Tracking the best in class for online MBAs The FT showcases its 2016 ranking of the top 15 programmes Page 2 The next revolution will be televised Academics step out from behind the lectern and into the spotlight Page 4 Inside Avatars take over the 21st-century campus Schools discover the unique appeal of virtual reality in class Page 3 Moocs earn a place on jobseekers’ CVs Courses provide the biggest boost to less privileged students Page 3 When massive open online courses emerged four years ago the thing that really caught the public imagination is that they were free. Thousands of peo- ple enrolled on courses provided by academic institutions on third-party Mooc platforms such as Coursera and edX and started studying subjects they would never have been able to access before. But high-end online programmes require substantial investments of time and money. Also, with such large num- bers of participants, many business educators and students questioned whether standards could be main- tained. Some institutions, such as Oxford’s Saïd Business School, decided not to offer Moocs or other online courses at all. Today, many that did offer free pro- grammes have switched to charging fees. HEC Paris ran free and open Moocs in 2012 via the Coursera platform. Now it offers a number of programmes on Coursera. But “free courses are expen- sive to deliver”, says Nathalie Lugagne, HEC’s associate dean for executive edu- cation. “So we decided to find new ways to monetise.” She devised an online corporate finance programme that costs €1,800 and awards a certificate on completion. It consists of three courses, featuring case studies and webinars, lasting six weeks each. Students sit a final exam. So far two cohorts of 400 students each have taken the programme. Others have taken a hybrid approach. Harvard Business School runs HBX CORe (Credential of Readiness), an online course designed as a primer on the fundamentals of business. It costs $1,800 and completion requires stu- dents to pass a final exam. The course combines Harvard’s case-study approach to teaching with an online, community-based curriculum. Patrick Mullane, HBX’s executive director, says the course is not a Mooc. Instead he describes it as an extension of Harvard’s premium offering, which stu- dents are willing to pay for. “We were not interested in creating another Mooc platform,” he says. But do courses such as those at HBS and HEC go against the egalitarian nature of Moocs? HEC’s Prof Lugagne says the courses are “inspired” by Moocs, but they are a different product that essentially offers already well-edu- cated professionals a chance to extend their skills or prepare for an MBA. Prof Mullane adds: “Our goal was to create a sustainable business model, which ensures we are able to continue to produce the highest quality business educationcourses.” Richard Barker, professor of account- ing at Oxford’s Saïd Business School, says Moocs should be a way for universi- ties to contribute to society. An effec- tive, non-commercial model would pro- vide a great opportunity to share knowl- edge beyond those who attend the insti- tution. “But it has got to be done well,” he says. “[Some institutions] use Moocs as a marketing outreach tool, as a way for people to get to know the brand. But there’s no need for us to do that.” Paid-for online courses might deliver high-quality education, but are they worth students’ money? Prof Lugagne argues that they are good value. She says the price of HEC’s executive online certificate is still “very affordable” and helps the school fulfil its mission to provide education to the larg- est number of people. The certification awarded at the end of the course carries credits that can be put towards some of the school’s degree programmes. “In our experience, people expect to invest in the quality of education and interactive experience provided by CORe,” says Harvard’s Prof Mullane. He says HBS believes that when a student is paying for something, they are more motivated to get the most out of it, and the model is working. “To date our completion rate for HBX CORe is about 85 per cent — far exceed- ing the average completion rate for Moocs,” he says. A University of Pennsylvania Gradu- ate School of Education study of a mil- lion users of Coursera published at the end of 2013 found that completion rates averaged only 4 per cent. For business schools, any online course, free or otherwise, is an expen- sive business. Academics have to take time to construct a course and gather teaching materials, while institutions are also funding research. “Developing and funding Moocs or online programmes has a cost and charging for them seems inevitable and reasonable,” says Prof Lugagne. The challenge, she adds, is finding the right business model that will preserve the quality of both teaching and learning, while keeping the courses affordable. “The idea is easier than the execu- tion,” says Prof Barker. “It’s expensive and time consuming to build a course that’s worth doing.” He points out that HBS is not just pull- ing content out of text books. The goal, he says, is to deliver high quality, case- based learning to a wider audience, while also creating a sustainable busi- ness model. Price is right for the next generation of digital courses Moocs Free tuition proved too expensive for many business schools to sustain, so modest fees have been introduced — with encouraging results, writes Janina Conboye Cost benefits: paying students are motivated to finish the course B usiness schools were braced for disaster less than five years ago, with the arrival of massive open online courses, or Moocs, and the platforms that hosted them. They had watched as the digital revo- lution upended the music industry’s business model. Previously lucrative compact disc sales plummeted as con- sumers switched to cheaper, faster dig- ital music downloads and then to third- party streaming services. Could a simi- lar revenue disaster befall the money- spinning business education sector? Not quite. Early indications suggest that, far from cannibalising existing rev- enue streams such as income from executive education courses, the availa- bility of online content is broadening the reach of institutions. Today, schools work in partnerships with Mooc platforms such as Coursera, so that interactive content and broad- cast lectures complement study tours and time spent by students on cam- puses. Data from the FT business school rankings show that downloadable lec- tures tend to widen the market for busi- ness education, to people who may oth- erwise have been unable or unwilling to study for an MBA. Traditional class- room-based MBA programmes at top institutions are dominated by people working in the financial services and consultancy sectors, accounting for 24 per cent and 16 per cent respectively of the students, according to the FT’s 2016 Global MBA rankings data. Online MBA students, on the other hand, are much more evenly spread between sectors. The FT’s online MBA survey found that 16 per cent of students were from a financial services background and 6 per cent were from consultancies. The mili- tary, which provided just 2 per cent of students in the MBA rankings data, was one of the larger groups in the research of online MBAs, accounting for 7 per cent of those taking such courses. What is more, online offerings tend to attract students from more diverse backgrounds. The Wharton School in Pennsylvania reported that 78 per cent of those registering for one of its online business courses came from outside the US, compared with 14 per cent of those attending its executive MBA pro- grammes, and 45 per cent on the full- time, two-year MBA. The Mooc platforms that stream online lectures, such as Coursera, edX, Educators embrace forces of change Fears of disruption fade as campuses find they have lasting appeal, says Jonathan Moules Udacity and NovoEd, point to partner- ships with the leading business schools as a sign of their credibility. Rick Levin, former president of Yale University, now chief executive of Coursera, talks about disrupting education while prais- ing the value of his technology com- pany’s partnerships with leading busi- ness schools. “These schools are not going away soon,” Mr Levin says. “The residential experience and the whole package of attending a campus is too valuable.” Since it started streaming online courses in October 2013, UK-based Continued on page 3 ‘Developing Moocs has a cost — charging for them seems inevitable and reasonable’ Business Education Online Learning FT SPECIAL REPORT www.ft.com/reports | @ftreports Monday March 7 2016 Consultancy IT/telecoms Industrial Finance/ banking
Transcript
Tracking the best inclass for online MBAsThe FT showcases its2016 ranking of thetop 15 programmesPage 2
The next revolutionwill be televisedAcademics step outfrom behind the lecternand into the spotlightPage 4
Inside
Avatars take over the21st-century campusSchoolsdiscover theunique appealof virtual realityin classPage 3
Moocs earn a placeon jobseekers’ CVsCourses provide thebiggest boost to lessprivileged studentsPage 3
When massive open online coursesemerged four years ago the thing thatreally caught the public imagination isthat they were free. Thousands of peo-ple enrolled on courses provided byacademic institutions on third-partyMooc platforms such as Coursera andedX and started studying subjects theywould never have been able to accessbefore.
But high-end online programmesrequire substantial investments of timeand money. Also, with such large num-bers of participants, many businesseducators and students questionedwhether standards could be main-tained. Some institutions, such asOxford’s Saïd Business School, decidednot to offer Moocs or other onlinecoursesatall.
Today, many that did offer free pro-grammes have switched to chargingfees. HEC Paris ran free and open Moocsin 2012 via the Coursera platform. Nowit offers a number of programmes onCoursera. But “free courses are expen-sive to deliver”, says Nathalie Lugagne,HEC’s associate dean for executive edu-cation. “So we decided to find new waystomonetise.”
She devised an online corporatefinance programme that costs €1,800and awards a certificate on completion.It consists of three courses, featuringcase studies and webinars, lasting sixweeks each. Students sit a final exam. Sofar two cohorts of 400 students eachhavetakentheprogramme.
Others have taken a hybrid approach.Harvard Business School runs HBXCORe (Credential of Readiness), anonline course designed as a primer onthe fundamentals of business. It costs$1,800 and completion requires stu-dents to pass a final exam. The coursecombines Harvard’s case-studyapproach to teaching with an online,community-basedcurriculum.
Patrick Mullane, HBX’s executivedirector, says the course is not a Mooc.
Insteadhedescribes itasanextensionofHarvard’s premium offering, which stu-dents are willing to pay for. “We werenot interested in creating another Moocplatform,”hesays.
But do courses such as those at HBSand HEC go against the egalitariannature of Moocs? HEC’s Prof Lugagnesays the courses are “inspired” byMoocs, but they are a different productthat essentially offers already well-edu-cated professionals a chance to extendtheirskillsorprepare foranMBA.
Prof Mullane adds: “Our goal was tocreate a sustainable business model,which ensures we are able to continue toproduce the highest quality businesseducationcourses.”
Richard Barker, professor of account-ing at Oxford’s Saïd Business School,saysMoocsshouldbeawayforuniversi-
ties to contribute to society. An effec-tive, non-commercial model would pro-vide a great opportunity to share knowl-edge beyond those who attend the insti-tution. “But it has got to be done well,”he says. “[Some institutions] use Moocsas a marketing outreach tool, as a wayfor people to get to know the brand. Butthere’snoneedforustodothat.”
Paid-for online courses might deliverhigh-quality education, but are theyworthstudents’money?
Prof Lugagne argues that they aregood value. She says the price of HEC’sexecutive online certificate is still “veryaffordable”andhelps theschool fulfil itsmissiontoprovideeducationtothe larg-est number of people. The certificationawarded at the end of the course carriescredits that can be put towards some oftheschool’sdegreeprogrammes.
“In our experience, people expect toinvest in the quality of education andinteractive experience provided byCORe,” says Harvard’s Prof Mullane. Hesays HBS believes that when a student ispaying for something, they are moremotivated to get the most out of it, andthemodel isworking.
“To date our completion rate for HBXCORe is about 85 per cent — far exceed-ing the average completion rate forMoocs,”hesays.
A University of Pennsylvania Gradu-ate School of Education study of a mil-lion users of Coursera published at theend of 2013 found that completion ratesaveragedonly4percent.
For business schools, any onlinecourse, free or otherwise, is an expen-sive business. Academics have to taketime to construct a course and gatherteaching materials, while institutionsarealso fundingresearch.
“Developing and funding Moocs oronline programmes has a cost andcharging for them seems inevitable andreasonable,” says Prof Lugagne. Thechallenge, she adds, is finding the rightbusiness model that will preserve thequality of both teaching and learning,whilekeepingthecoursesaffordable.
“The idea is easier than the execu-tion,” says Prof Barker. “It’s expensiveand time consuming to build a coursethat’sworthdoing.”
He points out that HBS is not just pull-ing content out of text books. The goal,he says, is to deliver high quality, case-based learning to a wider audience,while also creating a sustainable busi-nessmodel.
Price is right for the nextgeneration of digital coursesMoocs
Free tuition proved tooexpensive for many businessschools to sustain, so modestfees have been introduced —with encouraging results,writes Janina Conboye
Cost benefits: paying students aremotivated to finish the course
B usiness schools were bracedfor disaster less than fiveyears ago, with the arrival ofmassive open online courses,or Moocs, and the platforms
thathostedthem.They had watched as the digital revo-
lution upended the music industry’sbusiness model. Previously lucrativecompact disc sales plummeted as con-sumers switched to cheaper, faster dig-ital music downloads and then to third-party streaming services. Could a simi-lar revenue disaster befall the money-spinningbusinesseducationsector?
Not quite. Early indications suggest
that, far fromcannibalisingexistingrev-enue streams such as income fromexecutive education courses, the availa-bility of online content is broadeningthereachof institutions.
Today, schools work in partnershipswith Mooc platforms such as Coursera,so that interactive content and broad-cast lectures complement study toursand time spent by students on cam-puses.
Data from the FT business schoolrankings show that downloadable lec-tures tend to widen the market for busi-ness education, to people who may oth-erwise have been unable or unwilling to
study for an MBA. Traditional class-room-based MBA programmes at topinstitutions are dominated by peopleworking in the financial services andconsultancy sectors, accounting for 24per cent and 16 per cent respectively ofthe students, according to the FT’s 2016GlobalMBArankingsdata.
Online MBA students, on the otherhand, are much more evenly spreadbetweensectors.
The FT’s online MBA survey foundthat 16 per cent of students were from afinancial services background and 6 percent were from consultancies. The mili-tary, which provided just 2 per cent of
students in the MBA rankings data, wasone of the larger groups in the researchof online MBAs, accounting for 7 percent of those taking such courses.
What is more, online offerings tend toattract students from more diversebackgrounds. The Wharton School inPennsylvania reported that 78 per centof those registering for one of its onlinebusiness courses came from outside theUS, compared with 14 per cent of thoseattending its executive MBA pro-grammes, and 45 per cent on the full-time, two-yearMBA.
The Mooc platforms that streamonline lectures, such as Coursera, edX,
Educatorsembraceforces ofchangeFears of disruption fade as campuses find they havelasting appeal, says JonathanMoules
Udacity and NovoEd, point to partner-ships with the leading business schoolsas a sign of their credibility. Rick Levin,former president of Yale University,now chief executive of Coursera, talksabout disrupting education while prais-ing the value of his technology com-pany’s partnerships with leading busi-nessschools.
“These schools are not going awaysoon,” Mr Levin says. “The residentialexperience and the whole package ofattendingacampus is toovaluable.”
Since it started streaming onlinecourses in October 2013, UK-based
Continuedonpage3
‘DevelopingMoocs has acost—charging for themseems inevitable andreasonable’
Business EducationOnline Learning
FT SPECIAL REPORT
www.ft.com/reports | @ftreportsMonday March 7 2016
FT graphic Source: FT data * Three years after graduation, PPP adjusted ** Synchronous = live content
Top five sectors of employment
What the rankings reveal
Effectiveness and quality of deliveryScore out of 10
15 13 15 14 Centrum Católica Peru Virtual Intl’ Managerial MBA 90,666 18 7 7 63 7 11 13 15 24 31 41 16 85 6 95 2 (0) 15 S/.64,500 3 90 15*Data in these columns are for information only and are not used in the ranking. †Average course fees (local currency)
Note: Weightings in bracketsSalary today (20): average alumnussalary three years after graduation,US$ PPP equivalent †Salary increase (10): percentageincrease over three years: betweensalary on graduation in 2012 andcurrent salaryValue for money (3): calculatedaccording to alumni’s salary, feesand other costs †Career progress (4): progression inthe alumni’s level of seniority andthe size of company they now workfor, versus three years ago †Aims achieved (4): the extent towhich alumni fulfilled their goals †Career service (4): alumni rating ofthe efficiency of the school careerservices in finding them a job aftergraduation †Programme delivery (5): alumnirating of online delivery of liveteaching sessions, other teachingmaterials and online exams †Online interaction (10): alumnirating of interaction betweenstudents, within teams and theavailability of faculty †Women faculty (2): percentage offemale faculty *Women students (2): percentage offemale students on the MBAprogramme *Women on board (1): percentage offemale members of the schooladvisory board *International faculty (4):percentage of faculty whosecitizenship differs from theircountry of employmentInternational students (4):percentage of current MBAstudents whose country ofresidence differs from the countrythe school is located inInternational board (2): percentageof the board whose citizenshipdiffers from the country in whichthe business school is situated.International mobility (5):calculated according to whetheralumni’s citizenship and worklocations pre-MBA, on graduationand three years after graduationdiffer from each other †Faculty with doctorates (5):percentage of full-time faculty witha doctoral degreePhD graduates (5): number ofdoctoral graduates during the pastthree years. The figure in bracketsis the percentage of thesegraduates who took up facultypositions at a top 50 full-timeMBA schoolFT research rank (10): calculatedaccording to the number of articlespublished by a school’s currentfull-time faculty members in 45academic and practitioner journalsbetween January 2013 andDecember 2015
† Includes data for the current yearand the one or two preceding yearswhere available.* Schools that have 50:50 (male:female) composition receive thehighest possible score.
Key
This third annual Financial Times rank-ing evaluates the world’s best onlineMBA programmes. A total of 18 pro-grammes took part in the ranking proc-ess. Data for the rankings are collectedfrom participating schools and alumniwho graduated from their nominatedprogrammes in 2012, giving us time tomeasuretheircareerprogress.
To be included, each school must beinternationally accredited by AACSBand/or Equis and its programmes musthave run for at least four consecutiveyears. At least 70 per cent of the
programme content must be deliveredonline. Participants on the coursesmust pass a selection process beforeenrolling and an examination processbefore graduating.
A total of 610 alumni completed theFT survey, a response rate of about 24per cent. For schools to be ranked, 20percentof theiralumnimustrespondtothe survey, with at least 20 fully com-pletedresponses.
Alumni responses inform six rankingcriteria that are common to all FT busi-ness education rankings, such as “salarytoday”, and two additional criteria spe-cific to the alumni’s online experience:“programme delivery” and “onlineinteraction”. Together, the alumni crite-ria account for 65 per cent of the rank-ing’sweight.
Where available, information collatedby the FT over the past three years isused for alumni-informed criteria.
Responses from the 2016 survey carry50 per cent of total weight, and thosefrom 2015 and 2014 25 per cent each. Excluding salary-related criteria, if onlytwo years of data are available, theweighting is split 60:40 if the data arefrom 2016 and 2015, or 70:30 if they arefrom 2016 and 2014. We consider thetwomostrecentyearsforsalarydataandgiveeachyearaweightingof50percent.
“Salary today” is based on currentalumni salaries. Salaries of non-profitand public sector workers, as well asfull-time students, are removed. Sala-ries are converted to US dollars usingpurchasing power parity (PPP) ratessupplied by the International MonetaryFund. The very highest and lowest sala-ries for each school are subsequentlyremoved, and the mean average cur-rent salary is calculated. The resultingfigure carries 20 per cent of the rank-ing’s weight.
“Salary increase”, which accounts for10 per cent, measures the difference inthe alumni average salary on gradua-tion and three years after. Half of thisfigure is calculated according to theabsolute increase and half to the per-centage increase.
“Programme delivery” is rated onhow alumni rate the online delivery ofteaching and exams. “Online interac-tion” is based on interaction betweenstudentsandwithfaculty.
Information provided by the businessschools accounts for 35 per cent of thefinal ranking. With the exception of the“doctoral rank” category (measuringthe number and progress of doctoralgraduates from each school over thepast three years), the FT uses 2016 dataonly fromtheschools.
The FT research rank, whichaccounts for 10 per cent of the ranking,is calculated according to the number
of articles published by schools’ full-time faculty in 45 internationally rec-ognised academic and practitionerjournals. The rank also takes intoaccount for the first time the school towhich the journal’s editors are affili-ated, earning schools an extra pointshould they also appear in the ranking.
The FT Online MBA ranking is a rela-tive ranking — an FT score is finally cal-culated for each school. First, Z-scores— mathematical formulas that reflectthe range of scores between the top andbottom school — are calculated for eachrespective ranking criterion. Thesescores are then weighted, and addedtogether fora final score.
Judith Pizer of Jeff Head Associates acted asthe FT’s database consultant. The FTresearch rank was calculated using Scopus,an abstract and citation database ofresearch literature.
How the 2016 FT rankings were researched and compiled
S panish business school IE hasscored a hat-trick by reachingthe top spot in the FinancialTimes ranking of online MBAprogrammes for the third
year in a row. IE came in ahead of theUK’s Warwick Business School, rankednumber two for the third year running,and the University of Florida Houghbusinessschool inthirdplace.
The 15 ranked online MBA pro-grammes provide flexible study optionsfor working executives, who can expectto graduate with the same qualificationas their full-time, residential MBAcounterparts.
While the FT online and full-timeMBAs are not strictly comparablebecause the criteria used to judge themare slightly different, it is interesting tonote that IE and Warwick BusinessSchool are among six schools to featureinbothrankings.
IE’s online MBA consistently attractshigh-calibre students. Half of IE’salumni were senior managers whenthey enrolled, the highest proportionamong ranked schools at that stage.Three years after graduation they wereearning the highest average salary at$179,000, about $30,000 more than the
next highest earners — alumni fromOlin Graduate School of Business atBabsonCollege.
IE’s alumni have the second-highestaverage salary increase following gradu-ation, at 39 per cent. The school isranked first for aims achieved and forinternational mobility. It is third forcareer progress. “There is a definite‘before and after’ for career progres-sion,” says one former student. “Post-MBA I felt I had more of a sense of direc-tion not only of where I wanted to be,but also why, and how to make it hap-pen.”
The same seven schools continue todominate the top half of the ranking.AGSM at UNSW Business School of Aus-tralia entered the ranking for the firsttimeineighthposition.
A minimum of 70 per cent of the con-
tent must be delivered online in orderfor programmes to be eligible for theonline ranking. Nine out of the 15ranked schools had no requirement tostudy on campus at all. The remainingsix schools insisted their studentsattend weekend or week-long residen-tialclasses.
Schools relied on a wide range oftechnologies to ensure lively interac-
tive delivery of their programmesincluding virtual classrooms, live ses-sions and multimedia teaching materi-als. Alumni were asked to rate deliveryas well as indicate how effective onlineexams were. Results were encouraging.Schools appear to be getting better atonline delivery. Every aspect of onlinedelivery was rated higher than it hadbeen in previous years, showing agreater level of satisfaction.
“I was quite sceptical initially indoing an online course but the commu-nication and online interaction wereperfect,” says one graduate from AGSM.
Overall, live and recorded contentachieved equal scores overall of 8.8 outof10,whileonline interactionandteam-workwereratedmarginally lower.
Part of the appeal of online pro-grammes lies in their flexibility, reachand slower pace of delivery than cam-pus-based MBAs. Apart from IE, whichimposes an 18-month time limit, partic-ipants have on average about five yearstocomplete theirdegrees.
Having longer does not seem to makeit easier, however. Proper time manage-ment is essential in order to maintainthemomentum.
“A couple of obligatory projects wouldhelp keep the pace and avoid a veryintense last quarter,” commented onegraduate from Warwick BusinessSchool. Overall, the graduates from theclass of 2012 took slightly longer than2.5years tograduate.
Online programmes appeal more tosenior professional students than thosewho take full-time programmes. Partic-ipants on online MBAs are aged 34 on
average compared to 28 for full-timeparticipants. Online students are alsomore likely to seek a promotion follow-ing the course with their existingemployer. While the majority of full-time MBA graduates (90 per cent)worked for different companies threeyears after graduation, only about 55percentofonlinegraduatesdidso.
They are also less likely to seekemployment in a different sector after
graduation. Only 30 per cent changedindustry sector compared with nearlytwo-thirdsof full-timeMBAstudents.
One might expect that online pro-grammes would appeal proportionatelymore to women than full-time pro-grammes due to their flexibility. How-ever, data from the 2016 rankings showthat women account for 30 per cent ofenrolled students compared with 35 percent for full-timeprogrammes.
IE’s online MBA comestop for the third timeAnalysis The Spanishbusiness school’s alumniare the highest paidand benefit from strongcareer progress, writesLaurent Ortmans
‘Post-MBA, I had moreof a sense of . . . not onlywhere I wanted to be, butalso why’
Methodology
Survey data from studentsaccounts for 65 per cent ofthe weightings, writesLaurent Ortmans
FT graphic Source: FT data * Three years after graduation, PPP adjusted ** Synchronous = live content
Top five sectors of employment
What the rankings reveal
Effectiveness and quality of deliveryScore out of 10
FutureLearn, a platform backed by theOpen University, has enrolled almosthalf a million students, a fifth of whomhave not studied at university and 62percentofwhomarewomen.
This may indicate a latent demand forlearning that can be tapped only byonline education, says Simon Nelson,chief executive of FutureLearn. But healso thinks that demand is an opportu-nity forbusinessschools,notathreat.
“Rather than committing to 12 to 18months away from work and a seriousfinancial outlay, new students canaccess high-quality courses from lead-ing business schools at a time and placethatsuits them,”hesays.
“For business schools, a taster courseis a great way to encourage students toconsider a full MBA and widen the poolofstudents.”
The fear that people may bypass busi-ness school altogether, because theywould be able to cobble together anMBA for free from certificated Moocprogrammes, has proved largelyunfounded.
However, several fast-growing start-ups are trying to provide a roundededucation, and are claiming some suc-cess — such as London-based teachingapp SmartUp. The app is aimed atentrepreneurs, who in the past mayhave been less inclined to attend busi-ness school.
Their success suggests that disrupt-ers and schools can both benefit from amarket expanded by new techniques,such as games to promote learning andexchanging online credits earned byplaying the game for business services.
Online education has also gained for-mal endorsements from exam bodies,blurring the lines between study at acomputerandonacampus.
EFMD, the Brussels-based accredita-tion body for management education,last month launched its online courseaccreditation system. The moveacknowledges that online education can“open up more efficient and effective”ways of learning, according to DavidAsch,EFMDqualityservicesdirector.
Alison Davis-Blake, dean of the Uni-versity Of Michigan’s Ross School ofBusiness, claims that demand for tradi-tionalprogrammeshasrisenevenasherstaffmembershaveseenstrongdemandfor the online courses put on theCourseraplatform.
Almost 850,000 people have enrolledon Michigan Ross’s most popularcourse on the Coursera platform, Intro-duction to Finance, since it waslaunched in 2012. Its successful Moocon negotiation skills has attracted close
to 430,000 enrolments since itlaunched in October 2014.
At the same time, MBA applicationsfor the 2014/15 academic year were up30 per cent year on year at MichiganRoss and have risen a further 6 per centthisyear.
“The people who are taking a singleMooc are very different from the peoplewho are coming to the campus to studyforadegree,”MsDavis-Blakesays.
Despite its success in online educa-tion, Michigan Ross has only recentlyintroduced its first paid-for certificatedonline education programme, reflectinga widespread belief among academicmanagement that online courses aremore about raising awareness of theschool’s brand globally than generatingadditionalrevenue.
Good online learning should bealigned with the needs of students,according to Tony Sheehan, associatedean for digital learning at London Busi-ness School. “Students on our degreeprogrammes grew up with Google,” hesays. “Digital transmission of knowl-edge is wonderful but the very best wayof learning the art and science of man-agement and business will alwaysinclude face-to-face interaction in acommunityof thecurious.”
The marketing spiel exudes confidence:“Get the job you want in 2016!” But theconnection between massive openonline courses (Moocs) and futureemployment isnotsoclear.
Over the past five years, Moocs havebecome an educational ecosystemoffering a diverse array of programmes.But while the attraction for employeesis clear — new skills taught by leadinguniversities and offering official certifi-cates — it is less obvious that employershave fully woken up to the possibilitiesof Moocs.
Mooc providers themselves are keento show how former students went on toget their dream jobs. Such stories are acommonplace sales pitch on manyMoocplatforms.
The opinion of employers is harder togauge. None of the main employers’groups in the UK contacted by the FTwere keeping data on the role of onlinecourses inrecruitment.
“Moocs have not penetrated everypart of the business world,” says PerryTimms, adviser on social media andengagement to the Chartered Instituteof Personnel and Development (CIPD),the UK professional organisation.“There are still times when I say ‘Moocs’topeopleandtheysay, ‘what?’”
But business recognition of onlinelearning in general and Moocs in partic-ular is improving, Mr Timms adds. “It isan exciting area — it needs more focus,but Moocs are quietly humming along.They have not been a massive revolu-tion but they are becoming anotheraspectofwhatbusinesses lookfor.”
That is true of some sectors in partic-ular, such as data analysis, marketingand IT. Almost every Mooc platformhas a strong offering in those areas, withsome dedicated to them almost exclu-sively. Of the top 10 most popularcourses of 2015 on Coursera, the largest
commercial Mooc platform, three wereabout programming, two were aboutdata science and another was onmachine learning.
Two more were more broadly busi-ness-focused — financial accountingand negotiation — while the other twocame under the general heading of self-improvement: learning how to learn(the year’s top course), and TibetanBuddhistmeditation.
Perhaps therein lies the problem busi-ness has with Moocs. While all of theabove were offered by top US universi-ties, the Mooc universe is bewilderinglydiverse. For an employer to take notice,the Mooc portfolio on your CV has to beextremelyfocused.
“Businesses recognise that Moocs arean accessible way to a high-quality
education [but] choosing the right pro-vider is essential if courses are to meettheir objectives and hopes of the partic-ipants,” says the Confederation of Brit-ish Industry employers’ group.
Therearesigns thatMoocsaregaininga toehold within business, however. Forexample, in the UK Marks and Spencerhas developed a course — calledInnovation: the Key to BusinessSuccess — in partnership with the Uni-versity of Leeds and hosted on theFutureLearn platform. More than26,000 people in 70 countries havetakenit so far.
HEC Paris, the management school,and Axa Investment Managers willlaunch a Mooc in April teaching assetmanagementontheCourseraplatform.
Governments have taken them up,too, both to train the general populationandtheirownemployees.
Saudi Arabia’s labour ministry has setup a Mooc portal with edX to educatewomen and young people, while civilservants in the Scottish governmentenrolled on a course entitled “Trans-forming Business, Society and Self with
U.Lab”, also on edX, before extending itto thegeneralpopulation.
As a general rule, Moocs appear to bemost effective in the jobs market whentheyaretargetedatnarrowobjectives.
This is probably because, as researchhas shown, most people who enrol onMoocs are already employed full time,are well-educated residents ofdeveloped countries and tend to usecourses specifically to improve theircareers.
But as a recent survey of 52,000 Moocusers found, those in developing coun-tries are more likely to report tangiblebenefits — such as a new job or starting anewbusiness.
The researchers — from Coursera, theUniversity of Pennsylvania and the Uni-versity of Washington — found that peo-ple already in high-skilled jobs werelikely to benefit most from “up-skilling”to improve themselves in their currentposition, labelled an “intangible bene-fit”, whereas those without high-skilledjobs were more likely to benefit from“re-skilling to transition to a new job”, amoretangibleeffect.
Is addingMoocs to your CV finally about to pay off?Prospects
Employers are beginningto take notice of certainhigh-quality courses, writesBarney Thompson
In the early days of online learning,schools and students were optimisticthat the advent of Moocs (massive openonline courses) would revolutionisebusiness education. However, an evalu-ation published in September by Stan-ford University professors John Mitch-ell, Candace Thille and Mitchell Stevenssuggests that most Mooc students todate have been college-educated menfrom industrialised countries.
Course completion rates, they discov-ered, remain low. Without a solid aca-demic background, or face-to-faceinstruction, the classes may be provingtoodifficult formanystudents to follow.
So far, not-so-good. Yet for all theflaws in the design of online learningprogrammes and Moocs, there are signsthat such courses are beginning to intro-duce business schools to a wider andmorediverseaudience.
Separate findings for online courseplatform Coursera by academics at the
University of Pennsylvania and the Uni-versity of Washington suggest that peo-ple with lower socio-economic statusand with less education are more likelytoreportbenefits fromonline learning.
The survey of 780,000 people from212 countries found that in developingnations, online learners with lower lev-els of socio-economic status and educa-tion are significantly more likely toreport tangible career benefits. Theyalso found that older people are usingMoocs to prepare for an eventual returntoeducation.
For some students, a free, or inexpen-sive online course is an priceless try-be-fore-you-buy taster. “It’s very easy tostart a course, but it takes a lot of effortand commitment to finish it,” warnsZhdan Shakirov, a student from Russiawho took the Foundations of BusinessStrategy Mooc run by Darden School ofBusiness the US. Two years later, he hasgone a step further and enrolled on aDarden MBA, becoming the first inter-national student on its dual MBA/MEdprogramme.
So far, Darden’s Moocs have reachedmore than a million learners, says seniorassistantdeanMichaelKoenig.Thelargemajority have at least a bachelorsdegree, more than half are employedfull-time and about half are from the US.
A fifth of those enrolled live in Africa,LatinAmericaorOceania.
According to Mr Koenig, most onlinestudents are taking courses for careerbenefit. Similarly, Coursera estimatesthat about half of the site’s nearly 18mlearners are using Moocs to advancetheircareers.
Increasing awareness of Moocs alsomeans a growing number of employersare recognising them as “micro-creden-tials” — 57 per cent of employers polledby Duke University said they plan toaccept Moocs as qualifications whenrecruitingnewstaff.
Helen Bowman, a US resident whodescribes herself as an “engineer
turned stay-at-home mom”, says sheusually takes online courses just toexplore interests. Most recently, how-ever, she took the Codapps Mooc oncoding for entrepreneurs at EMLyon. “Ihad considered developing my ownmobile apps so I was already predis-posed to the idea,” she explains.
Dan Evans, chief innovation officer atEMLyon, says the school’s Moocs arealso proving popular among students onfull-time programmes such as the MBAorspecialistmastersprogrammes.
“The Moocs offer them a greatresource to upskill in a specific area ontop of their studies and we try to provideextra credit opportunities for studentswhodothis,”hesays.
There are signs of increasing diver-sity. Alison, an online learning businesswith 5m students, reports it is seeing sig-nificant growth in India, Latin America,and African countries and that 23 percent of its learners this year accessedAlison via a mobile device, up from 12percentayearago.
At French business school Skema,2,057 participants from more than 50different countries have enrolled on itslatest Mooc on globalisation, saysSophie Gay Anger, who is in charge ofpedagogical innovationfor theschool.
Barbara Drexler, associate dean ofinternational affairs at the FrankfurtSchool of Finance and Management,says only a quarter of the studentsenrolling on its e-learning certificateprogrammesarebased inEurope.About30 per cent of Frankfurt’s online stu-dents come from sub-Saharan Africaandanother25percentliveinAsia.
Wide appeal for try-before-you-buymodelDemographics
Study shows less privilegedstudents report moretangible career benefits,writes Ian Wylie
‘There are still timeswhenI say “Moocs” to peopleand they say, “what?”’
I n 2012, with Hurricane Sandy bar-rellinguptheUSeastcoast, theMITSloan Executive Education teamwas in a quandary. They could can-cel the on-campus session starting
the morning Sandy was due to hit Bos-ton, but many of 100 or so course partic-ipants had already arrived. The solutionwas for thoseunable tomake it toattendinvirtualreality.
Once the physical classroom, in ahotel meeting room in Boston, was con-nected with a virtual classroom, thosenot there in person could participateusing avatars and a live video feed fromthemeetingroom.
A virtual roving microphone in thevirtual classroom allowed the avatars tospeak to people in the physical class-room, who could watch their fellow par-ticipants in the virtual classroom vialargescreenssetupinthehotel room.
The experiment was a success. “Thefaculty and participants in the physicalclassroom thought this was interesting,”says Peter Hirst, associate dean of exec-utive education at MIT Sloan School ofManagement. “It was a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to try something outthat might have been difficult to per-suadepeople todootherwise.”
Sloan now regularly uses avatars and
virtual classrooms as online learningtools and it is not alone. Since last year,Stanford Graduate School of Businesshas offered a virtual reality experienceto distance-learning students on itsLEADcertificateprogramme.
So far, says Peter DeMarzo, facultydirector for educational technology atStanford, it has proved a useful additionto other forms of virtual communica-tion. “We also use [online conferencingtools] Google Hangouts and Adobe Con-nect,” he says. “But we find there’ssomething unique about having a vir-tual three-dimensional space we caninteract in.”
Within the virtual environment, stu-dents can take their avatars to work onteam projects before returning to themain space to report back to the rest oftheclass.
While the platforms used by Stanfordand MIT Sloan do not offer superheroesor fantasy characters as avatars, stu-dents do have the option of changingcertainthingsaboutthemselves.
“My former boss came in to one of ourprogrammes,” says Mr Hirst. “She’s ashort, dark-haired lady and in the vir-tualworld, shewasa6ftblonde.”
Other features include proximity-based audio, which allows students to
move to another part of a virtual roomandhaveaconversationthatotherscan-not hear. “That turns out to be reallyhelpful indebates,”saysMrHirst.
Nevertheless, virtual reality is moreapplicable to certain parts of the busi-ness course than others. “It lends itselfto topics that rely on soft skills,” says MrHirst. “Learning how to calculate netpresent value [can be done] more effec-tively in a more traditional online learn-ingenvironment.”
And the technology has limitations,particularly as it requires high-speedbroadband. “Virtual reality is a high-calorie network experience,” says Ash-ita Saluja, a senior manager at Sales-force Marketing Cloud and a StanfordLEAD executive programme partici-pant. “But in executive education, it’snormal to be in a meeting in a hotel or atanairport—andthereyou’renot talkinggreat internetconnections.”
Ms Saluja also found that someadapted to the virtual environmentmore quickly than others. “There’s adiscomfort and people’s barriers to get-tingoverthatvaries,”shesays.
For one school, virtual reality was aninteresting experiment but did notprove to be its most effective tool. Aftertwo years using avatars, Lake Forest
Graduate School of Managementdecidedtophasethemout.
The principle reason, explains BryanWatkins, vice-president and chief aca-demicofficer,was that the Illinois-basedschool relies entirely on business practi-tioners, rather than full-time membersof staff, for its faculty and studentswanted to see their professors on videoratherthanasavatars.
“Students wanted more interactionwiththefaculty,”hesays.
Nevertheless, some have found thatvirtual reality is an effective way for stu-dents who are separated geographicallytocometogether.
“Traditional videoconferencing isgreat for presentation and having stu-dents respond to the presenter,” saysFernando Contreras, associate directorfor extended learning at Stanford Grad-uate Business School. “But there’s ahigher engagement between the partici-pants inthevirtualenvironment.”
For Ms Saluja, a visit to Stanford forone of the face-to-face sessions revealedanother more unexpected benefit tohaving spent time in the virtual realityenvironment. “It was so easy to find myway around the actual campus,” sherecalls. “Because I already knew itthroughthevirtualcampus.”
HowHurricaneSandy helpedthe rise of thestudent avatarsVirtual realityVisual representations of scatteredclassmates can aid interaction, says SarahMurray
Virtually there:students at MITSloan take theiravatars to classMIT Sloan
‘My formerboss isa short,dark-hairedlady. In thevirtualworld, shewas a 6ftblonde’
Barbara Drexler:only a quarter ofthe students onFrankfurt’s onlineprogrammes arebased in Europe
4 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Monday 7 March 2016
Daniela Stefovska completed a tradi-tional business education when she lefta banking job on Wall Street to completean MBA at the University of Pennsylva-nia’sWhartonSchool.
Then she decided to extend her busi-ness education, first with part-timecourses and latterly with a purely onlineteaching app, called SmartUp, aimed ataspiringentrepreneurs.
Given her time again, Ms Stefovskawouldavoidthebusinessschoolroute.
“Now that I know I want to beinvolved in start-ups, if you asked me ifI should go to business school I wouldsay no,” she says. “My advice would bejust start something and don’t wasteyour time.”
Her comments are good news forFrank Meehan, co-founder and chiefexecutive of SmartUp, which has turnedbusiness lessons into games, attractingmore than 65,000 registered users sinceit launchedlast June.
As users go through the SmartUp appthey are awarded points for their deci-sion making which then puts them on toaglobalranking leaderboard.
New content from an experiencedfounder or investor is pushed to the appeachday.
When users reach 1,000 points, theycan enter a draw with a prize of one-to-one live mentoring online with mem-bers of Founders Forum, the entrepre-neurshipclub.
Mr Meehan, a former board memberof music streaming service Spotify, seesan opportunity in postgraduate busi-nesseducation.
This goes beyond the platforms formassive open online courses, or Moocs,which are repackaging existing businessschool course material in the form ofdownloadable videos or Skype-likeinteractive lectures.
Companies such as SmartUp hope toprovide an alternative to this style ofteaching by providing a format moreakintosocialnetworking.
Mr Meehan explains the app focuseson the need for investors, start-ups and
corporations to find out and showcasewhatpeopleactuallyknow.
The model of providing certificatesfor completing online courses, adoptedby the large Mooc platforms such asCoursera and EdX, is flawed accordingto Mr Meehan. “That is why thebig online edtech players have suchhuge dropout rates on their courses,” hesays. Research published in 2013 sug-gested average completion rates onCourserawereas lowas4percent.
“In SmartUp, we mentor people whoreach the top of the leader boards, andpeople are keen to connect to others onthe leader boards that they see areexperienced in certain topics. That is,a person with a tech backgroundcan see another with strength inmarketing.”
Networking is a key part of the
business school experience that can bereplicated online. Silicon Valley start-ups, such as Quora, the online question-and-answer service, have become waysfor entrepreneurs to meet and learnfrom each other.
Karma is a smartphone appcreated by Israeli venture capitalfirm Aleph to give entrepreneurs accessto other founders, allowing them to askfor help, give advice and shareknowledge.
Avigail Levine, who is responsiblefor marketing and community rela-tions at Aleph, says the intentionwith Karma was not to create a newedtech start-up or tell people to bypassMBA programmes. But she admits thatit can help those seeking to learn busi-ness skills. “Part of our vision is net-working to build scalable companies,”she says.
Private equity firms sense an oppor-tunity for new entrants to take a slice ofthebusinesseducationmarket.
James Wise, a partner at London-based Balderton Capital, a venture capi-tal fund, points to start-ups such as theShaw Academy, based in Dublin, whichclaims to be the world’s largest liveonlineeducator.
“A lot of it is providing what the busi-ness schools don’t offer,” Mr Wise says.“They are supplementing contentratherthancompetingwiththem.”
Ophelia Brown is general partner atLocalGlobe, a VC firm that has backedseveral of the UK’s most successful tech-nology start-ups, having completed anMBAatInseadinFrance.
Although she sees opportunities fortechnology businesses to provide inno-vativeformsofteachingonline,shedoesnot believe that they will replace cam-pus-based study. “I went to Inseadbecause it was an international schoolwhere people came from all over theworldtostudy,”shesays.
“Business school can be prohibitivelyexpensive for some and it istime consuming, but I don’t thinkanyone can claim that technology willreplace the value of attending theircourses.”
Edtech providers move fromMoocs to social networkingNew entrants
An app that putsentrepreneurs in touch withmentors is among newinnovations. Jonathan Moulesexamines the latest offerings
Business Education Online Learning
F or staff used to teaching face toface, the new world of videos,live streaming, webinars andonline forums takes some get-tingusedto.
They understand that it helps stu-dents, democratises education andenhances their institution. Some areenthusiastic early adopters. Yet for oth-ers, talking to a camera can be discon-certing.
“The first time is horrible but whenyou have done 10, it starts getting nor-mal,” says Sandra Sieber, professor ofinformation systems at Iese, the Barce-lona-based business school. “We have tolearn and adapt to the new environ-ment,” she says. “This is the momentwhen I am starting to feel old — and I am40-something.”
Online learning for MBA students hasbeen around for up to 20 years in someinstitutions. At first it was largely a mat-ter of videoing lectures, which some stu-dents criticised as boring, but tech-niques have become more sophisticatedastechnologyhasadvanced.
Talking heads can be interspersedwith video and audio clips, graphics andopportunities to ask questions or takepart inpolls.Thereareonlinediscussionforums. Seminars and team projects areundertaken via video group conferenc-ing. Business schools have created stu-dios and e-learning teams to supportteachingstaff.
Iese says it has embraced digital
learning across its programmes and alsoruns massive open online courses(Moocs)via theCourseraplatform.
Prof Sieber was until recently aca-demic director of Iese’s global executiveMBA,muchofwhich is taughtdigitally.
She says the school began by provid-ing case studies and financial analysisonline, but has moved on. Videoconfer-encing, for example, allows group roleplaying assignments in which a studentmight pitch to an “investment commit-tee”madeupofhisorherpeers.
A big challenge is keeping studentsengaged. “You don’t necessarily see whois bored and who is engaged, so we needto find new ways of engagement in oursessions,” Prof Sieber says. That meanstalking in five- to seven-minute seg-ments instead of 45 minutes and build-ing in “moments of interactivity” suchasapolloraquestion.
Ray Irving, director of e-learning atWarwick Business School, says: “Therehas been a real revolution in the lastcouple of years when we have seen moreconvergence between face-to-facelearningandonline learning.”
Warwick runs a distance learningMBA and has offered Moocs on topicssuch as behavioural science and big datavia FutureLearn, an Open Universityplatform. Now it is applying online tech-niques to on-campus courses, such asstreaming a guest lecturer who might bebasedabroad.
MrIrvingheadsa15-stronge-learning
team that teaches academics how todeliver their material in front of a cam-era. “We go through dry runs, provideautocues, we talk about what theyshouldwear,howtheyshouldsit,wewillbreak it into chunks and intersperse itwithgraphics,”hesays.
Teaching drives the use of technologyat Warwick. Mr Irving’s staff will ask anacademic what works for their subjectandattempttotranslate thatonline.
Diana Laurillard, professor of learn-ing with digital technologies at Univer-sity College London’s Institute of Educa-tion, says teaching online successfullyrequires a great deal of support from theinstitutionthat isprovidingthecourse.
Academics are not unwilling, sheadds. “What academics are all about isgettingthemessageout.”
Some techniques work better thanothers. Prof Sieber says some case stud-ies are too complex to work effectivelyonline. When more than 15 students
takepart inavideoconference, Ieseasksthem to switch their cameras off exceptwhen making a contribution because itcan be confusing to have too many facesonscreen.
Peer-to-peer learning, in which stu-dents help each other, can work well,particularly in Moocs when the largenumbers make it hard for professors torespondtoeverycommentorquestion.
Leeds University Business Schooldoes not have an online MBA but isembracing digital elements. It has giveniPads to masters students to use in classfor things such online polls. Leeds aimsto achieve “personalised learning path-ways”, so students can choose materialonlinethat isuseful to them.
Prof Laurillard adds: “It’s about mak-ing sure leaders in the education systemunderstand what can be done here, thevalue and potential of it. There are somany challenges in education that tech-nologycanhelpwith.”
The nextacademicrevolution willbe televisedTeaching Staff are discovering newways to puttheirmessage across, writesBrian Groom
Game on: Frank Meehan’s SmartUp app is aimed at entrepreneurs — Charlie Bibby
On camera: it has always been hard to keep students engaged — Open University/ BBC
‘[Start-ups] aresupplementing contentrather than competingwith[business schools]’
There are now more than 180 freeonline business courses listed in theFT’s Mooc Tracker — ft.com/mooc.Here is a selection from those massiveopen online courses.*
The Secret Power of Brands— FutureLearn.comDeveloped by the UK’s University ofEast Anglia with help from globalbrand consultancy Wolff Olins,the course examines how globalbrands such as Google became sopowerful.
Time commitment The course runs atset times of the year and lasts for sixweeks, with a workload of three hoursper week.
Certification Students can buy astatement of participation certificatefor £34 or take an invigilated examcosting £119 in one of 4,000 testcentres around the world. Thosewho pass gain a statement ofattainment.
UX Design for Mobile Developers— Udacity.comThe course looks at how to build user-friendly apps, not how to write code.UX stands for user experience and isaimed at improving ease of use.
It was created by Udacity, the onlinecourse provider, in collaboration withGoogle. So far more than 57,600students have signed up.
Time commitment Students go attheir own pace, but can finish in fiveweeks based on six hours of workper week.
Certification There are a series ofassignments, such as how to improve aregistration form. However, there areno certificates or instructor feedback,so learners are basically getting accessto interactive reference materials.
Scaling Up Your Venture Without Screwing Up — NovoEd.comDeveloped by Stanford GraduateSchool of Business, the programme isrunning for the second time.Time commitment It takes five weeks
and has an estimated workload of fourto six hours per week.
There are assignments with setdeadlines that are reviewed by peers.The final project involves forming aplan to tackle scaling challenges facedby start-ups.
Certification Subject to satisfactoryperformance and course completion,students will receive a statement ofaccomplishment.
Data Analysis: Take It to the MAX( )— edX.orgTake it to the MAX( ) was developedby Delft University of Technology andteaches participants how to makesense of data sets using Excelspreadsheets.
Time commitment Students set theirown pace, but the course can becompleted in eight weeks based onfour to six hours of work per week.
Certification Students can get averified certificate for $50 if theyachieve an overall pass mark of 60 percent.
Introduction to Public Speaking— Coursera.orgDeveloped by the University ofWashington, this course teachesstudents how to improve theirpresentation and communication skills.Topics include making impromptuspeeches and persuasive speakingtechniques.
Students can upload videos — oraudio files, if they are worried aboutanonymity — of their presentationskills for peer review.
Time commitment Ten weeks basedon three to five hours per week, butstudents can go at their own pace.
Certification Currently, no certificate isavailable for the course.
*The Mooc Tracker does not listcourses that demand fees, but somehave pay-for assessment andcertification options.
Wai Kwen Chan
Mooc tracker Keep abreast of ways to learnfor free with a selection from the FT service
