ACADEMIA Letters

Assessing Online Programs: Virtual versus Traditional

Business Schools
Dr. Milan Frankl

In this paper I examine the educational value of a degree obtained through a traditional brick
and mortar business school compared to the educational value of a degree attained through an
online delivery method of education. This comparison is useful because even after more than
a decade of online program offerings by many world-renown universities, some academicians
still argue that online education cannot deliver value similar to that delivered by traditional
brick and mortar institutions (Barker 2010). In the literature on this subject, the definition of
what is educational value is often missing. Therefore, I propose a definition of “educational
value” applied at both “brick-based” and “click-based” institutions of higher education. I ar-
gue that the quality of the program learning outcomes and not the mode of delivery should
be used as a more appropriate comparison criterion between these two modes of educational
delivery. My research suggests that both kinds of delivery methods have similar educational
value, each with its own advantages and inconveniences. Furthermore, I suggest a Program
Assessment Method (PAM) for online programs based on competencies and learning out-
comes. The PAM addresses issues associated with the academic aspects of the program, the
management concerns involved, as well as the accreditations requirements. This assessment
supports the above arguments.

New Online Course Development Paradigm – Background

University Canada West is a young Canadian university established in 2004 on Vancouver
Island, British Columbia. It offers a range of undergraduate and graduate programs to Cana-

Academia Letters, April 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Dr. Milan Frankl, [email protected]

Citation: Frankl, D.M. (2021). Assessing Online Programs: Virtual versus Traditional Business Schools.
Academia Letters, Article 411. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL411.

1
dian and International students. A review of the marketplace requirements in graduate studies
confirmed that a strong need exists to address the void of senior IT management competencies
in the marketplace because of the “dot.com” fiasco at the turn of the millennium, that resulted
in dwindling enrollments in computer science programs.
To address that void a substantive program that will meet market needs, respond to indus-
try expectations, and deliver a quality academic content without affecting quality standards
for online and face-to-face delivery mechanisms was developed. Both internal and external
university resources were invited to participate in debating appropriate methods of program
development and delivery, use of innovative mechanisms for content identification, while
building on existing and potential resources readily available to the university.
None of the Canadian universities offer innovative programs for the technology sector.
Most of these universities continue to develop and deliver their academic material using tra-
ditional pedagogical methods based on learning outcomes and textbooks of leading higher
education publishing establishments. By comparison some international universities have ad-
dressed the market need for professional IT manager training – for example the University
of Florida (USA), and Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand). Both of these pro-
grams take a traditional business school approach of case-based courses with an emphasis on
management.
Rather than follow this example, University Canada West’s leadership has decided to ex-
plore new grounds for program development based on a learning competencies model (Be-
heshtifar 2012). To that end the University identified and applied appropriate learning com-
petencies to address the specific needs of the objective pursued: a new degree program in the
management of information technology geared toward the marketplace requirements. This
program differentiates itself from the numerous MBA programs including some with formal
information technology management concentrations by the use of experiential learning criteria
and hands-on, applied coursework that go beyond the more typical offering of courses cover-
ing basic information technology topics and employ traditional development mechanisms.
What follows is a description of a three-year process that was utilized by this author, with
university faculty support, to explore avenues to address this need as it applies to technology
outsourcing from the mature economies of Canada, and the United States.

Introduction
A widely accepted principle is that education, in general, has value; specifically economic
and social value (Census 2012). President Alejandro Toledo of Peru is quoted saying “there is
no better investment that a person, a community, or a nation [can] make than investing in the

Academia Letters, April 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Dr. Milan Frankl, [email protected]

Citation: Frankl, D.M. (2021). Assessing Online Programs: Virtual versus Traditional Business Schools.
Academia Letters, Article 411. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL411.

2
minds of our people” (Moore 2003). I do not question here the value of education in itself,
but rather ask how can one compare educational value achieved through the traditional Brick
& Mortar Schools (B&M) versus the educational value achieved through a “point and click”
Virtual Schools (VS). (Coughlan 2013)
Traditionally the measurement of a quality education was tightly linked to the status and
resources of B&M Schools (Cox 2005) (Noble 1997) (Stahl 2004) (Redpath 2012). This was
based on three foundation measures of a solid education:

• Knowledge Transfer: through access to educational material (books, classroom hand-

outs, notes, reference articles, or even specialized software, labs, etc.) made available
throughout courses.

• Human Resources: through access to teachers, mentors, professors, teaching assis-

tants, or other persons adding value to the study material, and capable of transferring
knowledge, and assessing student’s performance.

• Certification: through the issuance of degrees, certificates, etc., confirming the knowl-
edge acquired by the student.

An additional principle in knowledge transfer mastery is achieved when integrating knowl-

edge through teamwork results in performance synergies. An education environment lends
itself to systematic knowledge integration, especially in professional services and manage-
ment. (Gardner, Staats and Gino 2012)
Benefits of a solid education can, therefore, be summarized as access to knowledge, access
to resources capable of transferring that knowledge, and access to institutions accredited of
certifying the acquisition of that knowledge. Estimating the value of education becomes a
qualified and quantified measure of those benefits. Other factors also can be included like:
time and cost, availability and accessibility, recognition, and usability.

Comparing Educational Value of Brick & Mortar Schools and Vir-

tual Schools
We compare in the following tables the educational value of Brick & Mortar Schools and
Virtual Schools. The comparative criteria used are based on a variety of sources identified in
each case.
Table 1.1: BMS versus VS comparative quantitative educational value (compiled by the
author)

Academia Letters, April 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Dr. Milan Frankl, [email protected]

Citation: Frankl, D.M. (2021). Assessing Online Programs: Virtual versus Traditional Business Schools.
Academia Letters, Article 411. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL411.

3
 Source: developed by the author
Table 1.2: BMS versus VS comparative qualitative educational value (compiled by the
author)
Source: developed by the author
Applying Trochim’s qualitative to quantitative conversion method to the above tables by
giving an arbitrary quantitative value to each of the chosen criteria, results in the following
graphical representation of those values. (Trochim Last Revised: 10/20/2006)1

Figure 1. Comparative effect comparison between B&M and VS schools Source: developed
by the author.

In figures 1 and 2 a quantitative criterion has been assigned to the respective comparative
criteria.
The quantitative values are presented on a scale of 1 to 10: highest value of 8, median
value of 6, and lowest value of 4. Of course, one could assign any arbitrary value and use
it for comparative purposes. In this case the reasoning was based on the assumption that no
1
Trochim argues that the “qualitative-quantitative” debate is a non-issue. He states that “in almost ev-
ery applied social research project I believe there is value in consciously combining both qualitative and
quantitative methods in what is referred to as a mixed methods approach.” Furthermore, he asserts that
“all quantitative data is based on qualitative judgment and all qualitative data can be coded quantitatively.”
(http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/qualdeb.php)

Academia Letters, April 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Dr. Milan Frankl, [email protected]

Citation: Frankl, D.M. (2021). Assessing Online Programs: Virtual versus Traditional Business Schools.
Academia Letters, Article 411. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL411.

4
 Figure 2. Access to knowledge comparison between B&M and VS schools Source:
developed by the author.

properly accredited higher education institution merits a value higher than 8 and no properly
accredited higher education institution merits a value lower than 4 based on the argument that
no educational value is absolutely perfect or totally inadequate. Each educational value lies
somewhere in between those two extremes.
In both cases one can note some level of asymmetry value between B&M and VS schools.
What seems to work well in one environment works less so in the other.
Indeed, figure 1 suggests that virtual schools offer a higher availability to students, are
more economic because of lower fees and constraints (no need to travel, no need for residency,
and so on), and require less dedicated course time; although, total time invested in the online
course can often be higher than the classroom time in B&M school environments. On the other
hand, B&M Schools carry usually a higher prestige especially in academic environments, they
are better recognized by potential employers, and students have access to social interaction in
the classroom and on campus not available online.
According to Frank Mayadas, Program Director, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, “Quality, not
mode of delivery, should become the criterion for aid, recognition and support, […] it should
be about the same as the traditional classroom ’on-campus’ offerings of the same institution”

Academia Letters, April 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Dr. Milan Frankl, [email protected]

Citation: Frankl, D.M. (2021). Assessing Online Programs: Virtual versus Traditional Business Schools.
Academia Letters, Article 411. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL411.

5
(Anonymous, Experts: New ’paradigm’ needed for online learning 2002).
With the recent advent of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) offered by elite uni-
versities like Stanford, UC Berkeley, MIT, Duke, Harvard, UCLA, Yale, Carnegie Melon, and
University of British Columbia, online education is starting to earn both interest and creden-
tials as a serious contender to traditional face-to-face course delivery methods (Compuware
2013).
Furthermore, some commercial organizations like Apple and Udemy started offering sim-
ilar education platforms increasing the acceptance of students of this additional method of ac-
cessing education from reputable professors from universities like Dartmouth, the University
of Virginia, and Northwestern that offer free and for-credit (for a nominal fee) online courses
(Ibid).
Open Culture, a free cultural and educational media on the web, identifies more than 375
MOOCs, many offering certificates of completion, statements of accomplishment, certificates
of mastery, and some courses that can be used for university credits (Open Culture 2013).

Rational supporting the value of online educational delivery method

Modern business relies heavily on teamwork. Harnessing the power of technology to connect
team members scattered across the country or around the world can result in dramatically
increased efficiency and significantly reduced costs. Big corporations have extended this
method beyond the face-to-face team environment in to a virtual team environment. Collab-
orative work is the norm. Indeed “many companies are still investing heavily in collaborative
product innovation-focused initiatives, and the technology solutions and services to enable
these” (Anonymous, Managing Product Life, Strategic Direction. 2002). Team work per-
mits distributing the workload, reinforcing individual capabilities, and creating participation
and involvement (University of Strathclyde Glasgow 2012). The resulting synergy is often
substantial.
Based on personal experience of more than 20 years as an executive in high-tech busi-
nesses, using the standard team approach as well as the virtual ones, I argue that virtual teams
tend to be more practical, better prepared, and more efficient in meeting common goals, there-
fore also supporting the social-cohesion theory where greater effort results from concerns
about the team itself rather than the goal or reward structures (O’Keefe 2004). This argu-
ment is supported by the use of the cyber-asynchronous delivery method which allows for full
virtual interaction of students during the whole course, often resulting in a stronger under-
standing and sharing of course information than in a classroom environment. Each member
brings strengths and challenges to the table without the constraints of time and place (Tal-

Academia Letters, April 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Dr. Milan Frankl, [email protected]

Citation: Frankl, D.M. (2021). Assessing Online Programs: Virtual versus Traditional Business Schools.
Academia Letters, Article 411. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL411.

6
isayon 2001). With real-time collaborative tools that incorporate text chat, document sharing,
whiteboard, and audio/video conferencing from the users’ desktops, web-based project col-
laboration and management software, virtual teams have nowadays adequate tools for their
trade (Petruske 1999).

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Citation: Frankl, D.M. (2021). Assessing Online Programs: Virtual versus Traditional Business Schools.
Academia Letters, Article 411. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL411.

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Academia Letters, Article 411. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL411.

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Academia Letters, April 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Dr. Milan Frankl, [email protected]

Citation: Frankl, D.M. (2021). Assessing Online Programs: Virtual versus Traditional Business Schools.
Academia Letters, Article 411. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL411.