University of Alaska Southeast offers online MBA: open to Alaskans, this program begins each August and accepts 25 students.

• Author: Speece, Mark

As the world becomes ever more competitive, companies need managers who have the ability to think strategically. One common way to develop advanced skills is the Master of Business Administration. An MBA is a graduate professional degree designed to provide training in a broad set of managerial skills. The MBA is particularly helpful for managers who are taking on higher responsibilities beyond the narrow focus of a specific business function. MBA programs usually do not try to make people into functional specialists in marketing, human resource management, finance or other business functions. Rather, they aim to give participants a strategic view of how everything must fit together into a coherent whole.

The University of Alaska Southeast offers a practice-oriented distance MBA program for Alaska residents to give participants the edge they need to succeed in Alaska's dynamic economy. It is designed for busy mid-level managers who cannot leave their jobs and communities to attend classes in a traditional residential program. The UAS MBA is tailored to Alaska's service industries, as services account for roughly 90 percent of the jobs in the state (Table 1). Participants review current management concepts, but there is an emphasis on translating these concepts into the real world of Alaska's service economy, and in applying things to the participant's own company. The two-year program features:

* A cohort model to facilitate extensive interaction and networking among participants;

* Web delivery to allow participants to fit their own schedule and location;

* Initial three-day intensive residential seminar, to set the agenda;

* Ten three-credit, graduate-level business courses offered sequentially in a seven-week, Web-delivered format;

* Two elective courses to give focus to the participant's specific interests.

The Cohort Model: participants all enter at the same time, in August, and move through the core courses together. A cohort structure provides them with unmatched teamwork, interaction and lifelong networking opportunities. Research on learning in MBA programs for experienced managers shows that such interaction adds substantially to program value. The wealth of experience brought by participants contributes extensively to the class discussions and brings the concepts to the nitty-gritty of operating a business in Alaska. To achieve this value, the cohort must remain relatively small, so the UAS MBA has a maximum of 25 in each annual...