UNC's partner, 2tor Inc., is a startup with over $68 million in venture funding, is investing more than $10 million into the program. It also has online degree programs in nursing at Georgetown University as well as social work and education at the University of Southern California. Kenan-Flagler has 20 of its full-time professors, many of them considered the school's best faculty, deeply involved in the online initiative, developing and recording special lectures and teaching live classes online.
Together, 2tor and UNC aim to make online education both respectable and credible. If they succeed, the number of MBA candidates in this two-year, $92,725 program will vastly exceed Kenan-Flagler's full-time MBA student population on-campus and the program will reach a worldwide audience.
So far, UNC has signed up 134 students for MBA@UNC since taking on an inaugural class of 19 students in the fall of last year. The school enrolls a new group of candidates every quarter and, on April 4, it will bring in some 45 new students as part of a fourth cohort.
A typical webinar session has little more than a dozen. "These guys are being taught in groups of no more than 15 students," he says. "It's an intense experience. Everyone sits in the front row so there is nowhere to hide."
Kenan-Flagler's professors have developed 32 hours of asynchronous teaching material and have another 36 hours under development. Three professors -- including two adjunct hires -- are teaching their live sessions from India, Israel, and France. The students, meantime, hail from all over the country and the world, including China and Kuwait.
A few field trips to keep things personal
The San Francisco experience -- which runs from a Thursday to Sunday evening -- is one of four in-person immersions in the program. Another one is devoted to leadership development and held at the school's Chapel Hill campus in North Carolina. Two more will be global, with an immersion in San Paulo, Brazil, focused on managing in a high-growth environment, and one in London centered on global markets. Each student is required to do two immersions during the two-year program.
Kenan-Flagler's professors have developed 32 hours of asynchronous teaching material and have another 36 hours under development. Three professors -- including two adjunct hires -- are teaching their live sessions from India, Israel, and France. The students, meantime, hail from all over the country and the world, including China and Kuwait.
A few field trips to keep things personal
The San Francisco experience -- which runs from a Thursday to Sunday evening -- is one of four in-person immersions in the program. Another one is devoted to leadership development and held at the school's Chapel Hill campus in North Carolina. Two more will be global, with an immersion in San Paulo, Brazil, focused on managing in a high-growth environment, and one in London centered on global markets. Each student is required to do two immersions during the two-year program.
Source: CNN
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