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Going the As higher education evolves, traditional business schools face a multitude of challenges to their standard educational formats. In particular, the full-time, face-to-face class is increasingly giving way to part-time and distance learning models as schools provide more programs with fewer time and location restrictions. Today, part-time students make up about two-thirds of the MBA population in Virtual education is changing the classroom, but schools must plan carefully before implementing their own distance learning programs. Case studies from two successful programs offer templates. by Andres Fortino and Paige P. Wolf the U.S., and they account for approximately one-third of the MBA student body in the rest of the world. The ramifications of this growing part-time demographic are clear: Business educators must determine how to offer flexibility in program- ming while providing all students with a top education. At the same time, they must consider how to deliver quality programs in cost-effective ways that optimize student enrollment. With many distance learning formats available, a business school's best option is to develop a program that complements its existing classroom formats. Two schools that have developed emerging programs are George Mason University in Fairfax, Vir- ginia, and Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. George Mason, a large public state university serving a diverse population in the national capital region, developed its first distance learning course as part of a customized MBA program for a multina- tional corporation. Marist, a small rural college, used the distance format to enhance student enrollment. While their approaches are very different, their examples show that any school can find the right tools to bring distance learning to its campus. Keys to the Virtual Classroom As George Mason and Marist discovered, distance learning programs are more likely to succeed when schools consider three key facets of virtual education: making the business case for adopting online education, designing the ideal program, and care- fully managing the transition. Making the business case: The foray into distance education should be shaped by three important criteria: institutional mission, stakeholder support, and a thorough cost- benefit analysis. The cost-benefit analysis not only will help justify the program, but will aid in bringing more stakeholders on board, so it should be carefully conducted. In terms of cost, the program should be at least self-sufficient to be attractive. Fac- ulty compensation packages should reflect the fact that professors will need additional time to prepare content for the new format. In terms of benefits, a distance learning program should enhance the school's overall reputation and help it connect with a segment of the market it previously has been unable to reach. Crafting a successful approach: Some distance learning programs combine face-to- face classroom sessions with Web-enhanced instruction, while others consist of 100 percent Web-based courses. Approaches that fall somewhere between these extremes are called distributed or blended models of delivery. When a school is designing its approach, it should consider how far its typical students must travel to sit in a physical classroom, what kind of access they have to the Internet, how their work Distance 30 BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007