Professor Susan Watson, the dean of the University of Auckland Business School, says while the delivery method will change, the course will retain all the features of a traditional MBA.
A key benefit of delivering the MBA programme online is that it will now be available nationwide. Watson says that in the past students had to either live in Auckland or be prepared to travel regularly to the Business School’s Sir Owen G Glenn Building for classes.
Online students will get the same course material and teaching as before, but both will now come in smaller, more digestible chunks. This means students will be able to study wherever they are and whenever they have time.
The Business School has found ways to make sure MBA students still get personal contact. “We know people do MBAs because of the cohort experience. They get to know people,” Watson says.
“Students still have the opportunity for cohort experiences. There will be regular gatherings for our MBA students around the country, the locations depend on where they end up enrolling from. They will still take part in an international study tour, which has long been a popular part of the MBA.”
Moving the MBA programme to online delivery reflects the acceleration towards digitalisation of everything that took place right across the economy and society in general during the Covid pandemic.
The Business School recently published Tāraitia Waka or Shaping Futures, an updated strategic plan that reflects the dramatic changes that have taken place since 2019. The new plan outlines a vision to have a “transformative impact on the future of organisations and society”. That means an increased focus on value, relevance and impact. Moving to online MBA delivery covers each of those goals.
In particular, the move is about relevance. The business school noted a strong demand from students for online delivery. Watson says: “We’ve faced the reality that students have shifted to wanting the convenience of online delivery. We wanted to offer the Auckland MBA beyond Auckland, but we also don’t want to lose the good things about the MBA, which includes the cohort experience and our lecturers delivering live material online.”
Auckland University’s Business School has taught its MBA programme for 40 years. It’s a world-class programme and has what is known as triple crown accreditation. That is, it has all three of the leading accreditations for business schools: AMBA, AACSB and EQUIS. Only one in a hundred business schools around the world achieve this.
Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“We recently had a dinner to celebrate the 40 years of the programme and we had a speaker from each 10-year cohort. They talked a lot about the difference the MBA had made to them.”
Watson says one former MBA student, former Pushpay chief executive Bruce Gordon, talked about how his MBA gave him the tools to create his business. He saw a technology being used in one context and realised it had potential, but he knew he had to find a real need for it before it could become a sound business proposition. He said the MBA had shown him how to think clearly about creating a viable business.
Former Pushpay CEO Bruce Gordon.
While the move to online programme delivery is a big step, the Auckland MBA has never been set in aspic, it has evolved over the years. In the early years there were two programmes, one for younger people starting their business careers and one an Executive MBA. The two later became one programme.
Watson says the university in general has shifted more towards lifelong learning and focusing on a wider group of people, not just school leavers. This means catering for a different type of student.
“They are more demanding. And it’s a different sort of teaching. They won’t just sit there and listen to a lecture, they’ll push back, they will frequently think they know more than the lecturer in the room. Sometimes they do. To teach these people you’ve got to be the kind of person who is comfortable with and enjoys that interaction. It requires quite a lot of skills, not everyone can teach the MBA.”
Moving to online delivery requires yet another teaching style, although Watson says the Business School is ready for that: “After Covid, we had a business recovery plan where we launched a range of online programmes at the postgraduate level for people who aren’t going to go on to a PhD, but want to learn more to enhance their careers, or they want to change their careers.
“We now have a number of degrees for that market. Many of them are delivered online. For example, we have a Master of Information Governance. We also have a successful Postgraduate Diploma in Business. This is a programme for people who have never done a university degree, but who want to go on with their education. It takes them up to where they are prepared for a masters degree or an MBA. It’s a popular course and it is delivered online.
“Our people had to learn how to deliver online because of Covid. They were forced to develop the skills.”
She says sessions tend to be shorter online and more lively: “You are never going to have a two-hour video lecture. We know people’s attention spans are different when using this technology.”
To this end, lectures are delivered live and, as far as possible, remain interactive. Students are asked to keep their cameras on and are expected to participate. It’s not about passively watching the screen.
While courses are taught live, lecturers can use “artifacts” in classes. These might be short animation clips or graphics created to illustrate a concept. The Business School uses an external service provider to produce these clips.
Because the course is taught using streaming video technology, students need to have access to a computer and a broadband internet account. In effect, it means study can take place anywhere that a service like Netflix is available. These days that means everywhere except the remotest corners of the country.
● The University of Auckland is a sponsor of the Herald’s Dynamic Business Report.
