Blended Degree Programs（混成学位课程）
What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago the most adventurous business schools were experimenting with e-readers to replace paper case studies and textbooks, and Facebook to boost student recruitment. Today, e-readers are passé; Facebook ubiquitous.
As tablet devices such as the iPad replace e-readers for both degree and non-degree learning, personalized electronic textbooks replace their paper counterparts, and web-based seminars—webinars—replace the classroom experience, technology is moving beyond its role in student support and becoming an intrinsic element of the pedagogy.
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The lines between traditional face-to-face teaching and traditional distance learning programs are blurring and “blended learning”, combining virtual with face-to-face teaching, is the latest buzz phrase.
One of the biggest developments over the past year has been the launch of high quality—and expensive—blended degree programs. Earlier this month Brown University in the US, one of just two Ivy League universities not to have a business school, launched an Executive MBA program with Spain’s IE Business School.
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Half of the EMBA—an “Executive MBA” for senior working manager—will be taught face-to-face, the other half online, says David Bach, dean of programs at IE. He is an eager supporter of using Internet communications to improve quality of participation on these senior programs.
The 15-month Brown program will cost $95,000, more expensive than many full-time programs, but Prof Bach defends the cost. “You don’t economise on faculty. Blended programs are as expensive as on-campus programs and they will become more expensive.”
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Prof Bach believes people will be prepared to pay for the convenience of blended programs. But other benefits to this technology include the ability of participants to select the way of studying that suits them.
Recognition that advanced technology can help students learn more effectively is spreading at the very top schools, those not usually associated with e-learning. And it is being regarded as enriching the on-campus experience.
At the Wharton school at the University of Pennsylvania, Karl Ulrich, vice-dean of the school’s innovation initiative, believes that blended learning—or connected learning as Wharton calls it—can respond better to different learning styles.
“You can provide different ways to deliver a module. Our current learning technology is one-size-fits-all. I think we can be more respectful of student’s learning styles,” he says.
But connected learning can also help the school extend its reach. “What I’d like to do is to have students in internships take courses over the summer. If you can separate time and place, we can get our people out into the world a bit more.”
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Recognition of different learning styles will be one of the selling% of MBA@UNC, the blended learning program to be launched In July by the Kenan-Flagler school at the University of North Carolina.
Like the IE/Brown program, MBA@UNC is targeted at the top end of the market, priced at $89,000 for the two years including books, student fees, and food and accommodation for four weekend immersions.
