Will Video Kill the Classroom Star? The Threat and Opportunity of Massively Open On-Line Courses for Full-Time MBA Programs

27 Pages Posted: 18 Jul 2014

See all articles by Christian Terwiesch

Christian Terwiesch

University of Pennsylvania - Operations & Information Management Department

Karl T. Ulrich

The Wharton School

Date Written: July 16, 2014

Abstract

This report examines the emergence of the Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) and its impact on business schools. Business schools provide a bundle of benefits to students, only one of which is learning specific academic subjects. The focal technology relevant to business schools is not the MOOC but rather a technology embedded within the MOOC — chunked asynchronous video paired with adaptive testing, a technology we call “SuperText.” The SuperText technology opens up at least three pathways for business schools. Via one pathway, SuperText allows institutions to serve more students better and/or more efficiently. Via a second pathway, institutions can serve existing students with fewer faculty members. Along a third pathway, the functions of a business school are unbundled and business schools as we know them are substantially displaced by alternatives. These pathways can be thought of as a menu of options for a business school contemplating how to use the new technologies. Alternatively, these pathways are scenarios that could unfold with or without the active participation of an institution. Although our focus is on business schools, we believe the analysis is relevant to higher education more generally.

Keywords: MOOC, massively open online course, educational technology, MBA, business school, technology, innovation

JEL Classification: I2, O33

Suggested Citation

Terwiesch, Christian and Ulrich, Karl T., Will Video Kill the Classroom Star? The Threat and Opportunity of Massively Open On-Line Courses for Full-Time MBA Programs (July 16, 2014). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2467557 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2467557

Christian Terwiesch

University of Pennsylvania - Operations & Information Management Department ( email )

Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States

Karl T. Ulrich (Contact Author)

The Wharton School ( email )

Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
265
Abstract Views
1,555
Rank
245,936
PlumX Metrics