Online MBA Courses - Now A Welcome SolutionHow do you attend regular classes when your work and family schedules are anything but regular? One solution is Online MBA Courses... Take the case of Scot Kanaley, 40, a principal consultant at Computer Sciences Corp., a $6 billion systems integrator. His work life, experience and education are typical of many technology professionals. Kanaley, who's based in Dallas, has a strong business and technology background. He has an undergraduate degree in finance and an MBA he earned about 10 years ago. And he spent virtually all his professional life working on the technology side of high tech. After working for a number of years as a consultant for Andersen Consulting, he moved to his job at CSC. Even with more than a decade of experience, he felt his knowledge of international business wasn't completely up-to-date. Every few years, his work with CSC took him overseas. Unsure of himself on these assignments, Kanaley felt he should understand the hiring practices, salary levels, international markets, currency problems and foreign cultures of the countries he visited. "I was passively looking for a way to update my education," he says. His passivity was understandable. With two teenage daughters and a job that required a great deal of travel, attending courses wasn't in the cards. His travel schedule alone would have forced him to miss at least three or four classes each semester. Then he found the M.B.A. in International Management (MIM) program offered by the School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas, a distance- learning program that did not require regular classroom attendance. Kanaley signed up for the program two years ago. By using the Internet as a way to communicate with other students and professors, he created his own schedule. Kanaley completed the MIM program a few weeks ago and now feels comfortable with his international knowledge. Web-based, distance-learning MBA programs give busy tech managers an opportunity to hone their business skills and knowledge while remaining at their jobs. Brandon Hall, publisher at brandon-hall.com, a company that conducts research about online learning, says only a handful of universities offer Internet-based MBA programs. They usually save students time since an on- campus visit may require more time than just the two or three hours spent in the classroom. "The majority of people who take these programs would not be able to attend live classes even if they wanted to," Hall points out. |