Is Distance MBA useful

Answer 1

"Distance Learning" has been a boon industry in education, but it is still not seen as sufficient as an on-campus degree, although the integrity and reputation of the University offering the Distance Learning may affect how employers and other colleges view your degree.

Recent institutions such as U of Phoenix, Cappella, and others offer on-campus and distance learning, but teach in ways somewhat different from regular Universities, using modules and 'facilitators' and pre-packaged teaching units instead of the more traditional independently prepared professorships.

While you can get a reasonable education for some degrees, especially some business degrees, these institutions despite their advertisements still do not maintain the same respect among academics as do traditional Universities and Colleges. And MBA from Wharton or Columbia will always win out over a degree from one of those colleges, but if all you need is the education level to progress in a job, then the distance learning/facilitator type colleges may be o.k. They can cost about the same but they still have hurdles and barriers before they hold the same degree of respect. Part of the problem is they attract non-Phd level instructors, often persons from the Business community, or even after hours High School teachers with Masters, while larger campuses are required to have a certain percentage of Professors with doctorates.

As a former educator, my biggest problem with them is that while they are tailor-made for business and the working world, they functionally change the nature of a University, as an institution for growing knowledge and free open debate of new and controversial ideas and constructs. Don't expect to debate the Holocaust or abortion, or to take courses on "theology since the 1940s" at most of them. They are geared toward practice.