Online MBA Program Overview

Amanda Scaperotta:
Hi, thank you for listening to our online MBA program overview here at Ohio University. During this webinar, we’re going to cover the program overview, highlights, and benefits of our online MBA program here at Ohio University. I’m Amanda Scaperotta, program specialist. Also, on the webinar today, we have the director of the online MBA program. We’ll also go over general questions that are frequently asked and provide those answers.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
Hello, everybody. My name’s Dr. Young, and I’m the director of our Master of Business Administration program. I wanted to thank you for watching this video and learning more about our program.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
In terms of the benefits of our Master of Business Administration program, we have a number of them. First, I want to talk about the flexibility of our program. For example, we have eight different concentrations now, so that really gives you an opportunity to get a core MBA like experience with a concentration. That extra flexibility is something that is being more demanded from higher education institutions, because specific skills are needed at your organization. And you have specific interests in those concentration areas. We’re lucky enough to provide eight, which is a nice, a variety of topics.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
So I want to talk a little bit about those. I also want to just mention that what we’re about is providing an educational opportunity that really directly relates to your career goals, your professional goals. So that’s what the concentrations do.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
We have many students who are looking to get a promotion within their organization. We also take students who are looking for different changes in careers, and the MBA program allows for both of that. So it’s great for students who has a program, has a background, I should say, in business, maybe a bachelor’s in business, or perhaps somebody that’s not from business because all of those skills are definitely relevant in today’s modern business environment. So the program itself is a 100% online. Okay. There’s no GMAT requirement for admission.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
We also have all those concentrations that I want to talk briefly about. Our program is centered around a concentration that sometimes we refer to as the generalist approach. So we’re covering every major topic of business, which we’ll get into in the curriculum description on a little bit. And then we have these concentrations area.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
For example, we have a concentration in accounting. You might be asking, “Well, what are these concentrations really useful for? Is it useful for somebody that has an extensive background in maybe accounting, for example?” And I would say generally that’s not necessarily true. I would say if you have an interest of accounting and you have very limited background, or maybe no background in accounting, that this concentration would be the right one for you. A really, really, really hot topic, if you will, in the field of business is business analytics and that’s actually something I’m very involved with. So I’ll have a little bit more to say about that, but the world of analytics is and the role analytics has in today’s organization is very important. We can collect data easier, and we really have a deficit of people that have the skills to analyze that data and make business decisions.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
So getting a concentration in business analytics is really essential because at the end of the day, you’ll develop skill set that you can directly take back to your office and start analyzing those data sets, draw that inside out that ultimately are going to lead to better decisions.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
We also have exciting career paths if you will, and emerging fields such as business venturing and entrepreneurship. So if you have that entrepreneurial spirit and you want to go down that path, that might be a path for you. If you want to start your own business or get into ideation and a couple other topics, that would be great.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
One of our most popular concentrations is our executive management concentration. So we offer courses such as ethics and change leadership and things of that nature. Of course, everybody, or a lot of people that choose an MBA program are striving to be in the C-suite. And this really is a concentration that’s catered to those types of people. Not to say there’s other concentrations don’t lead to those promotions and more roles and responsibilities within your institution. But that’s what that of situation is really designed for.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
Certainly, we have other emerging fields and existing fields. One of the existing fields that has then widely popular, of course, is finance. If you have an interest in finance and you’re in an environment where maybe it’s a sort of a smaller operation, or maybe you’re in a large corporation, having that financial background is really quintessential. Healthcare is an unpopular concentration. It’s one of our most popular actually concentrations. We have a lot of people in healthcare that need an MBA because they’re thrusted into the administrative role that they need a solid background across the board and all forms of business. And then a deep dive, if you will, into a concentration area, and overview of the US healthcare system, ethics and law, and things of that nature.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
Another really, one of our newer concentrations operations and supply chain management is really a field much like analytics, that it is really essential now. You can think about recent events in the world of how that challenges our supply chain and the operations, how we conduct our processes and improve those processes, or adapt to a real world events. All of those relate to that operations and supply chain management concentration. So there’s a lot of manufacturing environment businesses still in, maybe the State of Ohio, but many others as well. So that’s definitely an interesting field.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
Finally, we have a strategic selling and sales leadership. So if you have a background in maybe marketing or something of that nature, and you want to further develop your leadership and a strategic selling skill sets, that would be an ideal.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
One thing I did want to mention, we do offer a variety of certificates too in some of these areas. And we offer a graduate program in business analytics. So I want to reiterate that because we really are trying to develop options for you that really caters to your own professional goals. I’ll talk more about the experience in the classroom, but I can say in general, our classroom environment, obviously, it’s a 100% online, so it’s virtual. However, you will have an opportunity twice a week as it were to meet with your faculty live in an Adobe Connect environment to where you can ask questions that you might have.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
Typically, our classes, they’re not all structured like this, but a typical classroom setting would be structured with pre-recorded videos. You watch those videos, you could work on activities associated with those videos, and then you maybe on a Wednesday or Thursday, come in at night in the evenings when you have free time after work and hopefully maybe put your kids to sleep and things of that nature to log in. If you can’t log in, that’s okay. We’ll actually record the session and send it out as soon as we’re done.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
But anyway, you have a chance to come to that virtual session and really ask questions about that prerecorded video, or maybe even be presented with a discussion that supplement those readings that you’ve had along the way. Again, just to finalize sort of the overview and the benefits, the benefits, like I mentioned earlier, the students are trying to sort of climb that corporate ladder. I hate to use that expression, but it’s true. An MBA is a great way to achieve that goal of yours, or it’s a great way to get exposed into new forms of new areas that you can make maybe a lateral move into another organization completely. Both of those are important goals to have, and we’re happy enough to offer a wide variety of choices for you to select from our concentrations and our structure of our program along the way to achieve those goals.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
I’ve discussed sort of an overview, a big overview of our program in general, and the concentrations that we offered. I want to dive down into the core offering of our MBA in terms of the curriculum. Like I mentioned earlier, our classes are a 100% online, and what might be a little unique and to compare other programs that you might be searching or researching to ours is that our classes are seven weeks, one at a time. So in a given semester, you’ll take two courses.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
For example, the first course you’ll take is descriptive analytics. And then that’ll be over the first seven weeks of that semester. Once we’re finished with that class, then you’ll take the second course, which is OBHR. So organizational behavior and human resource management. That’s really beneficial because we know you’re busy. We know you have responsibilities out there. We know that often our students have number of years of experience. Given that number of years of experience, it’s probably been a while since you’ve had a class before or exams or something of that nature. So having one class at a time really helps you to manage all of the requirements that you have in your life. Not only the school requirements, but of course your professional life and your personal life at home and things of that nature. So I want to kind of mention that, and I want to talk a little bit about the breadth of our core curriculum, which is displayed here.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
We do have the descriptive analytics course, and that’s really an important course. Again, I am an analytics professor. So I usually have more to say about the analytics courses, and I apologize for that, but I just have more experience. A descriptive analytics is really a beneficial class to all of our MBA students. We break it down in a way that, and I’m most happy to say based on the way its breakdown is that our students who feared this class, which it definitely should not be something you fear. It’s something that they take and immediately they’re putting the skills to use that we teach in the course back to the office, if you will. They’re making sort of an impact and really a name for themselves by doing analysis that they once couldn’t do. So even if you come in thinking or having an experience with an Excel environment, Microsoft Excel, we’ll teach you more proper ways, best approaches and things of that nature to where you can really automate a lot of work that you’re doing and make better presentations and things like that.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
When it comes to OBHR, the workplace is a very dynamic place with several social issues and HR related concerns. It’s an ever evolving field of business. Whether you’re in HR or not, it’s going to be beneficial for you to actually know the things that HR has to task to go through. Rules, regulations, and how to conduct business and things of that nature, because it’ll all come at you as a decision maker, as a leader. And that’s something our MBA program is really sort of overarched with is the presence of developing your leadership abilities. I’ll talk definitely more about that as we move forward with this presentation.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
Accounting is one of those focal areas in businesses that is always good to have an awareness of because even if you’re not an accountant or you’re not doing the sort of number crunching and be in accounting, if you will, you have to have an awareness as a leader of what accounting systems are and how they really relate back to the decision as a leader that you’ll make.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
I could say that for every single one of these topics. So finance is very similar. You have to have a good awareness to be a leader about the financial implications of the decisions you’re making and there’s conversations that you’re a part of. Marketing plays an extremely vital role in today’s business environment. So things like search engine optimization and other marketing related initiatives are certainly important. It’s one of those areas that you really can make a difference for yourself from your business performance, if you have a good understanding of marketing and all the other courses for that matter.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
A strategic use of… Sorry, strategic use of information systems is another course that is really powerful because of the emergence of analytics. How are organizations today leveraging different systems, ERP, CRM, and point of sale systems and things of that nature. Or big data, AI, and some of those topics. So you’re not necessarily building those models, certainly in those course, but you’re going to be sort of exposed to the awareness of what companies are doing with that data. That’s kind of hidden in those systems that we use in business today.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
As I mentioned, the role of operations is certainly important. I can think of a lot of world events and things of that nature that really stress the importance of operations management. Simply put, when it comes down to it, my background is actually in operations management. So to summarize that discipline, it’s all about continual improvement. Sure, sometimes continuous improvement relates to the other functional fields like marketing and finance and things of that nature, it’s all a process when it boils down to it. So having an understanding of operations and how things can be improved is certainly going to be beneficial to you, even if you’re not working in a manufacturing environment. Most are service related careers that we have in the United States now, and operations plays a huge role in both service or manufacturing environment.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
To wrap up the program, we have two courses; strategy and applied business experience. So this will be sort of the time to put everything together. More specifically in a strategy case, you’re doing many forms of analysis to really hyper analyze an industry or a specific firm and make recommendations. That’s very similar to our applied business experience where it’s a simulated event. So we don’t offer a lot of courses with a lot of teamwork. Most of our courses, if not all, are basically completed individually in some sort of way. Most are purely individual where you really have… I don’t want to say no contact with students, but teamwork is not something we have in those courses. There will be at times where… And there are certainly a lot of opportunities, by the way, to interact with your students.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
One is the leadership development program that I’m going to discuss. The other is discussion board and other forms of electronic hangouts and things that you can do online, which is certainly commonplace in today’s online sort of educational system and environment. But anyway, it’s one of those points you put everything together.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
Capstone is a simulated business environment where you actually will be placed on a team. And then, like I said, I want to say it’s one of the few places, because we know you’re busy. It’s very hard to integrate all these people, all of our students together. So we do save that team based environment towards the end, but it’s honestly nothing I’ve ever read that’s a problem or that it’s not flexible enough for people all across the nation to get together. So I wouldn’t be intimidated by that environment in terms of teamwork. Because that that concern always comes up in an online program. But more or less, it’s an environment that you are representing different C-suite level executives, making decisions. Maybe some are financial related operations related, things of that nature. You’re simulating a business. You’re competing with other teams in the course. Actually, from the feedback I get, it’s quite fun. Sometimes, people say it’s actually one of the most enjoyable experiences.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
Once that being said, I’d like to mention that we really pride ourselves on really creating an environment that is student centered. Like I’ve mentioned before. With that, I’m happy to say in a large national poll and ranking systems, we’re always consistently rated as one of the best values. We’re also rated as one of the top programs from an experience perspective. And then also the return on investment, the value, what are you getting after you complete our programming? What is the change of salary, the promotions related and things of that nature. So the overall core might look like a very general approach, which it is. Because every general, every focal area, every course topic is going to supplement you as a leader.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
As I summarized our curriculum, I finished with a concept of leadership and that’s really because I wanted to sort of have a segue into our leadership development program. The leadership development program, first of all, from a curriculum standpoint, you have to come to one. There are several offered throughout the program when you choose the program or choose our program and things of that nature. For example, we offer twice a year and the program is two years, so six semesters. As long as you come to one, you have met that requirement. This is something a bit of a concern from our students that they want to take an online program. They’re a little bit concerned about an on campus experience. Frankly, I was concerned when I started being the director in 2013. I thought, “Wow, this is an interesting take.” Well, I can say my concerns are totally not present today.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
Over the course of the years, we’ve worked with leaders, we’ve worked with our Walter Leadership Center and I can tell you, we put on a world-class operation with our leadership development program. I have several military students and other students alike that have gone to leadership conferences around the world, and they’re consistently giving us feedback that this was an enjoyable and meaningful experience. So one, you do get to come to Athens, you do feel a part of a program and not just an email address, if you will. We can collaborate, we can communicate with you obviously.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
So you get a chance to know your professors that you’ve either had in classes that you will have in classes. You get a chance to meet the people that you’ve been on discussion boards with, or Google Hangouts with, or in live virtual office hours with and things of that nature. So it’s really enjoyable for best perspective. Certainly, you get to meet the student support team, our staff involved and giving you the right information and really reaching out to you when necessary, just to check in on you and give you the right information at the right time. That really plays a quintessential role.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
This is on topic, but it’s just a random thought that came to my head. One recent LDP, announcing our graduates and reading the names and congratulating each and every one of them, bringing them on stage and things of that nature, which was a great event by the way. And presenter before me came up to the podium and said, “Our online program…” MBA in particular, it’s our biggest program. It’s not just an afterthought. It’s not just an afterthought that we teach our classes in Athens, Ohio. We’re in the classroom and we kind of forget occasionally about our online students. That’s not the case at all. I can tell you, my office is in a suite of dedicated staff members across the board, other directors of programs, concentration, area, certificate programs, staff members, student support specialists. Our day-to-day is all about online education.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
If anything is true, sometimes it’s actually opposite that’s like, “Oh yeah, we’re operating on campus classes because we’re fully committed to your success.” I think the leadership development program, in some ways, a reflection of that. It’s really our signature event. It’s really meaningful. I’ll just give you an overview of what you can expect. It is a two day event, it’s actually a day and a half. We realized that half day, for example, is the second day, and we realized you need to get back to where you need to be for family obligations or working obligations or whatever. So you’ll have a half day to travel back. It’s a really great environment. Like I said, socially, to meet your fellow students and your faculty and staff.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
We also have world-class speakers and people that lead workshops and things of that nature. With our connections with Walter Leadership Center, it’s a Center of Excellence at Ohio University. We bring in speakers all across the globe, to be honest. A lot of those companies are from contacts that we have in our network. We’ve had people from General Electric, we’ve had people from Whirlpool. We’ve had people from Cardinal Health. We’ve had people in every major… Amazon, for example, and some of those other big organizations.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
I mean, we’ve also had the entrepreneurs of the world. We’ve had panelists, we’ve had a focus on women in leadership. We’ve had breakout sessions related to each one of our concentrations. So emerging theories, applications of analytics, or whether it be selling or how to sell yourself. We’ve had a variety of events that really give you an awareness of your leadership, whether that’s personal leadership of yourself or it’s an awareness of how to lead others. And that’s what the MBA programs about. Get the functional skills through the classwork have real meaningful situations and experiences throughout the program like the leadership development. Because the program, because you’re going to be thrusted into a role, because you want that promotion, you want to have more responsibilities. And this is a stepping stone in order to get there.
Dr. William (Bill) Young:
So it’s really great environment. The guest speakers that we have, we some times have faculty presenting new topics, emerging research and things of that nature. It’s a really great environment. I can’t really say anything more. We always keep the content fresh. Every LDP is different. If you come to the very first one that we offer, and you want to come back to more, that’s great. Your tuition includes up to three attendances, I guess, after the LDP. So you can come back. You only have to come to one. You can talk with your enrollment advisor about the specifics of what your tuition covers and travel accommodations and things like that. But I can just tell you through my experience, it’s a really signature event and I couldn’t be more wrong about being worried about students, not having some sort of meaningful experience. It’s actually quite the opposite. I think given the nature of your goals and the nature of our goals, it’s a really great environment.
Amanda Scaperotta:
If you’re wondering, why choose Ohio University to further your business education, I can tell you that Ohio University’s College of Business is accredited by the association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, which recognizes the best business schools on a global scale. Our College of Business was one of the earliest accredited schools and we’ve maintained our AACSB accreditation for over 70 years now.
Amanda Scaperotta:
Ohio University’s College of Business can impact your professional future by being an accredited institution. We worked to create an innovative and diverse learning environment that allows our students, alumni, and faculty to thrive as a global leaders within their industries.
Amanda Scaperotta:
Listed on this screen is the tuition for the online MBA program. If you reside within the State of Ohio, it’s $1,028 per credit hour. If you live outside of the State of Ohio, reside elsewhere in Ohio, then it is $1,047 per credit hour. And the total for the online MBA is there on the screen for you.
Amanda Scaperotta:
We also offer scholarships for Ohio University alumni, student veterans, and members of the active or retired military. And we have corporate partnerships as well. What this will do is you qualify for any of these is it’ll give you $5,000 to apply towards the online MBA program here at Ohio University.
Amanda Scaperotta:
By earning an MBA, you develop a leadership capabilities. No matter what field you work in, leadership skills are essential to career advancement. You’re going to learn how to approach real world business challenges holistically and come up with solution oriented business strategies as well. Taking classes online really requires that self-discipline time management and requires you to take initiatives which are valuable skills to apply in any personal or professional situation.
Amanda Scaperotta:
When you’re taking an online program, online doesn’t mean out of touch, especially here at Ohio University. Online class discussions are hosted on Blackboard, which allows you to interact directly with faculty and fellow students. Most people find themselves texting or emailing with their fellow classmates, even outside of our Blackboard system. We make it a priority to connect with each student individually, which means you don’t have to worry about getting lost in a crowd. The same professors that teach these online programs are the same faculty members that are teaching our on campus program. They’re highly student centered, and that’s what they pride themselves on here.
Amanda Scaperotta:
Our online MBA was designed with convenience and flexibility in mind for working professionals. Coursework and assignments are posted online for you to self-study in self-pace. And you can take one class at a time. Classes are in seven week increment.
Amanda Scaperotta:
I also wanted to mention to participate in any online program, you need to be self-motivated, have effective time management skills, create a good working environment for yourself so that you can study and complete assignments on time and never ever be afraid to ask any questions at all.
Amanda Scaperotta:
I’m going to go through our top admission requirements and some general questions we get regarding the program.
Amanda Scaperotta:
There is no GMAT or GRE required to apply or be admitted into the online MBA program. There’s a $50 application fee to apply online. We’ll need your current and updated professional resume along with all official transcripts from colleges and universities that you have attended. Reminder, that the online MBA is 35 credit hours.
Amanda Scaperotta:
Thank you for listening today. I wanted to mention, we have three starts per year for the online Master of Business Administration program. That’s spring, summer, and fall. For any additional questions or any help needed at all, please reach out via the phone number or email address you see on the screen. Thank you again.