Achiever Winter 1999 - UMUC Alumni Magazine

UMUC's Graduate School has launched a new online program leading to a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) degree, available to students for the first time during the fall 1999 semester. In February, the Graduate School submitted a proposal for the program to the Maryland Higher Education Commission, which subsequently approved it.

"This is an innovative, competency-based program," says Michael Evanchik, director of the program. "It stresses a number of topics crucial to success in today's competitive global environment, and it is designed, like all UMUC programs, to be convenient for working adults."

The new M.B.A. is a 42-semester-hour program divided into seven seminars and an intensive preparatory course. It is a part-time but accelerated program that can be completed in two years (although students will have up to five years from completion of the first seminar to finish the program). Students progress through the seminars in groups (known as "cohorts") along with a facilitator who assists the students and faculty throughout the program.

"We chose to use the cohort model because it permits the course material to becovered in a shorter period of time by eliminating duplication and ensuring effective integration," says Evanchik. "Also, we've found that the cohort offers a supportive environment that helps students to be successful."

The M.B.A. is a general management degree covering all functional areas of management-finance, marketing, management information systems, procurement and contracting, and human resources-as well as such skills as leadership, communication, strategic thinking, and quantitative analysis. In addition, there is an emphasis on both the entrepreneurial and the technological aspects of management. This differentiates it from the Master of Science in Management (M.S.M.), which combines general management skills with specialization in one functional area or industry.

"In fact, there are sufficient differences between the two degrees," says Evanchik, "that we are developing a dual M.S.M.-M.B.A. option." This dual-degree program will allow a student to obtain both breadth and depth of knowledge from the combined strengths of the M.S.M. and M.B.A. degree programs. "A student would complete the 39-credit M.S.M. program, and then take an additional 15 to 18 semester hours from the M.B.A. curriculum," Evanchik explains.

Admission requirements for the M.B.A. are the same as those for the M.S.M. Because the new program is fully online, however, there are certain minimum tech-nology requirements. Students will need a Pentium-based PC (or Mac equivalent) with at least 32mb of RAM (64mb is preferred), an 8X CD-ROM (12X CD-ROM is preferred), a Soundblaster-compatible sound card with speakers or headphones, and a microphone. Students will also need Netscape Communicator 4.0 or higher, and the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint).

"This M.B.A., like our other master's degrees, combines theory with practice," says Evanchik. "It is innovative, rigorous, and interdisciplinary. It is a degree for the 21st century."