloaded at sloanconsortium.org/ publications/survey/class_differences. BizEd September/October 2011 71