Back to (cyber) school; online graduate education is making deep inroads across the Detroit Region.

Walsh College in Troy recently conducted a survey of 400 employers in the Detroit Region to gauge their interest in the college's online MBA degree program.

The response was almost unanimous: Only one of the respondents indicated an unwillingness to reimburse employees who take the online class because the business considered it less valuable than the traditional on-site class.

"Really the (online) classes are every bit as rigorous, and some companies think it is harder," says Janet Hubbard, Walsh's director of marketing. "We don't make any distinction on a student's transcript whether they took online courses, so the degree itself is just like any Walsh degree."

Online graduate education is a professional development trend that's making deep inroads across Southeast Michigan. Virtually every college or university in the region offers at least one online graduate degree program simply because students and employers demand it (see list on page 18).

The attraction is simple. Online graduate classes and programs give students--especially those with full-time jobs--the flexibility they need to develop their career skills. Employers benefit because the arrangement keeps their employees on the clock during the day while taking classes at home in the evening.

Surprisingly, there is sometimes more interaction online than in a traditional classroom setting. "One thing our students have found is that they communicate more with other students (online) then they would in a classroom," notes Hubbard.

Of the 706 MBA students that register for Walsh's winter 2002 semester, more than 200--all but nine of them from the tri-county metropolitan area--are taking part in online classes, and virtually all are working either part-time or full-time.

Online vs. 'on ground'

Baker College of Business also offers an online MBA program. And like Walsh, it finds employers increasingly according an online degree the same esteem they give a degree earned in a classroom setting. In fact, the online program is the fastest-growing entity at Baker College, which has campuses in Auburn Hills, Clinton Township and Flint.

Peggy Houghton, department chair of Leadership Studies at Baker, is both an online and "on ground" instructor and enjoys teaching in both settings. "I've had students from places like China and all around the world. It (online teaching) has helped me gain more of a global perspective."

And, she adds, there's no difference in what's expected of students. "We have the same course outcomes for an on-ground class as we do for an online one. Students have to complete the same amount of work, it's just in a different medium."

Ted Blashak, vice president for Michigan campuses for the University of Phoenix, agrees that there's little or no difference between online and on-site classes in terms of learning quality.

The workload for the online classes at Phoenix is the same as on-site classroom settings. The main difference is that instead of classroom presentations, students must detail their coursework in e-mails and postings.

"We have found that most of our online students are very computer savvy but it really depends on the readiness of a student to learn," says Blashak. "People move around the world and change their addresses many times these days so the online program can travel along with them."

As the largest private higher education institution in the United States, Phoenix was a pioneer in the online education field. As a result, virtually all instructors teach both online and in-person classes. In May, the university also began its FlexNet program in Ann Arbor and Flint where students take classes that combine three consecutive days of online instruction sandwiched between two traditional classroom sessions.

The bottom line

In terms of professional development, most agree that the bottom line is not how a degree was earned, but where it's from, notes Ron Cooper, human resources director for the Great Lakes Region of Deloitte & Touche LLP.

"Two things we look at in particular are the quality of a school and how (an employee) applies the knowledge he or she has been taught," he says.

The University of Michigan-Dearborn launched an online MBA degree program in fall 2001, but to ensure a high degree of quality it partnered with Eduprise, an e-learning consultant company, to help provide technical support and course design assistance. U-M Dearborn now plans to expand its online courses to include all six of its graduate degrees along with its full array of undergraduate degrees in the near future.

Online education at Michigan-Dearborn was a direct response to market demands, explains Gary Waissi, dean of the School of Management. The school's program caters in particular to the many students who work at the nearby Ford World Headquarters location and who spend many days out of state on business.

Pros and cons 

There are "pros" and "cons" to an online graduate program, of course. Teaching an online class, for instance, can be more time-consuming for instructors because of the number of times they must access their e-mail each day.

Price is another drawback. At Walsh College, for example, the cost of an online program is 10 percent higher than an on-ground program. Although the percentage varies, that holds true for every college and university surveyed by the Detroiter.

For the business community, the price differential might be considered negligible when weighed against the convenience factor. In fact, convenience might be the biggest "pro" going for online graduate education in the Detroit Region.

Worth noting

An estimated 2 million students are taking online classes in the United States this year, with approximately 34 percent of those enrolled in online business programs at the graduate level

Source: The National Center for Education