Tips For Learning More Effectively Online

Online learning has become much more prevalent in recent times. Colleges, schools and independent publishers are providing courses and qualifications in ever increasing numbers which are reliant on online resources. Some people naturally prefer the online learning environment to a class-based approach. Colleges too prefer the lower costs of delivering their materials in this way. But what impact does this have on the quality of learning?

You may already feel comfortable learning in the online environment, and many of us effectively do this in our daily lives anyway. However, there are ways to ensure you are learning most effectively, no matter the subject or purpose of your study online.

Online learning vs. traditional learning environments make it possible to provide a range of tools, resources, and learning materials. The days of confining academic study to crusty old books appear to be numbered – students are now able to watch videos, learn from infographics and read reports into the subjects they are researching, all without leaving their homes. To learn effectively in this environment, it is critical that you meet your workload, and that you try to digest as wide a range of the available content as possible.

Image source: http://www.imanighana.com/file/2013/07/online-learning.jpg

Kelley Business of Medicine MBA

The Kelley Business of Medicine MBA is a two-year program, delivered one weekend per month and online. It was developed specifically for physicians and prepares them to answer the call to lead.

Why you need an MBA.
By complementing your expertise in medicine with an MBA, you maximize your potential to create value across the healthcare industry. Acquiring targeted business knowledge and skills will enhance your credibility, enabling you to stand out as physician leader poised to transform your organization and the industry in changing times.

What’s different about the Kelley Business of Medicine MBA?
The Kelley Business of Medicine MBA was designed specifically for physicians by Kelley’s nationally recognized faculty. Our integrated curriculum is built from the ground up with input from our network of healthcare leaders across the country. Their insights have developed an innovative, dynamic Business of Medicine curriculum like no other in the industry.

Learn more here.

Healthcare Innovation and Entrepreneurship on Coursera

There is a free online course on Coursera titled, "Healthcare Innovation and Entrepreneurship." The course started on April 15 and is from Duke University. It will run for 6 weeks, so there's plenty of time to jump in and get involved. This interdisciplinary course focuses on sustainable innovation, introducing entrepreneurial students to the realities of problem identification and solution design within the complex world of healthcare. Here's a brief description:

Healthcare Innovation and Entrepreneurship applies a focused approach toward sustainable healthcare innovation. Students will be introduced to definitions and concepts that include the innovation process, design thinking, “intrapreneurship,” entrepreneurship, six sigma principles of process improvement, regulatory issues, patent law, and the market forces that impact the healthcare innovation process. All students will gain confidence in the basic elements of the initial discovery phase in the healthcare innovation process, including

1. Defining and describing key components of the healthcare innovation process.
2. Becoming aware of challenges to the quality of healthcare delivery and the opportunity for improved patient care and cost reductions.
3. Learning and practicing a step-by-step “needs finding” process and a “needs filtering” process for identifying and prioritizing real clinical problems and opportunities for innovation.
4. Developing cross-disciplinary collaboration skills.
5. Strengthening communication and leadership skills in advocating health systems change.

Learn more here: https://www.coursera.org/course/healthcareinnovation

Preparing Your Switch to Non-Clinical Employment with a Business Degree

As a medical professional with years of experience in the clinical sector of medicine, making the transition from clinical to non-clinical roles can be challenging. You have the passion and the medical knowledge, but more often than not hospital administrations will hire graduates with business management degrees over doctors making the career transition. After all, you may know how to perform an appendicectomy, but taking on a time-sensitive workload that requires completed reports, reviews and governing departmental mandates is something medical school never taught you.

Most physicians will start to slow down their clinical work while pursuing online degrees in business management from accredited schools like Potomac College. Business management degrees prepare professionals for high demands in business sectors and cover a wide range of training in all associated aspects of the industry.

The validity of an online degree

It is safe to say that as a working professional your time to complete course work is limited to odd hours. Therefore the online option is advantageous. Some critics have questions whether an online degree is just as valuable as one obtained from a traditional campus setting. Not only are they equal, in many cases an online degree might be even more beneficial in the eyes of some employers.

There are many reasons why employers value online degrees over ones traditionally obtained. If you are going to be fulfilling an IT role within business administration, your online degree will attest to your mastering of computer based communication skills. Look at it this way: when you were in medical school you learned about the human body with cadavers and not department store dummies. Learning while being plunged in the instrument itself offers a richer experience than a group lecture.

Best Online MBA Programs Ranked by U.S. News

Did you know that U.S. News has started ranking online graduate business programs? If you've been thinking about getting an MBA online, you may want to look at this list.

By earning a business degree online, working students don’t have to put their jobs on hold. Besides an MBA, other online business degrees include master’s programs in accounting, marketing, and entrepreneurship. U.S. News evaluated several factors to rank the best online business degree programs, including reputation, faculty credentials, and graduation rates.

Top online MBA programs ranked by U.S. News include:

#1. Washington State University
Pullman, WA

#2. Arizona State University (Carey)
Tempe, AZ

#3. Indiana University--Bloomington (Kelley)
Bloomington, IN

#4. University of Florida (Hough)
Gainesville, FL

#5. California State University--Fullerton (Mihaylo)
Fullerton, CA

You can see the full U.S. News Online MBA  ranking list here. You can also read about their ranking methodology here.

Coursera has begun Career Services

Coursera is an online platform that offers higher education courses from top-tier universities like Stanford, Princeton, U Penn, Columbia, and more. The courses are free, plus you'll have a chance to interact with the faculty. You won't get a degree from completing courses on Coursera, but you may receive some type of documentation indicating that you've completed certain courses. There are some great business/management courses on strategic innovation, business strategy, finance, etc.

Now, Coursera has begun Career Services with the goal of helping Coursera students find great jobs! Meeting great companies just got easier. Just go to coursera.org/account/careerservices and fill in your profile to opt-in to the service. After you opt-in, we will share your resume and other information you provide with selected partner companies who will introduce themselves if there’s a match.

A similar online education platform was developed by MIT and Harvard: edX

Learn new skills by taking free courses online from top-tier universities

Whether you're in a career transition or you're thinking about a transition, this could be a good time for you to learn some new skills by taking a few courses online. Free online courses have been around for many years, but a few new platforms have recently emerged that are particularly compelling. I'm specifically referring to EdX and Coursera.

• EdX is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that features learning designed specifically for interactive study via the web.
• Coursera a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities (like Stanford, Princeton, U Penn, Duke, Cal Tech, Georgia Tech, UCSF, and many others) in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free.

There's an interesting upcoming course on EdX titled, "PH207x: Health in Numbers: Quantitative Methods in Clinical & Public Health Research." This free course starts on Oct 15, 2012 and is provided by HarvardX.

There's an interesting course on Coursera titled, "Healthcare Innovation and Entrepreneurship." This course is offered by Duke University and the start date is TBD.

You won't get a diploma by completing these courses, but you may learn some valuable lessons that will help you professionally. There are millions of people around the world participating in these online courses and they are receiving world-class education for free.

MIT and Harvard recently announced edX

Online education has reached a new level recently. Plus, the business model behind education may be facing some disruptive innovation because of edX.

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently announced edX, a transformational new partnership in online education. Through edX, the two institutions will collaborate to enhance campus-based teaching and learning and build a global community of online learners.

EdX is a joint partnership between The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University to offer online learning to millions of people around the world. EdX will offer Harvard and MIT classes online for free. Through this partnership, the institutions aim to extend their collective reach to build a global community of online learners and to improve education for everyone.

EdX is a Cambridge-based not-for-profit, equally owned and funded by Harvard and MIT. The first set of courses will be announced in the summer and will begin in the Fall 2012.

Learn more about edX here.

Online Students vs. Traditional Students

Are you thinking about getting an advanced degree online? Here is a fascinating infographic titled, "Online Students vs. Traditional Students." (you can click on the image to view it larger)

Deciding Between an Online or Traditional MBA?

Author: Katheryn Rivas

If you are in the process of deciding whether or not an MBA degree is right for you, you'll probably have noticed during your time spent researching that there are a whole lot more options than you probably thought existed. Wading through all these different options can sometimes cause quite the headache. Before trying to decipher which school(s) you are interested in attending exactly, it may be better to divide the choice among three options: online-only MBA, traditional MBA, or a partial online MBA. Here are a few things to consider.

1. Traditional MBAs and online MBAs can have very similar tuition rates, so be careful.
While many online MBA programs will sing the praises of paying substantially less for a fully-accredited program, this isn't necessarily always the case. Of course, tuition varies from school to school, and the one thing that you'll surely save on with an online degree is the cost of transportation, possible relocation, etc.

2. The online MBA is more conducive to working and studying at the same time, but completing it successfully requires more discipline. Online MBAs work well for someone with a very specific work ethic. The great thing about pursuing an online MBA is that it enables you to more easily work full-time and raise family. Still, all potential online MBA candidates should know that there is less direction and hand-holding using an online platform, so you have to be an independent student who doesn't mind putting in lots of extra work and staying on top of all your assignments.

Master of Science, Clinical Practice Management

Considering a graduate degree? Here's some information about the Master of Science, Clinical Practice Management, at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. (I'll be speaking at Texas Tech next month at the Annual MD/MBA Conference).

The Master of Science, Clinical Practice Management is an online graduate degree program for healthcare professionals. Here's some information from their website:

• Our Vision is to be the graduate degree of choice for working healthcare professionals.
• Our Mission is to provide practicing patient care providers and administrators with relevant, creditable and practical skills that will allow our graduates to excel as leaders, supervisors and managers in their organizational environment.
• Our Objective is to help our students advance professionally, become more successful in their current job, and obtain positions of greater responsibility in the healthcare setting.
• Our Goal is to be both professors and mentors in the degree experience and professional development process.

As a degree seeking student, you may be overwhelmed with the myriad of healthcare degrees available for you to pursue. If you work in the healthcare field, you may be considering a traditional MBA, MHA, or an alternative MS healthcare degree. Our 36 credit degree program is unique in the healthcare field as our program has specific emphasis on practice management, coding & billing, compliance, ambulatory care, business case analysis, data base management, and small practice strategy that will assist the patient care provider or administrator in becoming successful in the challenging world of healthcare in the ambulatory setting.

George Washington University Healthcare MBA (online)

Here's some information about the George Washington University Healthcare MBA program:

The George Washington University Online Healthcare MBA, taught by world-renowned faculty, will teach you the fundamentals of business and management so you can take on more responsibilities and expand or diversify your business knowledge.
Online Healthcare MBA Program Highlights:

* Enroll in 23 seven-week core classes in areas such as business law, strategy, finance, operations, and marketing management.
* Select 12 elective classes in areas such as management of acute care hospitals, physician practice management, and managing skilled nursing facilities.
* Develop your ability to evaluate, assess, judge, and take action in any business situation regardless of the career you choose.
* Join a community of professionals and gain access to diverse perspectives for a richer learning experience.
* Learn from distinguished faculty who are engaged in a wide variety of research activities at GW's four research centers; subjects range from international business to entrepreneurship and small business management.
* Be associated with one of the best business schools and programs in the country; GW is AACSB-accredited and ranked among the top 50 MBAs in the United States in 2009 by the Financial Times.

Most affordable AACSB accredited online MBA programs

If you're looking for an affordable online MBA program that is accredited by the AACSB, you may want to check the list on GetEducated.com. This list of "Top 47 Ranked Online Business Schools" shows you in-state vs. out-of-state tuition costs.

These online college rankings were calculated by comparing tuition and distance education fees at 69 AACSB online accredited business school at universities in the U.S that offer 133 distance MBA masters degree programs. This is a review and ranking of the least expensive online masters degree programs. Online colleges do not pay to be included in these rankings.

Choose an AACSB accredited online MBA program

Online MBA programs are especially attractive to busy physicians who don't have much time to spend in a classroom setting. There are so many schools that now offer an MBA online, but if you're going to select an online MBA program, choose one that is accredited by the AACSB.

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business is an association of educational institutions, businesses, and other organizations devoted to the advancement of management education. It also is the premier accrediting agency of collegiate business schools and accounting programs worldwide.

The following are examples of business schools that offer online MBA programs with AACSB accreditation:

• Saint Joseph's University Erivan K. Haub School of Business
• University of Massachusetts Amherst Isenberg School of Management
• Indiana University Kelley School of Business
• Drexel University LeBow College of Business
• Temple University Fox School of Business
• Thunderbird School of Global Management
• Northeastern University 
• Washington State University
• Portland State University
• Colorado State University

Before you enroll in business school, check to see if they are accredited by the AACSB.

Choosing An Online MBA Program: Four Key Questions

This is a guest post by Alexis Bonari.

Getting an online MBA might seem like a futile exercise. Most MBA programs encourage a great deal of team work and networking among the students. It has been argued that the main reason Harvard MBA graduates are so successful is because of who they know, not just what they know.

The game is quickly changing, however. For managers who already have connections at their place of employment, an online MBA might be the best fit for their busy schedules. Online MBA’s can be a boon for those who want to take the next step in their career without the hassle of attending a brick and mortar university.

Johns Hopkins Master's Degrees - Study Onsite or Online

Johns Hopkins University offers biotechnology master's degrees tailored to the needs of working adults, whether you choose to take classes onsite in the evening or on Saturday, or pursue your degree fully online.

Uniquely situated in a leading biotechnlogy cluster and near key goverment research and regulatory agencies, the programs leverage expert faculty from Johns Hopkins, government and private industry.

Graduate Degree Programs

* Master of Science in Biotechnology
* Master of Science in Bioinformatics
* Master of Science in Bioscience Regulatory Affairs
* Master of Science in Biotechnology/Master of Business Administration joint degree

Learn more here.

Top 3 questions when researching online MBA programs

I've been speaking with a number of physicians about online MBA programs. There are so many to choose from. How do you select the right online MBA?

First, it's important to answer the following 3 questions:

1. Is the program a cohorted program where all the students start and finish at the same time? (Generally, cohorted programs may run 2 years, so they will require a significant time commitment. Other online MBA programs allow you to take courses based on your own timing.)

2. Are there any on-campus residency requirements? Or, is the program 100% online? Many programs have some on-campus requirements.

3. Is the program accredited by the Association to Advance the Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)?  You might be surprised to find that many MBA programs are being offered by colleges and universities that are not accredited by the AACSB.

So, before you invest in an online MBA, do some research so that you find the best program that will suit your needs.

Online Executive MBA Programs

You won't find too many Executive MBA Programs that are delivered online. Many Executive MBA or EMBA programs are offered mainly over weekends instead of weeknights. This allows students to commute to their business school by driving or flying for class 2 or 3 weekends per month. What if you didn't have to travel because you could take your courses online?

Here are several examples of EMBA programs that are offered online. The following text is from a Princeton Review e-mail:

Rochester Institute of Technology (Online)
Executive MBA

A highly accredited University, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a leader in professional and career-oriented education. Within this leading institution, The Saunders College of Business is a catalyst for producing critical thinkers and team-based leaders. Worldwide, more than 1,700 top executives got their start at the Saunders College of Business. RIT is AACSB accredited and ranks #9 (U.S. News and World Report) in the "Best Universities Master's (North Region)" category.

What's a diploma mill?

Suppose you plan to pursue an online graduate degree. Are you getting a legitimate degree or are you simply paying money to a diploma mill to receive a fake degree? Here's what Wikipedia has to say about diploma mills:

A diploma mill (also known as a degree mill) is an organization that awards academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study and without recognition by official educational accrediting bodies. The purchaser can then claim to hold an academic degree, and the organization is motivated by making a profit. These degrees are often awarded based on vaguely construed life experience. Some such organizations claim accreditation by non-recognized/unapproved accrediting bodies set up for the purposes of providing a veneer of authenticity.

There are some common misconceptions about online degrees (distance learning programs) and diploma mills. Many people think that online degrees are not legitimate because you're simply purchasing a degree. The reality is that if you attend a legitimate university online, then you'll get a legitimate degree. The problem with diploma mill arises when you pursue a degree from a university that is not legitimate.

One great resource that can help you identify diploma mills is a website called GetEducated. GetEducated tracks more than 300 fake online colleges and you can click on the "Diploma Mill Police" section to search for schools and to read accreditation reports on different online universities.

Top universities providing online graduate degrees

There are some top universities providing distance learning (or online) degrees. What does this say about the concept of distance learning? If top universities like Johns Hopkins and Stanford are willing to provide online degrees, then does this support the idea that online graduate degrees are equivalent to degrees obtained on campus?

• Stanford University offers an online masters program in biomedical informatics
• Johns Hopkins University offers a distance-learning master of public health
• Northwestern University offers an online master of science in medical informatics
• New York University (NYU) offers an online master of science in management and systems
• Duke University offers an online master of environmental management

I think it's fair to say that we'll see other top universities that will eventually offer online graduate degrees. I doubt that all of them will, but the trend will gradually change as universities recognize that certain programs can be delivered effectively online.

The online graduate degree that interests me the most right now is the Northwestern University Master of Science in Medical Informatics (MMI). Maybe you know some physicians who are currently enrolled in this program.