Are Online and Blended Classes a Good Fit for Management Education?
Online and blended (both online and in classroom) courses are becoming more and more popular as time goes on. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, between 2007 and 2008, 4.3 million undergraduate students and 0.8 million graduate students took at a least one online class. But how effective are these new learning platforms for management education? Author J. B. Arbaugh of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh discusses this topic in his article “What Might Online Delivery Teach Us About Blended Management Education? Prior Perspectives and Future Directions” from Journal of Management Education.
The abstract:
Although the term has roots in the training and development literature, blended learning has only recently begun to be studied in management education. This article examines the literatures of blended and fully
online management education to determine whether there are factors that may influence instructional effectiveness that are unique to blended learning. The review provides tentative support for the premise that opportunities for enhanced learner control of the learning process and group cohesiveness and collaboration may be distinguishing advantages of blended learning in management education. The article concludes by discussing pressing research issues, including discovering optimal blends, differentiating from or integrating blending with the concept of “flipped classrooms,” distinguishing the effects of blending from other potential confounds, determining the effects of subject matter and program level, and seeking increased thought leadership on blended perspectives from classroom-based management education scholars.
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