Developing and Launching an Online MBA
Lee A. Freeman, Timothy Landon, GaryWaissi, Ian Daykin
In the Fall of 2001, after more than two years of planning, the School of Management at the University of Michigan-Dearborn launched its webMBA program. The launch ofthisprogram markedthe culmination ofover three years ofresearch.planning, design, anddevelopment. This article reviews many ofthe key issues involvedin developing and launching the webMBA, including decisions made about program administration, course technology, campus presence.faculty involvement.faculty incentives, student tuition, externalfunding andsupport, anddegree equivalency. Critical factors to the webMBA 's success include: leadership by the Dean with supportfrom university administration, raising external funds to cover development costs, committing to deliver the entire degree online without a required campus presence, creating generous faculty incentives, hiring a project/technical support manager, forming a partnership with an online services provider, focusing on small interactive classes, and emphasizing equivalency of online and on-campus courses. The article concludes with a discussion ofopportunities for thefuture.
Lee A. Freeman is an assistant professor of management information systems and the directorof distance learning & teaching in the Schoolof Management at The University of MichiganDearborn. Hehas a B.A. fromThe University of Chicago and received both his M.B.A. and Ph.D. in information systems fromIndiana University. His teaching interests include systems analysis and design, end-user computing, and electronic commerce. His primary research interests include the conceptualization, mapping, and use of infonnation systems knowledge, information ethics, information security, and electronic commerce. He has published in MISQuarterly, the Communications oftheACM, Information Systems Frontiers, andtheJournal of IS Education, amongothers. He can be reached at lefreema@ umd.umich.edu.
Timothy Landon is director of graduate programs andassistant professor of human resource management for the School of Management, University of Michigan-Dearborn. HisPh.D. is in human resource management from the Carlson School of Managementatthe University ofMinnesota. Dr.Landon'sareas ofinlerest are graduate business education, employee selection andtesting, evaluation of fairness intesting, employee turnover, and international human resource management. He can be reachedat landon@umd.umich.edu.
Gary Waissi received his diplom-ingenieur(M.S.E.) from the University of Technology Darmstadt, Germany in 1975, licentiate of engineering (Lie. Eng.) from the University of Technology, Helsinki, Finland, and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan (civilengineering (operations research» in 1985. In 1986, Dr. Waissi joined the University of MichiganDearborn, School of Management, as assistant professor of decision science, was promoted to associate professor in 1992, and to professorof operations research in 2000. Currently he serves as the dean. His research and publications are in the areasoflinearprogrannning, network optimization, probability distribution theory and optimization software development. Dr. Waissl's latest publication is an electronic textbook Applied Statistical Modeling, published in June 2002 and available at http://www.som.umd.umich.edu/. Hecanbe reached at gwaissi @umich.edu.
Ian Daykin is the web MBA program manager in the School of ManagementatThe University of Michigan-Dearbom. He has a BBA from the University of Michigan-Dearbom with a dual majorin accounting and marketing, and earned his CPA in the state of Texas. He can bereached at idaykin@umd.umich.edu.
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