Gies Business Students Go In-Depth On iMBA Experience

One of five iMBA studios at the Gies College of Business on the University of Illinois campus

Byrne: There are two words that a lot of people who get into online learning stumble over. One word is asynchronous, and the other word is synchronous. Now, obviously you experience both of those worlds in this program. Can you describe what it’s like to be in a live session? And can you describe what it’s like to be in a study group, or on your own, or watching videos and doing assignments, which is the on-demand part of a program.

Safian: So, the study groups are live. We all have our own Zoom accounts so we set up our own meetings. We’re working on our own, too, but we’re meeting regularly with our teammates.

Miller: It’s giving all of us the opportunity to actually practice the leadership and teamwork skills we learn in the program. For some who have been in individual contributor roles, this may be their first exposure to that sort of group setting. For those of use who are either leading teams, or been doing this for a long time, it’s an opportunity to mentor others. It’s not any different than if you were trying to lead a team, in an international context, where you may be, like I am, based in San Francisco, but you’re managing people in Chicago, in Dubai, in Virginia, wherever.

Safian: But one thing that is different is that you have people in all different industries, in all different locations, at different roles, different stages of their careers. So, there’s a richness and diversity of perspective you get that’s really hard to create with other platforms. And it really is enriching.

Miller: You asked about the synchronous and asynchronous. One of the things that I think makes this program, again I go back to the fact that you’ve got commute hours, sometimes people were actually watching videos whilst they were stuck in traffic. Whether you’re traveling, even if you’re on a plane, the ability to get the background context, so you could come to class prepared, is a big plus of the program.

So it’s not like you all have to show up to watch the video at the same time. It’s not like grade school where there was the movie monitor who rolled in the projector and we all watched the film, right? You do it at your own pace, but the expectation is the deadlines. Whether it’s the deadline to meet with your group, or the infamous eleven fifty-nine central standard time on Tuesday nights when stuff has to be turned in.

You can manage your calendar, your schedule, your energy. And then there are times when you just have to show up, no matter what you’re feeling like. Unless you’re on your deathbed, you pretty have to be there. So that’s what it’s about, that’s what it’s like.

Singh: The university has taken an on-campus program and converted that into an online experience, so you don’t have to be synchronous for all the things. So that’s more of your digital textbook, where you’re watching the lectures and learning the concept for the week, and then you have an assigned case for that week, that you’re reading and discussing. So the discussion part that needs to happen with your peers, and your classmates, that’s the synchronous part that happens in an online session. And there are the break-out rooms, where people are breaking out in smaller groups to discuss the case and then coming back to the main room and presenting it to the rest of the class.

Judy was talking about how every group is meeting with each other throughout the week. Well you’ll be surprised to know there are groups that meet twice a week, even three times a week. There are groups that meet on Sundays for two or three hours. So they plan work around their own schedules.

Byrne: And there are office hours with faculty. What are they like?

Elhawwari: Let’s imagine that we are full-time MBAs. Sometimes you don’t understand something from a lecture and you need to sit with a professor and ask him, in person, to describe something for you. So basically, you go knock on his door, and he welcomes you, and you chat with him to get extra help.

This is exactly like that but online. The professor will make himself available for some time. It’s not lecturing, it’s more like he’s listening to our questions and answering them for the whole hour and a half. It’s as if we are gathered at a round table in his office but it’s online.

Safian: And different professors have different approaches to their office hours. Some you just show up and they wait for you to ask questions. Some are much more hands on, particularly in statistics. We’ll be on there and you’ll have a question, and she’ll be like, show me what you’re doing. So you share your screen so she can see what formula you put in a spreadsheet cell. Some professors come with an agenda, and you’re learning more or you have a one-on-one mentor thing

Elhawwari: John, let my tell you, this program is so real. It’s real college. We even have a student council to represent the students in front of faculty, and to take care of student issues, and to help the students to communicate with the faculty. So, where on earth you can find this in any other online program? The program is so real.

Young: I think one powerful thing about office hours is the capability for students to talk to the instructor about what is going on in a course. There are times when, for one particular course, the students will come to the office hours and we’re like, we have no idea what you’re asking of us. And the professor literally changed the entire course, based on what the students could actually learn from, and I got an A in the class.

Byrne: How helpful are students with each other? Everyone is bringing a considerable amount of experience and diversity to a class. How do people help each other?

Young: The university sets us up on a platform called Workplace. And, its pretty much run by Facebook, but for a specific application. There have been times where you’re watching a video, or you’re doing homework, or you’re reading something, and you go running into Workplace and you post on the wall like, ‘somebody help me. I don’t know what the heck is going on with this.’ Within seconds, another student will say, ‘hey, did you check the formula? It was an error, don’t worry about it.’ The help is instantaneous, it’s honest, and it’s open.

Miller: May I add? One of the other things is the quality of the students. There are doctors. There are people who have PhD’s in chemical engineering, or in genetics, or whatever. And so, people are here for a variety of reasons, but they’re all passionate about personal growth, and the ability to gain new knowledge.

It doesn’t matter what their industry is, what level they are, everybody shows up with the intent of making this a great place to learn. They’re contributing, giving back. And that’s something that I think we all care about, is making sure that whoever wants to join the family, is doing it for the right reasons.

Safian: We have student led study groups and student led webinars on different things, from consulting to real estate. We end up teaching each other.

Byrne: One of the things that makes this program incredibly attractive is the price. At $22,000, the cost to benefit calculation seems to be a no-brainer. Do all of you agree?

Miller: Absolutely, right. You can tell by my gray hair that I’m not a spring chicken, and I had no desire to go into investment banking. So if you’re going to pay $200,000 to $250,000 for a prestige brand, great, part of that cost is you’re buying into a club and access. But if that’s not what you want to do, if you want to actually have an impact on the world that’s not related to investment banking, this is a great way to do that.

And has it paid back? For me, absolutely. Literally, I could show you the figures that would say I’ve accelerated my earnings. I was already earning a fair amount, and its gotten even bigger. That’s not always how you want to measure it, but there’s no doubt that if you take full advantage of the program, the education, the network, it will pay off.

Elhawwari: Paying just $22,000 for this education made me question why other universities are charging so much. We have professors who work for the government, who work for the president. Professors who work for presidents in other countries, professors who are consultants, professors who are at Google. So, we have big shots in the program, right? And we’re getting a world-class education for $22,000.

Young: I’ve actually taken classes with friends in other MBA programs. I’m looking at their notes, and they look at my notes, and they’re like, ‘what is that?’ I’m like, ‘well actually this is a formula for my econ class, and it’s got a lot of variables in it.’ And they’re like, ‘well I took econ, and we didn’t learn that, we never got exposed to that.’ And they were like, ‘wow, your MBA program is better than mine. They literally said that.

‘How much is your tuition?’

‘$22,000?’

‘For a year?’

‘No.’

‘A semester?’

‘No, for the full program.’

They were shocked. ‘Look,’ I say, ‘you can pay your $22,000 per semester, get in all the clubs and learn all the secret handshakes. I don’t need to learn secret handshakes, I need to learn this formula, so I can take it back to my job and apply this framework.” 

Safian: That’s the secret handshake that counts. 

Singh: I think its just a matter of time before we move away from these sky high MBA tuition rates.  Once we start putting students out in the field, and the world sees the quality of these students, the quality of this education that they’re getting that’s when you will see the impact. 

Elhawwari: As a person who lives outside the States, let me give you my perspective. Most of you know the prices, you know the universities, but for us, studying in the States is one of the big things that might happen in your life. So, to be able to live in Dubai and yet study in the States for a price that is affordable is a dream for me and for many other people. I can study in the States, with a state-of-the-art business curriculum, with American and global citizens, at this price. It is a dream that is now achievable.

Byrne: All right, I want to thank all of you for showing up and for participating in this really great discussion. Khem, Judy, Alaa Gabrielle and Grant, thank you so much for being with us.

DON’T MISS: HOW GIES BUSINESS DESIGNED & DELIVERS ‘THE WORLD’S MBA’ or GIES’ iMBA: THE FASTEST GROWING MBA ON THE PLANET

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