After moving to remote instruction in mid-March 2020, the University of Arkansas and Walton MBA programs have returned for the Fall 2020 semester with a combination of both remote and in-person class options to maintain a quality educational experience while also protecting the health and safety of the students and faculty.
Both the Executive MBA (EMBA) and full-time MBA welcomed their new cohorts to the Walton family through virtual orientations at the beginning of August. Both programs increased their admission numbers from the previous year. The incoming cohort for the EMBA admitted 86 students, and the new cohort for the full-time program admitted 47 students.
Dr. Vikas Anand, Executive Director of MBA Programs and Graduate Program Innovation, said the biggest strength of the new cohorts were their diversity and backgrounds.
“We have an incredibly diverse class in both the EMBA program and the FTMBA program,” Anand said. “The diversity and backgrounds are represented in terms of the number and types of companies they represent and their prior training. This kind of diversity leads to varied discussions in class and thus to better learning.”
Anand anticipates the combination of remote and in-person classes may take some time to adjust to.
“While most faculty are not changing the content, there are challenges,” he said. “Group work must be done electronically and that is a problem, too. We have had to be creative in our solutions. There is the option to be more discriminating on how class time is used. With students becoming familiar with technology a lot of the lecture components can be put online and classroom time is increasingly used for richer interactions.”
The full-time MBA program saw the biggest changes in the delivery of their classes due to COVID-19 safety procedures. For first-year students, their fall core classes are in person on a rotational basis to ensure students can maintain proper social distancing during class.
The second-year full-time MBA students core classes are remote delivery only. The supply chain and entrepreneurship track classes are both completely remote. The marketing and finance track classes are meeting in person with no rotation necessary due to being in bigger classrooms.
The EMBA program saw the least amount of change since most of their classes are online. The in-person Saturday class will retain its usual style of instruction but will implement increased safety precautions to maintain social distancing and give students the opportunity to attend remotely if they do not feel comfortable coming to class.
With the increase in remote instruction, the Walton MBA Programs is offering more virtual opportunities for students to network, including Walton MBA conversations.
“Walton MBA Conversations is a new program where we bring in a leading expert from around the world to have an informal Q&A with a group of 10-15 students,” Anand said. “Just this afternoon we had such a conversation with Dave Schlendorf, a senior FBI official about creating change at the FBI. We have brought in experts on micro role transitions (when working from home how do you hug your daughter one moment and then immediately transition to a hard-nosed negotiator, for instance), self-leadership theory, and many more.”
He said there would be other remote events to keep students engaged throughout the Fall 2020 semester.
“We are now offering more virtual workshops,” he said. “For instance, we have a forthcoming workshop on how corporate managers can partner with legal firms and assess the value of their work and so on. We are also creating remote networking events and planning a few more activities.”
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