The U.S. News and World Report ranked IU Kelley School of Business’s online Kelley Direct MBA program and its Master of Science program No. 1 for online degree programs.
“We were ranked highly because we are extremely innovative,” said Phillip Powell, an IU professor and faculty chair of Kelley Direct.. “We completely redesigned the graduate management education and the way we deliver courses.”
Instead of trying to replicate the traditional classroom, the online Kelley programs work to emulate the virtual workplace in today’s global business world, Powell said.
The online programs are ranked by four measures, said Ash Soni, executive associate dean for Programs at the Kelley School of Business. Those measures include faculty credentials and training, student services and technology, student engagement, and ?admission, selectively.
Both of Kelley’s online programs received perfect scores in all four measures, according to an IU press release.
This put Kelley on top of more than 200 online business programs and above two other online MBA programs, Powell said. IU was also the first of all the top-20 business schools to offer an online program in 1999, Powell said.
One thing that makes the Kelley program stand out is the school’s efforts to make it more interactive, Powell said. For example, all online Kelley students will visit IU’s campus at least twice in their career.
“We want to make sure the students feel connected to campus and Assembly Hall even though they don’t get an education here, to feel like a citizen of IU,” Powell said.
The program’s biggest struggle is creating face-to-face interactions, Soni said. To improve, Kelley has started to offer programs to encourage students to meet in person.
They have a global immersion program allowing students to travel abroad and work hands-on in the country they’ve studied; they also have long weekends in Chicago and the Silicon Valley, ?Soni said.
Due to an endowment, some of these trips are 50 percent paid by Kelley Direct, Powell said.
“You can never beat the in-person experience, but we focus on improving the quality of student life outside the classroom,” Powell said.
Many students do the online program to save money and time.
“I don’t have the time to do a brick and mortar MBA,” online student Ben Golata said. “With my job I could be called at any moment to anywhere in the world.”
The programs take two to five years, but on average, students finish in 2 1/2 years, Powell said. A residential program is typically two ?academic years.
The online program is also less expensive, costing $30,000 less on average than a residential program, Powell said.
Golata said he also likes the program for its alumni base.
“I’m very happy with the program,” Golata said. “It’s allowed me to continue and progress in my current job while getting an education. No regrets.”
