Texas Wesleyan now offers a 100 percent online MBA program geared toward working professionals who seek to further their education.

The online course, which started in August, gives students a chance to finish their Master of Business Administration program in as little as one calendar year, according to txwes.edu. The course is offered in one of seven sessions, further exemplifying the university’s Smaller. Smarter. motto.

Ann Davis, Texas Wesleyan’s senior director of communications, loves the new program.

“I had considered getting my MBA for several years,” Davis said. “But I knew as that as a full-time working mom, traditional classes would be impossible for me.”

Davis maintains that the program is great for those who are wanting to further their education and boost their earning potential, but the program does not come without its own unique set of challenges.

“The seven-week condensed courses require a lot of reading and work,” Davis said. “But it is worth it to be able to complete the program in a less amount of time that in a traditional semester.”

Despite the challenges, Davis has great things to say about the support of the faculty and the organization of the coursework.

“The professors do a great job of providing lectures,” Davis said. “They utilize audio and video and it makes it very easy to follow.”

Amber Procter-Willman, academic services coordinator for the business school, said that there are up to 130 students enrolled in the online MBA program, with numbers steadily increasing.

“There was an uptick from 60 enrolled students in the traditional classes last year, to 130 accepted in the online class as of August 2018,” Procter-Willman said.

Procter-Willman suggests that the growing numbers are due to the trend of education and technology intersecting and complementing each other, as well as the program’s marketability.

“I didn’t expect that many more students,” Procter-Willman said. “It’s been a tremendous change for the business school and the university.”

With online classes becoming available, Wesleyan students are now able to log in and enroll as a Ram, regardless of their location.

“In Tarrant County, there are 58 students participating in the online program,” Procter-Willman said. “That is almost half of the 108 that are currently enrolled.”

Increasing the reach of the School of Business Administration has certainly helped enrollment rates, according to Dr. Gokcen Ogruk, assistant professor economics. However, as education and technology become more intertwined, students are expected to be able to keep up.

“The less a student is a passive learner the better,” Ogruk contends. “As instructors, we have to be innovative in class activities to increase student participation.”

Even though the classes are not done in a traditional setting, Ogruk states that instructors still have an opportunity to connect and mentor their students.

“Kindness and timely responses to student’s questions are key to handling this obstacle,” Ogruk said. “Responding to emails is a great teaching opportunity for instructors; we are here to educate, regardless of the medium.”