Postgraduate student, Maryna Velyshchak

Bukovyna State University of Economics and Finance

On - line business education in the USA

The education system provided via the Internet is being improved year after year and has been enhancing along with the development and advance of Internet technologies. In the United States, online learning changes are proliferating rapidly,early course delivery via the web had started by 1994.Since that time, online education has slowly but steadily grown in popularity,to the point that in the fall of 2010, almost one-third of U.S. postsecondary students were taking at least one course online.(1) Fast forward to 2012: a new concept called massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is generating widespread interest in higher education circles. Most significantly, it has opened up strategic discussions in higher education cabinets and boardrooms about online education. Stanford, MIT, Harvard, the University of California–Berkeley, and others havethrown their support—in terms of investment, resources, and presidential backing—behind the transformative power of MOOCs and online education.

People in the United States choose to go to college online rather than in a classroom. In 2011, there were approximately 21 million college students and about 6.7 million (32%) were taking at least one online course (Allen & Seaman, 2013). Eduventures estimates that in 2011, almost 3 million students were enrolled in fully online programs (Eduventures, 2012). Although the growth rate of online enrollment has slowed, it is still three to four times that of classroom enrollment, which declined last year after many years of steady growth. Many educators are becoming involved in the planning and converting of traditional courses into an online format. The type of class as well as the instructor can also influence a students’ online experience, and instructor training for online courses is essential (Watson,J.,2004 ).

As discussed by Blakely (2010) hectic lives, economic situations, work schedules and family responsibilities are some of the reasons students elect to take courses online. Other benefits for taking online over traditional courses are due to lower costs, time efficiency and convenience to work around personal schedules .As there is no projection of when this growth might end, researching trends in online enrollments will provide valuable marketing information to all levels of education.

The term online learning can be used to refer to a wide range of programs that use the Internet to provide instructional materials and facilitate interactions between teachers and students and in some cases among students as well. Online learning is described by most authors as access to learning experiences via the use of some technology (Benson, 2002; Carliner, 2004; Conrad, 2002). Both Benson (2002) and Conrad (2002) identify online learning as a more recent version of distance learning which improves access to educational opportunities for learners described as both nontraditional and disenfranchised.

Online learning can be fully online, with all instruction taking place through the Internet, or online elements can be combined with face-to-face interactions in what is known as blended learning (Horn and Staker, 2010).

Online learning” refers to instructional environments supported by the Internet. Online learning comprises a wide variety of programs that use the Internet within and beyond university and college walls to provide access to instructional materials as well as facilitate interaction among teachers and students. Fully online learning is a form of distance education in which all instruction and assessment are carried out using online, Internet-based delivery (Picciano and Seaman 2009; U.S. Department of Education 2007)

Blended learning (also called hybrid learning) allows students to receive significant portions of instruction through both face-to-face and online means. Researchers see blended learning in the middle of the spectrum between fully face-to-face and fully online instruction (Graham, Allen, and Ure, 2005; .S.Department of Education 2007; Watson et al. 2010).

Two approaches to online business learning have emerged: synchronous and asynchronous learning. Synchronous learning is instruction and collaboration in “real time” via the Internet. It typically involves tools, such as:

Ø live chat

Ø audio and video conferencing

Ø data and application sharing

Ø shared whiteboard

Ø virtual "hand raising"

Ø joint viewing of multimedia presentations and online slide shows

Asynchronous learning methods in business education use the time-delayed capabilities of the Internet. It typically involves tools, such as:

Ø e-mail

Ø threaded discussion

Ø newsgroups and bulletin boards

Ø file attachments(Mark, Tony,2012)

Students who choose to earn their education fully online are beginning to look more and more like traditional college students. Moreover, it appears that a substantial number of young people, for whatever reason, choose to bypass the campus completely. Business studies are far and away the most popular field of study for both undergraduate and graduate students with 39%.Within business, business administration/management again is by far the area attracting the largest enrollment, followed by accounting and finance. The most popular degrees that are offered on-line are - Bachelor of Business Administration( Capella University, Penn State World Campus , University of Massachusetts, Isenberg School of Management, University of Illinois, Springfield , The University of Wyoming) and Master of Business Administration ( MBA) (Penn State World Campus, University of Florida Distance Learning, Boston University, Drexel University Online, Arizona State University Online, Colorado State University-Global Campus, Florida State University)

The typical online Bachelor’s in Business Administration degree program covers subjects such as management, human resources, accounting, sales and marketing, information systems, business law and ethics, budget development, finance, economics, and other subjects. Most of the online BBA degree programs allow students to specialize in an area such as finance, international business, computer information systems, accounting, or marketing.

An MBA degree often provides career advancement opportunities, a more rewarding career, and a larger salary. Online MBA programs typically include core courses in subjects such as economics, finance, information systems, accounting, marketing, and management.MBA programs also cover management skills, human resources management, and leadership. The programs usually include case studies. Typically online MBA programs take two years to complete, but some programs can be completed in just one year.MBA specialties include computer and information security, health administration, marketing, applied computer sciences, information systems management, engineering and technology management, environmental management, and international business.

Popovich and Neel (2005) investigated a broad spectrum of institutional characteristics that relate to online courses and programs at AACSB-accredited business schools. These included such factors as the number of students, faculty qualifications, tuition rates, and length of programs among many others. Their sample of 163 business school deans indicated growth statistics consistent with overall online program results presented earlier: 53 percent offered online business programs, 67 percent indicated retention/ expansion of online programs, 80 percent represented public institutions, and new entrants to this market continued to increase.

Student demand is among the many factors contributing to the growth of online learning. Students are also seeking the opportunities for flexibility of scheduling and cost efficiency that online studies can offer. Inevitable growth of online education, the constant need of business employees to “re-tool” in the knowledge society, and the necessity of business programs to offer quality educational experiences, this is a critical and worthwhile endeavor.

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References

1. “Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States, 2011” (formerly known as theSloan Online Survey),

2. Allen, I. E., & Seaman, J. (2013). Changing course: Ten years of tracking online education in the United States.

3. Aslanian, C. B., & Clinefelter, D. L. (2012). Online college students 2012: Comprehensive data on demandsand preferences. Louisville, KY: The Learning House, Inc.Babson Park, MA: Babson Survey Research Group. Retrieved from www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/ changingcourse.pdf

4. Benson, A. (2002). Using online learning to meet workforce demand: A case study of stakeholder influence.Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 3(4), 443−452.

5. Benson, L., Elliot, D., Grant, M., Holschuh, D., Kim, B., Kim, H., et al. (2002). Usability and instructional design heuristics for e-Learning evaluation. In P., & S. (Eds.),Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia andTelecommunications 2002(pp. 1615−1621).Presented at the World ConferenceCarliner, S. (2004).An overview of online learning(2nd ed.). Armherst, MA: Human Resource Development Press

6. Blakey, L. (2010). The proliferation, pitfalls, and power of online education. Cases on Distance Delivery and Learning Outcomes: Emerging Trends and Programs. Ed. Deb Gearhart. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference, 167-189.

7. Conrad, D. (2002). Deep in the hearts of learners: Insights into the nature of online community. Journal of Distance Education, 17(1), 1−19.

8. Eduventures, Inc. (2012). Online higher education market update 2012/13: Executive summary.Retrieved from http://www.eduventures.com/insights/online-higher-education-market-update/download/

9. Graham, C. R., S. Allen, and D. Ure. 2005. Benefits and challenges of blended learning environments. In M. Khosrow-Pour (ed.), Encyclopedia of information science and technology (pp. 253–259). Hershey, PA: Idea Group.

10. Horn, M., and H. Staker. 2011. The rise of K–12 blended learning. Innosight Institute.http://www.innosightinstitute.org/innosight/wp-content/uploads/ 2011/01/The-Rise-of-K-12-Blended-Learning.pdf.

11. Mark, Tony. “Web based Learning Primer.” http://www.c2t2.ca/landonline/primer.html

12. Picciano, A., and J. Seaman. 2009. K–12 online learning: A 2008 follow-up of the survey of U.S. school district administrators. Needham, MA: Sloan Consortium. http://www.sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/pdf/k-12_online_ learning_2008.pdf.)

13. Popovich, C. J. and Neel, R. E. (2005). Characteristics of distance education programs at accredited business schools. The American Journal of Distance Education 19(4), 229 – 240.

14. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement. 2007. Connecting students to advanced courses online: Innovations in education. Washington, DC: Author.

15. Watson, J. 2004, February. Report to the Joint Budget Committee of the Colorado State Legislature on the cost of online education. Denver: Colorado Department of Education.