Managerial implications of computer‐based online/face‐to‐face business education: a case study

Online business education is becoming increasingly common in tertiary education in response to the growing needs of a changing student population. E‐learning and teaching online business have unique challenges when compared to their more traditional classroom counterparts, which promotes the concepts of a nimble organisation from the managers’ perspective. A recent survey of 35 students at a major private university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who were chosen based on recent successful participation within the past calendar year in an online computer‐based college‐credit business course, were asked to respond to a number of questions concerning their personal experience with online business education. The results of this study essentially designed a profile of the typical online business education student. As increases in technology require careful consideration of its effects in the classroom for both students and practitioners, the major purpose of this research is to gauge the popularity and convenience of online education as a viable choice among students. The majority of respondents considered themselves to be either intermediate or advanced computer users; 80 percent of the respondents work either full or part‐time; 68 percent of the respondents were 25 years of age or older and all were participating in their first online business education class.