Try Before You Buy MBA
January 18th, 2011
An interesting side effect of online degree programs is the fact that it doesn’t really cost anything more to let another student view the lectures. Universities now have to decide if what they are selling is the lecture or the certification of knowledge. At least one school in London is taking an interesting approach to this with their MBA program. The classes are free for anyone to watch at no cost. If you want to start taking the exams to get the degree or ask questions you have to pay.
This is an interesting approach. You must sign up to see the lectures so the school gets a very well qualified list of people for marketing. Given the high cost of getting leads for MBA programs, this seems like it could be a very good strategy. It is kind of like MIT’s Open Courseware but with a justification based on the marketing value of giving the lectures away for free.
Since the cost of letting one more person watch a lecture is very very small, requiring payment to take exams toward a degree seems reasonable–that is the part that costs the university more money on a per student basis. Bill Gates predicted that within 5 years we are going to be able to watch the greatest lectures in the world for free online. This is quite possible. It is amazing how much is available already.