Category — Graduate School

The lines between online education and traditional brick and mortar programs are beginning to blur as increasingly tech savvy and mobile MBA candidates demand more web-based resources. On-demand seminars and lectures, once the domain of online graduate programs are being used to augment more traditional classroom experience.

Students Expect 24/7 Access

Building on their successful Open CourseWare Program, MIT’s Sloan School of Management provides extensive audio and video recordings for free to students and the public at large. And last month the London Business School made plans to implement a comprehensive class capture program. Their MBA students will soon be able to access recorded lectures from anywhere in the world.

MIT and the London Business School are by no means alone. Service provider Mediasite now helps students from more than 600 colleges and universities bridge the gaps of time and distance. They coordinate and automate webcasting and content management systems for the capture, management, delivery and search of rich media presentations (audio, video and graphics) for live or on-demand viewing.

Russell Altendorff, Director of Information Systems for London Business School described the need for the online component of business education.

“All major business schools are coping with an insatiable demand, primarily student-driven, for video and podcasting. The demographics of our students are changing. We see an increasing volume of Executive MBA students who are highly mobile, and with our new centers in Dubai and Hong Kong, over the last two years we increasingly have a whole cohort of students taught abroad and as a result we need to deploy more distributed learning.”

The London Business School had already been making filmed lectures and events available to students, but the new system will automate the process so that they can provide even more. This leader among business schools sees the online content as an addition to their already rich MBA program content.

“…we can not only provide online content as a service to our customers, but also as an adjunct way to support the learning process, so learning can occur not only through reading, reflection and face-to-face teaching, but also can be reinforced through access to instruction online.” said Altendorff.

Educational Benefits of Captured Classes

When students have access to recorded lectures it enables them to access class anytime. Complex concepts can be reviewed on demand until the message is clear. In that respect it’s almost like having the instructor on call. Also, knowing that lecture material is available later means students don’t necessarily have to take notes. While many students learn well by taking notes in class, others learn better when they can focus their full attention on listening.

Class capture provides the confidence that nothing will be missed. Everything the professor says and presents is stored for later reviewed. And some proponents believe that having a backup of the live presentation frees students to engage with each other and the instructor in a more meaningful way.

Was 2008 the year you knew you could have beat the market? Students of the Johnson School at Cornell University did just that. The student run Cayuga MBA Fund delivered a fourth quarter loss of just -1.29 % and actually came out ahead by 0.42 % for the year. Compared to the Dow Jones Industrial Average (down 33.8 %) and the S&P 500 (down 37 %) that’s no small feat. So how did they do it?

Key Word for Student Investors: Prudent

The Cayuga Fund’s strong performance was driven primarily by what Cornell MBAs describe as a ‘prudent risk management strategy’ that had shorts and longs performing comparably for the year.

“In spite of governmental efforts to prop up the financial industry and by extension, the equity markets, the economic picture remains very challenging and we expect this trend to continue throughout 2009. The Cayuga Fund intends to remain focused on generating absolute return through a combination of selective stock-picking and prudent risk management.” 

The top long performer (at at fourth quarter return of 65%) was Yanzhou Coal Mining Company (YCZ). This Chinese company mines, prepares, transports, and sells coal. It’s done well amid the growing global demand for inexpensive sources of energy.

The best short performer was American Apparel (APP), generating a return of 76 % in the last quarter. This company manufactures, distributes, and retails casual wear apparel for men, women, and children. Despite a weak retail segment, APP has performed well relative to many of its peers.

MBA Hedge Fund Creates Opportunities for Students

Cornell’s Johnson School created the Cayuga MBA Fund as an investment vehicle that aims to provide a competitive rate of return to its investors, but also serves to offer educational and professional opportunities to the Johnson School MBA students. By combining the cutting-edge research of faculty members with the participation of student portfolio managers, the fund provides a return far greater than that which is received by its investors.

Student portfolio managers, quantitative analysts, traders, and an investor relations manager all manage the fund under the guidance of faculty and outside investment advisers. Together, they work to achieve consistent positive returns that are uncorrelated with equity market benchmarks, and to maintain significantly lower volatility than the broader market.

Parker Center the Envy of Wall Street

The Cayuga MBA Fund also benefits from the support of Cornell’s Parker Center, which is a classroom for real-time stock quotes, international data feeds, and financial analysis software and data. This center is valued at more than $1.8 million per year in licensing fees. Representatives from Cornell say it’s as good as, if not better than, the resources found at many Wall Street firms. With this kind of return, who could argue?

What’s the lesson here? Either get yourself to business school, or give you money to someone who’s already there!

Soon universities (and possibly others who offer business education) will have access to an additional source of funding.

The folks who bring you the GMAT, the Graduate Management Admission Council Board, earlier this month approved $10 million to establish a fund to advance business and management education around the world. This in support of the Council’s initiative to make strategic philanthropic investments for the benefit of business and management education globally.

GMAC president and CEO, David A. Wilson states:

"We recognize that substantial change will only occur with substantial investment. That is why we think the board’s action can make a difference. These are investments against which the Council expects no return other than the advancement of the objectives for which grants are made."

GMAC Projects

Although the fund is new, GMAC’s sponsorship of projects that further business and management education globally is not. Two groups that have received support from GMAC in the past are The Ph.D. Project to increase the number of minority business school professors and their own Management Education Research Institute (MERI), which provides funding for faculty research on issues affecting management education, among others.

• Programs currently offered by MERI include the following:
• Grants up to $100,000 each for research that will impact management education.
• Faculty Fellowships designed to support innovative and thought-provoking management education leaders. Currently they offer up to four annual faculty fellowships up to $50,000 each for research at the fellows’ institutions.
• Doctoral Student Fellowships for doctoral students and beginning faculty. Up to four annual year-long doctoral student fellowships with awards up to $20,000 are available.

The Fund Formalizes GMAC’s Commitment

Over the next several weeks, the Council Board will put together a formal structure for the fund. Judy Phair in the council offices stated that the guidelines and process for applying for funds will be decided by an advisory committee to be selected by the board in early 2009.

Once you’ve decided to apply to business school, the choices for obtaining your MBA can be overwhelming. Use the journalistic approach to cover all the angles. These questions, based on the 5 Ws of journalism, provide a nice framework on which to base your B School inquiry!

Why is business school the right choice?

Examining your motivations for pursuing an MBA is the first and most important step to choosing the right business school.

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Ink and paper is so 20th century. New MBA and undergraduate business students are accustomed to living, working, and socializing online. Because they’ve grown up on computer games it’s a logical progression for business schools to incorporate computer-based simulations into the curriculum.

Business education is catching up with simulated business models where students get to apply classroom learning to a set of real world variables. With virtual workplace scenarios and computer-based simulations, students practice choices they’ll have to make in the real world. By some estimates, more than half the business schools accredited by AACSB are using online business simulations.

What’s a Business Simulation?

The case study has long been used in business school to simulate real business situations and illicit practical responses from students. Online simulations allow students to oversee operations management of a virtual factory and network with other executives. They apply theory to a virtual workplace. The game aspect of business simulations stimulate even more competition among students. And what’s B-School without some cutthrouat competition?

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