Developing and Launching an Online MBA: Key Decisions, Experiences, and Success Factors

In the Fall of 2001, after more than two years of planning, the School of Management at the University of Michigan – Dearborn launched its webMBA program. The launch of this program marked the culmination of over three years of research, planning, design, and development. This article reviews many of the key issues involved in developing and launching the webMBA, including decisions made about program administration, course technology, campus presence, faculty involvement, faculty incentives, student tuition, external funding and support, and degree equivalency. Critical factors to the webMBA’s success include: leadership by the Dean with support from university administration, raising external funds to cover development costs, committing to deliver the entire degree online without a required campus presence, creating generous faculty incentives, hiring a project/technical support manager, forming a partnership with an online services provider, focusing on small interactive classes, and emphasizing equivalency of online and on-campus courses. The article concludes with a discussion of opportunities for the future.