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Kelley Direct Online MBA program's #1–ranked curriculum

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Kelley On Campus & student panelists

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Um, we'll go ahead and get started. Welcome everyone. I, I really appreciate you all for attending today's webinar. Uh, my name is Tim Byrne. I'm the director of Admissions and financial aid for Kelly Direct. Um, and we're really excited to talk with you all about our online MBA program. Uh, in particular, we have two of our alums here, Lauren Anderson and Nick Duce, um, as well, I'll ask them to briefly just share a little bit about them and their, 

their current role. And then I'll talk about our program a little bit, and then we'll kind of open up for our q and a and, and really talk about their experience, um, from the program and also what they've been able to do in their careers afterwards. So, uh, I'll kick it off to Lauren for a brief introduction. 

Great. Hey guys. Lauren Anderson. I'm a graduate of Kelly from 2019, uh, the KD program. Currently I am a senior manager with Dexcom. I lead our US strategic accounts contracting, and I'm currently based in Indianapolis, Indiana. 

Thank you, Lauren. Uh, Nick. Cool. Hey, guys. Uh, my name's Nick Duce. Uh, I am a Chief Operations Officer, uh, a company called Ursa Major. We're an aerospace startup in Colorado. 

Um, I run all of our internal operations, so hr, uh, financial analysis, manufacturing, engineering. Um, started when we were just a couple of people, so definitely gone the startup venture capital growth, uh, story. 

So definitely willing to entertain questions there. I graduated, uh, Katie in 20, uh, 15. So I started in 2013, graduated 2015. Um, and, uh, yeah, I'm super excited to, to meet everybody and it's, Kelly, been a game changer for me personally, so, um, happy to share, happy to share stories. 

Great. Thank you so much, Nick. Um, we'll get back to, to Lauren and Nick in a second. Um, I wanted to share some basic things about the Kelly Direct Program with everybody here. So, um, we all understand what we're referencing and, and hopefully for you all as, um, audience members and what you might be applying to and, and looking forward to. 

Um, so that way we all, uh, understand our, our Kelly Direct online program. Again, as I mentioned, um, Tim, um, uh, again, feel free to reach out to me and our team as you have questions. Um, we'll take them in the q and a portion of the zoom, um, or the chat window. 

We'll be monitoring those throughout, so feel free to drop those in and I'll, I'll ask those to Lauren and Nick as you have questions throughout the webinar. Uh, so some quick things about our Kelly Direct Online MBA program. 

Our MBA program is 54 credit hours. Um, that happens throughout about two, two and a half years or so. There are some opportunities to stretch out your time in the program, um, when you're taking elective courses, we'll talk about that in a little bit. Um, but as, like Nick mentioned in Lauren, most students do do it in about two years or so, um, with that program, that means that we have two live classes a week, um, 

that you could be attending. They're six to 9:00 PM Eastern time. Uh, so you may meet on a operations class on Mondays at six and take a marketing class on Wednesdays at nine. Uh, typically about an hour, hour and a half or so for, for each of those sessions. 

And then you may do things sort of offline, uh, throughout the week. Um, you may, uh, watch a video series. You may be participating in a discussion board. You may certainly be doing homework and assignments and exams. Those, uh, very fun things also happen too. Um, so it's, it's certainly heavily involved, but I think that's a great value for the Kelly Direct Program, that you're really getting an authentic experience and you're not, um, disconnected from folks. You're, you're digitally disconnected, but you're, 

you're getting a great personal experience. Um, so some things about our program, as I mentioned, we have these integrated core blocks that are the, really the foundation of our Kelly Direct program that start you off, um, where you're really taking lots of different courses that are intentionally designed and taught by our faculty together. 

And then you're also working with a structured cohort model. So you're coming in with a group of students taking the same classes together and building relationships. You know, a lot of folks really understand that the real power of an MBA degree also is, is in that network and the connections you're building, and that's really intentional then that our courses also feature that, that relationship building and connections with your classmates as well. 

As I mentioned, sort of the back end of the program, little bit more flexibility. So if you're looking to space out, maybe capture some employer benefits, uh, you know, pace yourself because you're starting a family or something else, that's the opportunity to sort of work out a schedule that works most flexible for you. Uh, a little bit of an overview. Uh, the Kelly Direct Program, admittedly, is, is not the cheapest program that's out there. It's, uh, 

$82,000 degree. Um, that does mean though, that I think you're getting a very high quality experience. You are getting the exact same degree as our full-time in residence MBA program that are with me right here on campus. Um, so that's really valuable, I know for our students, but, uh, means that you're getting a real high quality degree as well. 

What I wanted to share too is that we're now offering, uh, scholarship opportunities for students to also apply for, as you can see here, um, many of them have targeted groups that are the, that are populations that we want to try to recruit. So, um, be sure to look at these opportunities as well. 

When you're filling out your application and talking with our admissions team. Um, there's an application process for these scholarship opportunities as well. So, uh, a high price tag, but I think we offer a great amount of scholarships that are available as well, and that can help bring down the costs, um, for your time in the program. 

Uh, here's a little bit more of a visual aid. As I was talking about our, our program model and the courses you take that year one is, is pretty well set between our core one and your Kelly on campus experience, uh, our fundamental courses in accounting and quantitative analysis. Um, and then as you start to continuing the program, you'll see the electives then become where you can stretch this out a bit more. 

So if you want to compact it in and get done in two years, great, we can work on that. If you wanna stretch it out a little bit more, we can do that too. But the flexibility is on that back end, not on, not on the front part as we're trying to build that foundation of your academic experience. And then some important days to, to remind, uh, we're very much early on in this admission cycle, but I do want folks to start planning ahead that we have a priority application 

deadline of November 15th. Students that submit their application materials by then would get the most consideration for scholarship opportunities and ultimately enrollment. While, you know, we are an online program and we can, in theory put a lot of folks in a Zoom room, uh, we actually do have a limit. 

We can only take so many students each year. And so, um, I do encourage folks to, to meet that priority deadline so they get the best consideration for admission into the program for the, the spring 2023 term, uh, that December 15th is then the final deadline, of course, um, again, no guarantees about available scholarship funding or enrollment opportunity, but that, that is the final deadline. And then our classes start online, um, in February of 2023 for this next admission cycle. 

Alright, so, uh, the, the stars of the show, Lauren and Nick, I, I want to come back and, and turn it over to them. Um, I will stop sharing my screen here so we can, uh, engage with them, uh, one-on-one. Uh, I'll start with Lauren first and, and then as you folks have questions, please put them in the chat in the q and a. We'll monitor them. Lauren, uh, you know, you shared your kind of current role and what you've been doing since Kelly 

Direct. I'm wondering if you could go a little bit back and share a little bit more about your story. You know, you leave college, you're working and, and at some point you decide you want to get an mba. Um, maybe you were thinking then about online or in person, but share me a little bit about how you made this decision ultimately to, to join the Kelly Direct Program. 

Sure. Yeah. So I actually have more of a, a non-traditional path, I think through Kelly than a lot of students, but, um, hopefully any of you find yourself in the same boat. Um, my, my experience was great. So, um, just from my perspective, my background, my undergrad degree was actually in politics and history, so I was on a pre-law track, um, graduated, bounced around a, a few different places. So ultimately decided that law was not going to be the, 

the final destination for me. So I was, uh, working in a social services organization actually for a number of years. Um, by my fifth year, I'd reached a management position and started asking a lot of questions that really could only be answered with good data. 

So it was kind of self-taught at that point, you know, Googling how to do things in Excel, reaching out to, um, people I knew and analytics. And then really just kind of, um, piggybacked off of my experiences there and what I was able to teach myself into kind of an entry level financial analyst role at Bayer. 

So I moved over into the healthcare space, um, and had a lot of great opportunities to take lateral experiences there, eventually some promotions, um, and did find myself in an associate manager capacity pretty quickly without any business background, you know, so you can only Google so much. 

Um, you know, as much as I like to be kind of a self-starter and problem solve, that was really kind of a missing component for my future growth. So, um, working with my employer, I identified, you know, wanting an MBA as my next step. 

And then I did consider both in-person and online programs. Um, so at the time I was based in northern Indiana, I'd considered, um, executive level programs at Notre Dame. Uh, there's a weekend program at Northwestern. Um, you know, all similar kind of price points, but really I did want some type of in-person experience. 

And that's really where Katie appealed to me having a little bit of on-campus time to really, um, not miss out on that, uh, ability to make connections and actually meet your professors who you'll be spending time with on Zoom. Um, and so when I did apply to KD and then attended some of these admission events, that was kind of the path for me. So, um, through my time at the KD program, I had a lot of life changes. I got married, 

I started a family, um, but it was a really great experience over the two years and it did allow me to move up. Um, and now I'm in a senior management role that was, uh, largely correlated to my time and my experiences in the MBA program. 

That's great. Great. Thank you so much for, for sharing that, Lauren. And one of the things that Lauren referenced too that I, I kind of had on our slides, you, our program is almost all entirely online. 

We do have two in-person experiences, uh, what we call now the first year one, which is Kelly on campus, where you would come to campus here. Um, just as you're sort of getting started in our program, uh, it's a great immersive time to really meet your, your classmates and our faculty members in person. Uh, and then a second time, we actually do now call it kellyann location. 

And so we'll actually pick spots all throughout the country. Uh, this fall. We're going to Chicago, um, still T B D for fall 2023, but, um, an opportunity then to still get immersive. 

But you can meet our alums in these locations, we'll be able to network with companies in different ways. So you get a great balance. You really get the true who's your experience and, and have been on campus, but you're also getting the, the flexibility of, of a dynamic business environment. And that's, um, really exciting about your immersive opportunities with Kelly while still having the day-to-day accessibility and flexibility with a, with an online program. 

Uh, alright, Nick, I will kick it over to you. Share us a little bit about your story, you know, before you came to KD and, and how you ultimately made that choice. 

Cool. Yeah. Uh, so I'm a little atypical too, I think, uh, I went to school at Boston University for my undergrad and I got an aerospace engineering degree. Um, I'm through and through nerd, like straight up so, uh, Salam. But, um, even when I graduated bu uh, the track was to, to go to ge pretty much. Um, general Electric Aviation is in northern Massachusetts, like sort of pull folks out bu didn't really wanna stay in Massachusetts, so I really wanted to get into Silicon Valley somehow. 

Just kinda had that hustle gene, um, at the time. And, uh, my friend had said, you should check out this company called SpaceX. This is weird guy called Elon Musk that runs it. Um, you know, this is back in 2008, so they were only like 300 people. 

So I interviewed there, I don't know how I got an interview, but interviewed there. And that launched my aerospace career, uh, working for Elon back, back when, yeah, I mean, forever ago now. 

So a few billion Less, yeah, it was worth a few billion less, Yeah, it was a wild time. I mean, he, yeah, I have a lot of, uh, we'll reserve the Elon questions cause Yeah. Um, but anyways, really fun time. Um, did that, grind it through all the stories are true. 

SpaceX was, was, was and probably still is, uh, incredibly wild, hard, hard work. Um, got to put stuff to the Space Station, did all the really fun stuff as a young 20 year old. Um, but you know, much, you know, much like Lauren, I kind of found myself in a manager position. 

Um, and at SpaceX they really gave you managers positions because they, Elon did fire people pretty aggressively. So they were just kinda like, Europe, let's go. Um, and so I took a role and it was fine, you know, the team leadership stuff was, was uncomfortable, but it became evident that, uh, if iWork is gonna learn anything about running a business or just sort of spacial awareness of what it does take to, to run a business, I wasn't gonna get it at SpaceX. Like, 

Elon doesn't run a business like a normal person. Um, he still doesn't. So, uh, SpaceX at the time and was, was, and this is gonna be sacrilege, sorry, uh, full of a lot of Purdue people. Um, Purdue I know in Hoosiers and Boilermakers got this little thing going on. Um, I married a Purdue alumni, so I carry that burden. But anyways, um, uh, I had a lot of Purdue because aero aerospace engineering program's quite good. 

And one of my very close friends actually felt the same way a couple of years prior cuz he had been in a management position. He actually went to Kelly. So he went to Kelly direct and he had said, you gotta check this out. 

And I'm like, okay, I don't know if I need an mba. Um, and we just talked. And so then I kind of started the Google searching with chlorine. I was just checking everything out and I'm in LA at the time, so you've got UCLA U S C and these price deltas were just insane. I was like, I can't, no way I could swing this. And Kelly, as I researched it more and more just carried this amazing reputation. Uh, 

and I knew I couldn't stop working at SpaceX. Like there's no, I, I had to squeeze this in. Um, and when I signed up and kind of went through all the orientation or sort of pre-application orientation, like these conversations, it became very evident that I could make this work. You guys were really, really, really good at the flexibility piece. 

And I had the time zone thing going on. Um, and the SpaceX time zone, which is just its own, its own beast. So, you know, I can, I can proudly say that like you can make it work. 

Like there is a way I was like, Lauren, I got married, uh, through my program as well. Um, and the flexibility's there, you gotta, you know, you gotta be a very disciplined person to, to make it work. Uh, it is doable. Um, but if you're that type of personality, it can fit. 

And so when I came out of the Kelly program, um, and I love the onsite stuff, I seriously like those, those two weeks, like I really looked forward to them. I had so much, first of all, I felt like I was in college again. So it just felt fun, you know? Um, yeah, it just, it was a blast. It wasn't too much, it wasn't too little. 

It was like a, a great balance of, of everything. And meeting people was great. Um, and then when I graduated, uh, in 2015, I had been bothered by a previous bothered poked and pulled by a previous employee of mine to come help start a company and I wasn't quite ready yet cause we were starting a family as well. Um, but that following year in 2016, uh, I knew that I could make the leap to starting a company, um, 

because I had all the SpaceX experience, but like, I had just had this like Rolodex of information and knowledge and experience from Kelly directed, like, gave me enough confidence that like I could stumble my way through all of the things that I was gonna have to figure out. Yeah. Um, whether it was accounting or finance or all the stuff that like, you know, you, you don't learn at an Elon Run company. Um, Kelly directed equip me with it. 

Like I really to this day have absolutely zero problems talking to investors, advisors, or whatever based on all the just lessons and stuff. I learned how to Kelly direct, um, that, that complimented my technical background quite well. 

Great. Awesome. Thank you so much Nick for, for sharing that. I, I I do think Kelly direct provides a real opportunity for breadth in a lot of different areas. Uh, and that's important, you know, the, the way to get things done is a relationship and conversations, but you also need to be able to speak in that language. So, and, and being able to, to be versatile with lots of different folks at a, at a company is, is critically important. Um, Nick, you, 

you touched on this a little bit, so I'll, I'll ask this back to, to Lauren. Um, if you can share a little bit more about your kind of while you're doing the program and working full-time and trying to do anything else, how did you balance all that time? How were we helpful in that way? 

Was it part of as, as Nick sort saying like, you know, it's, it's not easy, so have an honest conversation or, or other sort of tips and tricks. Did you find that the subway was the best way to like, get it, get things done? 

Uh, talk to me a little bit about your time as a student and how you kind of managed all the things that you had going on. Yeah, I'll say in my experience that kind of first couple of semesters where you're really focusing on the fundamentals and the core were my most time consuming. Um, and probably just, you know, more of a transition period, getting back into, um, student life while also working full-time is, you know, admittedly kind of tough for me. 

I had to block off a lot of weekend time, um, because I had a very demanding job. I was actually traveling Monday through Thursday each week out to New York. 

And so I spent a lot of time in airports, you know, getting assignments done, but really, uh, I didn't have the ability to focus, um, until the weekend. So for me, like it was, it was tough. 

I remember those first two quarters, um, you know, not really having as much free time as I'd enjoyed most of my adult life at that point. Um, and I will say there were also a pretty fair number of group projects, you know, so there's a lot of collaboration in the program. Um, and, you know, logistically that does present a challenge if you're working with people in other time zones, you know, coordinating schedules. So that was a, 

a little bit of a learning curve for me. Um, you know, being smarter about allocating my time and, and picking my group members to make sure that we could, you know, work together, um, you know, asynchronously when needed. But, um, yeah, so I will say though, that the second year when you get into more of your electives, um, just I think the time constraints either lessened or I became more efficient. 

I don't know. But I did have, uh, uh, less, I would say there were fewer hours spent per week. I think in the beginning I would say I was probably at least like 10 to 15 hours a week, um, focused on school. Um, I think that definitely decreased though in my second year as I got into, um, you know, more electives and subject matter that, um, a lot of it was, it was, it worked out because it was actually stuff I was working on at work in my 

full-time job. So there was a lot of synergy there. Um, especially some of, like, I took a personal leadership class at the end that really was about, um, you know, finding a problem within your organization and solving it so that I actually was able to marry with some of my workload, um, which was really beneficial. But yeah, it was definitely, uh, tough at first, but definitely doable. So it really just, I think depends on, on you and, 

and how well you can kind of manage your time effectively. Awesome. Okay. I'm looking at, um, our q and a chat here and seeing some of the questions that are coming in. Um, I, I honestly, Nate has asked, um, if any of you sort of specialized in any specific area with your mba. You know, I think, um, now we're able to offer degrees that have majors that was not necessarily a thing officially when, uh, Nick or Lauren might have been in the program. Um, 

but, you know, you had lots of opportunities with electives. Uh, curious as you were planning and thinking about electives and courses, how did you think about that? Did you have conversations with advisors or a career coach or your employer that maybe informed kind of how you thought about what classes you wanted to take to get the most out of your experience? I'll go to Nip first. 

Uh, sorry, I didn't declare something cool. No problem. Um, I was pretty dead set on focusing on financial analysis and a lot of the, uh, quantitative stuff, as you can guess in my background. I just, I felt a lot of similarities between, uh, just hardcore engineering and then some of the financial stuff. And I also, I really just had this sort of desire to get back towards VC venture capital a little bit more, which tend to be, 

you gotta speak a little bit of the syntax of, um, like valuation basis. So I really focused on that stuff. Uh, I picked as many elective as as I could that focused on, uh, financial. In fact, we were talking before everyone got on, I, I still use one or two textbooks from, from my financial analysis class. 

I can't remember the name of it, but the book was derin, um, on securities analysis. And I use that a lot to sort of make the case on like company valuation, uh, relevance. So I do it, I, I use it and I was, but I knew like day one I wanted to. Um, but I definitely recognize it, like some folks are like, I don't know. I mean, it's a very similar approach to like, if you go into engineering where you're, 

there's like five or six different specialties, you're not really sure which one you wanna do. Um mm-hmm. That's totally nor that's totally normal. You know, sometimes you gotta feel it out a little bit, but conversations certainly help if, you know, you kind of have a feeling of where you want to go. 

I would certainly not hold back talking to an advisor or some, or an alumni about it. Yeah. Lauren, uh, and your thoughts? Yeah, so I did identify, um, you know, with my manager at the time, definitely a need for increased quantitative analysis experience, um, an accounting, you know, basics, finance basics. Um, so that's all covered kind of in the core anyway. Um, but then I did also consider, uh, an MS in strategic management, like a dual degree program with my mba. Ultimately, 

I got pregnant and wanted to be done. I didn't wanna extend my journey any longer. Um, but I did consider that I had a close friend in the program who did, uh, get a dual degree and has no regrets. Really, really enjoyed it. But for me, um, I was, I was ready to wrap up after two years. 

Right. Okay. Great. Uh, Gelle asked a great question that I'm gonna kind of rephrase and, and Nick, you touched on this a little bit, so I'll also ask Lauren, uh, you, you know, moved up several positions that both kind of before your time getting your M B A, but then also after now, um, and I want to ask a question ultimately about climbing that ladder. Um, and either before or after your MBA too, or even perhaps even during, 

how did you find those conversations changing over time? Was getting an b a a hurdle and a barrier and that's what you had to get to? Was it a conversation point where you felt like maybe you weren't connecting with, um, companies or opportunities and, and then your education really helped propel that, or perhaps even afterwards now, are you still still referencing back some of these things? 

I want to sort of have the question be about, you know, climbing the, the ladder here and, and how that NBA has either fit in, helped, hopefully, you know, um, and gotten you to the place where you are today. 

I can start. So, uh, for me, an NBA in my, uh, my role in my industry isn't necessarily, at the time wasn't really a requirement. Um, but for me needing to supplement my undergraduate degree, I knew that it was gonna be key for my own personal growth. Mm-hmm. Uh, I think what was kind of surprising for me, while it wasn't necessarily a requirement for the promotions, I did draw a lot from my MBA experience, um, in team leadership in solving problems and working with others. Um, 

some of the softer skills that you wouldn't necessarily associate with an MBA program, I think those really helped set me apart maybe from other internal candidates within the company. Uh, and I think it did help me really kind of mature as a leader. 

So even though it wasn't necessarily a requirement for my field, uh, I think it definitely gave me a competitive edge. Nick, any thoughts? Yeah, I think for me, we're really shown through, um, I'm just a, you know, uh, I'm a big data driven person by kind of just nature of my background. And so I, I remember, I recall there were several instances during, while I was getting my mba, I was like so excited about all the stuff I was learning that I, 

that I was putting together solutions and proposals internal to SpaceX spec particularly. I, I went, um, it's probably a bad characteristic of me, but like I would just go straight to the CFO at SpaceX and be like, look, there's a situation. I've done a costing model for the, the first stage engine. 

Like, we need to talk to Elon about this. Yeah. So, but I felt like a lot more confident doing that cuz I, it was like, I, I kinda know what I'm talking about now. I can, I can talk through an income statement, I can talk through a COGS model now because I feel I under, to me it's all about syntax and I think that's what MBA does. 

It gives you the reps, you gotta got the reps in to figure out like, okay, I I, I can read a, you know, a, a Wikipedia article or I can read a, read an Investopedia article on, on a balance sheet, but like, until I've done like 75 T charts, I don't quite understand what it is. 

And then I'm like, oh, got it. So that confidence in syntax, I did, I used it all the time when I would just go str cuz I'll just break down the barriers and say like, we got a problem. 

And there were like three or four instances that that actually translated to like me telling Elon like, we're gonna do something differently. Um, so it was like a very direct thing. Now did it get me promoted? Um, I think in some cases it got me in trouble with Elon, but mm-hmm. 

I think in more cases than not, I definitely, uh, told my boss that like I, I, I am here to like, improve the business. That's, that's my situation. So, and now I got these new sets of tools that I can go like tell you with numbers and data that this is how we're gonna do things. So, uh, you know, I was quickly kind of given more responsibility. SpaceX doesn't really promote, didn't really like, promote people a lot. You know, they weren't like, 

you're doing really good, here's another role. It was just sort of an opportunistic thing. But it definitely translated when going to start a company, right? Like several years later it was evident that I had the skills to do it. 

So I think it did pay off in the long run. Um, but in the moment it wasn't like an immediate ladder climb for me. It was just, I just started breaking down walls cuz I was like, oh, I, I have some ammo now, like to break down these walls. 

Great. Awesome. Thank you both for, for sharing that. Uh, we got a great question from Jill in, in the chat here about, um, your, honestly your relationship potentially with faculty members, uh, and as they were teaching in class. So I'm wondering if you could share, um, just a little bit about overall, or, or a specific professor if you've got a, a, a memory of mind, but, um, your experience in the class. 

How available were they giving perhaps feedback on assignments? They're, they're teaching in class, what was that relationship like and was it what you were hoping for and what did you expect when you were kind of coming into an online MBA and, and having to be sort of taught remotely in a way? Uh, what was that like for you? I'll start with Lord. 

Yeah. It, it definitely varies. I think based on, on the class, the class size and really your interest level in it. So I will say I am still well connected with, uh, three, three professors that, uh, that I was close with during my time at Kelly, um, and have reached out to them since graduation to, you know, just keep in touch, um, ask for advice on, on situations, and they've been great resources for me. 

Um, I would say that for most professors, you know, it, it really depends on, on how much engagement you wanna put out there, right? So, uh, if you want to have a deeper relationship, I think they're all open to that. 

But that was sufficient because I wasn't really looking to, you know, expand a deep love of accounting, right? So, um, I think it really just is is incumbent upon you to, to identify where you wanna make those relationships happen. 

But I think that the professors are definitely all open to it, and I will say that on campus or on location experience really helped with that. So, um, there's a lot of opportunity there to connect with the faculty and kind of dive deeper if you want to. 

Yeah. Great. Nick? Yeah, same response. I think the, the one, like if there's one piece of advice that I'd give to folks coming Kelly direct and not to be like, you know, a stern about it, but I think it'll be clear, is that like, it is a much more self-driven opportunity than you would get. You're just not being forced like you are in class, right? So, uh, and I see this with remote work in today's world as well, but you know, 

if if you're committing to this program, you can get as much out of it as you want. I didn't have any access problems to any professors. I'd say 90% of the time I didn't need access. Just like Lauren, like I, the, the lectures were fine, the record, I had to watch everything I'm recording, it's because of the time zone. It was very rare that I caught anything live, zero issues, all the recordings were great, all the con the software was great. 

Um, if I had a question, those was always responded quickly. I never really needed to lean on the relationships, but I could certainly see that like every professor was willing to give the time if someone asked for it. Sure. So, you know, if you need it, you gotta go ask for it. Um, but if you're that type of personality, which you probably are, cuz you're in this call, so you clearly are, you know, taking that first step, um, you are gonna have the access, 

but personally I didn't use it as much just cause of my just needs and schedule. Yeah, absolutely. And, and one of the things that I, I shared that isn't necessarily, um, obvious to folks who are just Googling top online MBAs, uh, you know, we are very different actually than a lot of other online MBA programs in the sense that are faculty members who teach here are here, they are here in Bloomington, they teach full-time. 

These are not adjuncts folks that we've hired out to come and teach a class for us. They are the professor that you thought you would be getting. The, the difference is they're, you're just not meeting in a classroom together. Um, so like, as Nick mentioned, it does mean that, you know, are, you have to put forth some effort, but if you're willing to put forth the effort, there are endless opportunities to really get that experience out there. 

And that means that we do things to intentionally involve, you know, like Lauren talked about working with classmates and, and meeting with people from different backgrounds. A lot of that comes from like our group work at our Kelly on campus event where you're doing a, a client consulting case for a company and then you're getting coaching from three different faculty members at the end of each day and then coming back and presenting to a, a client the result of your case study and, 

and what your proposals are going forward. You know, we really designed a lot of these elements and these touchpoints to be really valuable for, for folks going forward. So I really appreciate you all, um, sharing that. I'm gonna look at the, the chat here one more time. 

I think we've touched on most of these things here. Um, yeah, I think so. Okay. Um, so I'll, I'll wrap it up. Uh, so Lauren and Nick, um, uh, I'll start with Lauren first. Um, if you can share a, a last little bit of advice. You know, these folks are now where you were three or four years ago, so whether you want to share advice about things they should be considering about an online program, how to get the most out of it. Um, where would you, 

you know, time travel five, six years ago? Um, and, and tell yourself about, about the future and opportunity and advice that you would give to, to the folks here on the, on the webinar today. 

Yeah, two things for me. One, um, even if you think your employer won't be receptive to it, ask if they'll help with the cost. Um, our, my, you know, bear at the time had like a $7,000 limit for their contribution per semester. 

Um, I asked the question and I got much more with, with help from my employer. So don't be afraid to just see what's available there. Um, and secondly, if you do join Katie strongly recommend you go abroad and do an immersive consulting experience. I got to go to Greece, um, the, the final summer of my program and it was an amazing experience. 

Got to consult with a small business there and still keep in touch with the people I went with today. So those are my two points of advice. Ask for money and go somewhere. 

Uh, I'll briefly touch on that. Uh, as Laura mentioned, we do, we offer electives. They are elective courses, these global immersions. So, um, we actually have this year's grease strip just came back, uh, last week. 

I was in Ireland last month actually. Um, we're developing new ones. We're, we're hoping for other places to go. We're going to Thailand in October. So really cool opportunities to do consulting work in a global context, get a more immersive experience, but it's also an elected Bobby. 

So if you weren't quite looking for that, you didn't wanna do it, you don't have to. No problem. It's, it's there as a, as a, as a bonus add-on if, if you wanted it to. So thank you for, for sharing that. 

Lauren. Uh, Nick, I'll go to you for sort of final advice. Uh, leave me on this note. Um, I think the first, like, I wish I did it. I actually, I probably should have done this. 

If you have family or you are engaged, the situation I was in, um, make it a family conversation about doing this too. Um, just make sure that you're like, look, uh, nights and weekends for me, that's how I did it. Um, I worked well usually really, really or early mornings, but, and, and weekends, um, you know, that's gonna be my life and I'm gonna have to be ruthlessly disciplined on Saturdays and Sundays. It just, you can't let it get backed up. Uh, 

it just sort of piles up. So, um, fortunately my, my fiance at the time, uh, was, was totally cool with it. She, people just stopped believing that, that I existed when she went out on Saturday mornings, you know, the brunch and stuff. I just didn't go. Um, but I think you just need to have a conversation about that because there is a time commitment. It's 10 to 15 ish hours a week is probably, I don't know, 

Lauren, if you feel it's kind of like what it was some weeks or more. Some weeks were, were less. But um, yeah, so you just gotta be intentional. Um, some work schedules are way more, you can do some stuff at work. 

I know you could get some stuff done lunch maybe or something, but there's gonna be some home life impact. So just have a conversation with your, with your family if you have one. Um, the second is, you know, do it and you're here. 

Just do it. Like if you have the financial means to do it and you wanna do it, don't put it off another year. Um, just rip it off and just go for it because the two years are gonna go by super fast and you probably wait two years to make the decision if you don't do it this year anyways. So just get it done. Um, if you have the means to do it, uh, and you'll, you'll thank yourself cause it's gonna go insanely quick cuz you're piling that 

on top of work and all of a sudden like life just goes super fast and then it's done cause it's back to back to back, right? All of a semesters are just kind of like real quickly piling up. Uh, I felt that way when I was done. I was like, I can't believe I'm done. 

I can't believe this is over. Um, so do it. Um, just get done and enjoy it. I mean, it, it's fun. I like Lauren, I have a lot of contact still there. Uh, I wish I stayed more in touch with people, but it definitely, there's some really cool people cuz it's not like undergrad, we're all just coming outta high school and giddy. 

Like you're talking to professionals that have lives and are doing really interesting things in their professional life. So, you know, you might find a new avenue for yourself and the whole thing too. Yeah. 

Awesome. Alright, Lauren and Nick, thank you both so, so much. I know I really appreciate it. I'm sure our audience members really appreciate you sharing your experience and perspective, your time in Kelly. Um, I will wrap up and just say, you know, obviously I, I think I can speak for Lauren and Nick that they would all encourage you all to apply and begin this process. Um, we've got a full team here, right here on campus to help you as you have questions. 

I know the chat had some other sort of basic questions about the admissions process. We'll, we'll reach out to you folks individually and, and follow up with you there. Please reach out to us. Um, again, thank you to Lauren and Nick. Uh, really want to thank you all for being here. 

I wish everybody, uh, a happy Wednesday and until next time. 

Description of the video:

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:17
Unknown
Okay. I'm going to go ahead and get started. Hello, everyone. Thank you all for for being here today for our online MBA webinar. We will focus particularly on return on investment. I'm going to do most of this webinar. My name is Jim Byrne. I'm the director of admissions and financial Aid for Kelly Direct. I have another colleague with me, George Smith, who is going to be monitoring our chats and our Q&A options.

00:00:23:22 - 00:00:47:20
Unknown
If you have questions about this kind of dump those in there. We'll try to get to most of those at the end as we have a little bit of a brief presentation, but we'll be able to monitor those and then then answer any questions that you have. So thank you all for being here. Really, I'm very excited to talk about Kelley Direct and our online MBA program and really the tremendous value that it has within the marketplace and lots of different options that you may be interested in as well.

00:00:47:22 - 00:01:12:03
Unknown
So our agenda for today, there are three main points that we're going to cover and three things that I think are really a tremendous value about what Kelley Direct can offer to an online MBA student. First will go into our MBA curriculum, which I think is really a leading type of education opportunity for students in the marketplace and some of the unique value that it brings to really creating a holistic experience for students.

00:01:12:05 - 00:01:30:15
Unknown
Then I'm going to share a little bit about our who's your hospitality and some of the finer things that I think are really important as students consider an online MBA and what it offers as a program. And then we're going to wrap up what I think a lot of people know is really the big point with an online MBA and the value of the network that you would build as a student in an online MBA program.

00:01:30:21 - 00:01:48:20
Unknown
And we'll talk a little bit about those details and how we support that, both as a current student and in the future for you as an alumnus as well. So let's go a little bit deeper into the curriculum, so a little bit about our online MBA program. I think we hope most of you have seen a little bit about this on our website, but I want to dive into some detail as well.

00:01:48:22 - 00:02:12:07
Unknown
So I mean, curriculum is 54 credits. Most students can do that, right in about two years if you're really dedicated. But there's some opportunity to stretch that out to a little bit of a longer timeframe as well. The interesting thing is that it being a hybrid program where we have in-person experiences and a really intentional base to our curriculum, that really means that the first part of your program, that first sort of year is really pretty rigid.

00:02:12:07 - 00:02:36:21
Unknown
It's meant to be very intentional about the topics that you're learning, the courses that you're taking really designed to flow well with each other and build a really strong foundation for you as an MBA student. But the back end of that program has a lot more sort of flexibility. That's when you're going to be taking more of your electives, maybe diving into a major or some other opportunity, things that you're really interested in specifically geared towards you and creates a lot more of the flexibility there.

00:02:36:21 - 00:02:57:20
Unknown
So our program is meant to be flexible in some degree in the sense of how you are interested, but it is not always that easy, right? Our classroom start from 6 to 9 p.m. Eastern. So sometimes that can mean if you're kind of getting off work, it gets a little bit tricky there. Or if you're on the West Coast versus the East Coast, it can be a little bit more manageable that you have to work with.

00:02:57:20 - 00:03:23:22
Unknown
But it's meant to provide a really robust experience with some opportunity for flexibility as you design what it is that you're going to be taking in. The Kelley Online MBA program. I will mention that we do have these two live classes each week, particularly with our core sections that you would start in that first year. I think it's a really tremendous value is then when you are logging on to class, you are getting quite literally this right now a Zoom meeting and a faculty member right there is teaching to you.

00:03:23:24 - 00:03:42:06
Unknown
You may have, you know, videos or things that you watch in between class sessions and on your own time. But you're really getting that face to face connection that is still, I think, extremely valuable for students who are getting the MBA experience. That structured cohort model that we talked about as being part of that first year I think is also really valuable as well.

00:03:42:06 - 00:03:59:19
Unknown
That includes our first in residence experience with Kelley on campus. That happens right when you begin the program. But it also means that you're getting to build those relationships very intentionally. Know, I think that's a real great value with like our full time program here in person in Bloomington. And we try to mimic that with our online experience.

00:03:59:19 - 00:04:17:16
Unknown
And so you'll be working in teams and doing some of the relationship building, even though you're both all remote and working at different points in different places across country and around the world. So that's a really great, I think, value piece for us with our curriculum. I'll have Drew go to the next slide where I can show you a little bit about how that plans out.

00:04:17:16 - 00:04:42:05
Unknown
Right. So that core one in our Kelley on campus experience, if you were a spring start that started with us a few months ago this is what it would look like for you are false things that are starting here. It just kind of shifts a little down, down the timeline. So that core one building on economics and personal leadership and some integrated core classes that really build on each other along with that really important first foundational experience.

00:04:42:05 - 00:04:59:07
Unknown
When you come to campus, you move on with our fundamental and quantitative analysis and accounting. And those are really, I think, critical points for folks to do well and be successful for the MBA program. And then you can start to see as we start to build in a little bit more electives, we transition from our core to into the core three.

00:04:59:07 - 00:05:19:14
Unknown
And then that last half of last year is then up to you. You kind of pick the classes that you want. If you decided on major, you would really dive deep into that. All the different immersions and other things that we offer as a curriculum I think are are really tremendously valuable. Our next slide here, think through a little bit about the specializations.

00:05:19:14 - 00:05:44:04
Unknown
We offer seven different opportunities for students where you can take those electives and really concentrate them on a specific area. So for some folks, this is great because they want to really hone in on, let's say, their marketing skills. They already work in marketing. They want to dive really deep in that. That's their career path. Others are maybe looking to broaden out their skill set and really gain a wide range of skills to get someplace else.

00:05:44:04 - 00:06:03:12
Unknown
Maybe they want to move from marketing to more of an analytical type or actually take a major in business analytics to sort of build on their skillset. And others choose no major at all, which is a really great option to this is not required that you can actually get a wide ranging an MBA degree that's just sort of a general MBA, but then you can dabble in all of these classes.

00:06:03:12 - 00:06:21:14
Unknown
If you wanted to take one of those, you could dive into each of those and plan that out with your plan of study. We work with our advising team, so lots of tremendous options for you to really kind of customize the topics that you're learning and then dive into any specialties that you kind of see fit and how that might work with your career plan.

00:06:21:16 - 00:06:43:00
Unknown
On our next slide, I think sure is a little bit more about the in-person benefits that we really offer. And I think this is really critical. There are lots of different opportunities and ways that you can get an online MBA degree. You could do something fully remote where you would never have to go to a school. You could just watch some videos at your own pace and leisure, and that's great.

00:06:43:01 - 00:07:03:06
Unknown
That could be a great experience for somebody, but that's also not us. I think what we really try to do is mimic that in-person benefit with our curriculum. And so that means that you're getting the same exact degree as our full time students are here on campus and you get same sort of support and opportunity to connect with folks here on campus.

00:07:03:06 - 00:07:24:02
Unknown
And so much like you would have had at your undergraduate institution, you have an academic advisor and they live right here in Bloomington, work here on campus, and they're here to support you. Two are full time faculty members are right here in Bloomington and they teach in our courses and they teach other courses throughout the school. So you're not just getting some subsection of the business school or some subsection of the university.

00:07:24:04 - 00:07:43:11
Unknown
We are just as much as part of everything. And that means you are just as much a part of the university as well as a student. So next slide, Drew, if you can think of is our in residence experience. So I talked a little bit about that early on with our curriculum plan. The Kelley on campus is the first one that you will come here to Bloomington.

00:07:43:13 - 00:08:01:19
Unknown
You actually be doing a case competition and we work with a live client, a business partner that we have and build a relationship with, and they would come to you and give you a case. We just wrapped up a great experience actually in March where we worked with a alcohol vendor and some of the new products that they were launching.

00:08:01:19 - 00:08:29:19
Unknown
And so our our students got to help design a brand new product launch plan to them and really helped design some strategies on how they plan to grow their business and how the new products they were bringing to market. We're going to help grow them at least by double. That was a goal. So it was a is a really ambitious case, but it was really exciting and I think really great for the students to meet each other and dive in and learn their backgrounds and experiences, but also work one on one with with a real client to sort of really build that foundation of their business experience.

00:08:29:21 - 00:08:52:02
Unknown
And then the next thing actually on location, we offer that sometimes here, but all across the country too. So I will actually be going in Chicago this September. And that's really your like second year experience. And so that's a really great way to broaden your experience outside of different areas and what be doing workshops and seminars will bring in some of our corporate partners to provide some some expertise there.

00:08:52:02 - 00:09:10:06
Unknown
And it provides a really different type of opportunity for you to build relationships with your student, your fellow students, and then some of the optional things, as I mentioned, with those electives in that second half, you can really try to beef up the your online experience, but in-person. So to offer immersions both domestically here in the U.S. and also globally.

00:09:10:06 - 00:09:26:06
Unknown
And so that's a really great option. We we do a number of these throughout the year. I'm actually going to be going with a group in June to Ireland, which I'm super excited about. So we'll be doing lots of cool stuff there. It's another way that you can really take your degree, experience and shape it to exactly what you want.

00:09:26:08 - 00:09:51:02
Unknown
If you really want to get these types of relationships and networking opportunities and relationship building and you're able to invest the time and be in person, fantastic. Add some of those immersions on top of your plan of study. Really, really cool opportunities as well pre than just just ask and the chance I'll just say this very quickly about sort of getting picked or going on these there's an application process for these optional immersions because they are in high demand.

00:09:51:02 - 00:10:14:09
Unknown
But often we're looking at your experience and your resume and also your academic performance up to that point. We want to take the best students possible on these immersions. And so that's a really key factor as well. But as young as you're planning ahead, there's definitely lots of different opportunities to to get towards it. And then, you know, I really want to talk about what we provide is Indiana University that I think is really great support.

00:10:14:11 - 00:10:35:10
Unknown
That personal touch is something that we really take a lot of care and concern about. And so our full time faculty played a huge role in that. As I mentioned before, our faculty are not just adjuncts that we've hired outside. They are here on campus. They are a ten year tenure track. They are working really hard to provide you with a real quality experience.

00:10:35:12 - 00:10:55:01
Unknown
And that means that they are the ones that are right here in a lecture and in providing that to you. But they are also the ones reading your assignments, providing feedback on what worked well and what didn't, and providing opportunities for mentorship and ultimately development for you as a student. And I think that's tremendously valuable because there are other online programs that offer a different type of model, which I think is fine.

00:10:55:01 - 00:11:20:24
Unknown
As I mentioned, but you may not be getting that full, robust experience that you really want there. But we are really trying to provide and I think that really is a tremendous value for for students seeking an online MBA. And then the last thing on that slide to which we are really excited about and this past year we got a large alumni donation to build a innovative teaching studios that are just about ready to launch here this summer that provide an even more immersive experience.

00:11:20:24 - 00:11:37:00
Unknown
So we're going to hopefully, you know, long term be branching out of a typical sort of zoom web conference, which I think works well too, something that's really immersive. And you can really go into a three day viewing and engage with faculty in very different ways. So we're trying to be on the cutting edge as much as we can.

00:11:37:00 - 00:12:01:17
Unknown
And I think that shows with our school and what we value here and that we really value your experience as an online student, that that is something that is really top notch as well. So really exciting stuff from a teaching and faculty standpoint. Next slide, please. Your the other thing that I think is really great for our personal touch, and I think it's really most important for a lot of students, what is the career outcomes you're going to get out of this degree program?

00:12:01:17 - 00:12:25:13
Unknown
That's extremely important. And so we have a fully staffed graduate career services office right here on campus, too, that provides a lot of that support for you. So you'll be getting one on one coaching with our career coaches. Our career coaches are certified at a high national standard. So you're not just talking to anybody. You're talking with folks that are really well experienced and come from the corporate world and are now sort of giving back and providing opportunity for you as well.

00:12:25:15 - 00:12:44:21
Unknown
We offer professional development courses. So oftentimes we have students who are maybe making a big career change. Maybe they're moving out of a software development role and they want to move into broader management. They're trying to build up their skills in lots of different ways. And so some of our professional development courses are really great opportunities to to hone out your entire profile as a student.

00:12:44:23 - 00:13:12:19
Unknown
And you also get plenty of access and the same access to our job boards and our alumni network. And then as an alumnus for life, you get one on one career coaching. So you graduate, you get a great job, that's great. Maybe ten years from now you're looking to move again. You're looking at a new options. You get to still come back to us and come back to our graduate career services office and be part of that network and get that support that you would still need, that it's really important for us that you're, you know, a student for us for just a short time, but you're an alumnus for life, and that support doesn't

00:13:12:19 - 00:13:38:07
Unknown
end just when you've left us in the degree program. QUICK Some of the coaching we also have is career coaching. It's very similar to mentoring are the ways to find industry mentors know we provide a lot of different networking opportunities. I'll talk about it in a second and then we'll slice and dice those based upon your needs. So if you are in health care and you really focus on that as an industry, we can get you connected in different ways that help your specialization in what it is that you're looking for.

00:13:38:09 - 00:13:57:04
Unknown
And then the last thing are you all we talked about networking is that third sort of value point. And I think that means who you're coming in with is really important to eyes. You are probably home. You know, you're we're always excited for but at number one ring program by U.S. News and World Report I think that shows a real caliber of the students that you'd be coming in with as well.

00:13:57:06 - 00:14:12:09
Unknown
Our average age is 33. We got nine years of professional experience on average, but there's actually a really great distribution. So really about a third of our students are from, you know, 0 to 5 years and they're sort of just starting out those in about 5 to 10 and then those with over ten years of experience as well.

00:14:12:09 - 00:14:36:21
Unknown
So you can be on a team in a class project and have a senior manager or a senior vice president that could be on your team and you have a young data analyst as well. It could be a real exciting group that you're building your network around when you're coming in to tell a director and some of the things that you maybe wouldn't think or we know is, you know, we have students all across the country and all across the world, so every seat's represented in most of our students aren't in Indiana, which I think is a really fun fact to share.

00:14:36:21 - 00:14:54:14
Unknown
So if you're also trying to think about, well, how could I go to Indiana in Kelly in building my network for New York City or for Los Angeles, Seattle, lots and plenty of students in that. That's a real great value for us as a very large program, is that we bring in students all across the country and all across the world.

00:14:54:16 - 00:15:12:18
Unknown
Let's go to the last slide here about networking, please. CHAIR Thank you. And so we're also very intentional about building those relationships and how those opportunities come up. What I think is really important is that this is a two way street. We can provide lots of opportunities, but we need you to participate in be engaged. And that's why we do things.

00:15:12:18 - 00:15:28:08
Unknown
You know, when we do our admissions process, we do an admissions interview. And I think that's really important to learn you in your background and why it is that you're looking for this opportunity. And so that way when you come in and you're taking part in these networking opportunities as a real active participant and to really build you network too.

00:15:28:08 - 00:15:49:13
Unknown
So we do virtual happy hours of webinars with our Student Leadership Association, which is a really great group to do more additional sort of programing and opportunities for students. It also means when you're here on campus with that Kelly On campus experience or our. Kelley On location experience, you know, we're building on a very full day and days of opportunities where you're connecting with your classmates in very different ways.

00:15:49:19 - 00:16:05:19
Unknown
That also means our courses have group projects which, you know, I don't know anybody super excited, always about group projects and group work, but it does mean you're getting connected to different people in different ways. And that's a very core value for us as well. And then of course, the size and scale is really what matters to our alumni network.

00:16:05:19 - 00:16:28:05
Unknown
Well over 100,000 Indiana University income school businesses, huge not only here in the Midwest, but throughout the country as well. So whether you're just getting in connected with our alumni in terms of our MBA program or undergraduate program or our full time program, you know, I think that Hoosier hospitality resonates with everybody really well. So that's our final piece that I think is a real tremendous value as well.

00:16:28:05 - 00:16:47:03
Unknown
Let's go to the next slide, Drew, and then we can get to the questions here pretty quickly. I do want to give some a little bit about what's next. I do want to encourage, of course, folks to complete their application. And really soon, our fall deadline is coming up quickly. Our phase one, our first initial application that's on our website that's totally free to complete.

00:16:47:03 - 00:17:04:07
Unknown
You just got to upload your resume. You fill in some basic fields, should take a few minutes. Really no obligation there. You'll get kind of connected and assigned to one of our admissions advisors and they'll reach out to you. They can. They'll schedule an interview and kind of learn more a little bit about you, talk about next steps, talk about moving through our application process.

00:17:04:09 - 00:17:29:14
Unknown
And the other thing too, as we are approaching the deadline, are keenly on campus experience where our process does start and ends in late July. And so hopefully, you know, I would want everybody to apply soon and be part of our fall cohort that's we're starting to build right now. But it's something to think about is that if you can come to campus in late July time to get your application in now and be ready for it, otherwise, you know, we would have another cycle coming up for our spring term in 2023 that would come forward.

00:17:29:14 - 00:17:49:21
Unknown
But really, really great opportunities to get started right now with our fall cohort. And then last, we'll wrap up with the deadline of May 1st is coming up here in a few weeks. That's a priority deadline. So if you can really start to get your materials and really that's a way for us to make sure that we're able to offer the most students our scholarship funds and opportunities to get into class.

00:17:49:21 - 00:18:09:03
Unknown
You know, we are an online program and that means we're big, but it also means we do actually still have limitations. There's only so many students that we could actually accept in so it's really important to work towards that out of that priority, get on to get the best consideration possible for your application. June 1st is that final deadline, and then those classes start in late August online.

00:18:09:03 - 00:18:29:19
Unknown
But I did mention in between that Kelley on campus is in late July, actually just right before that. So really exciting time here this summer as hopefully many of you are considering online and be really excited that you all were here to join us as well. So we'll go next site and look at questions. I see some here in the question answer and then I'll let Drew unmute himself as other things in the chat.

00:18:29:21 - 00:18:48:03
Unknown
Can we for sure asks if you could do multiple global immersions into they count for credits. The answer to that is great question is yes that you can do that it is a little more limited, is very competitive and you really want to work with that advising team to kind of plan that out. But it is an opportunity and they are for credit classes.

00:18:48:03 - 00:19:05:07
Unknown
So I want to make that entirely clear. These are not just fun trips. I mean, they are fun, but they are there as part of a class. So you are maybe doing work, you know, the three or four or five or six weeks leading up. And then you go to, you know, for instance, Ireland and be really immersive there for a week and then come back to the States and, you know, on your own.

00:19:05:07 - 00:19:29:06
Unknown
So they come with lots of different experiences, but they do count for four credits toward your degree. Robert S When can I get access to career coaching? Is that after classes officially? Yes. You know, as much as our career coaches I think are really great and lovely people, we have a lot of students and they're trying to work with current students, so they don't really work with prospective students, partly just because they're people and they need to take time off of work as well.

00:19:29:06 - 00:19:44:24
Unknown
So and once you get started, when you come on campus, I'm actually on campus experience. You would have the opportunity to be career coaches then, and that's where you could start to build a relationship, start thinking about your plan and what it is that you want to do with your career. How does that fit in with the curriculum and ultimately your goals as well?

00:19:45:01 - 00:20:10:23
Unknown
I don't know what with students in multiple time zones, how often? What are my classes typically held? So like classes start anywhere from 6 p.m. Eastern to 9 p.m. Eastern. Typically about an hour and a half. You can kind of vary. Attendance is expected. You know, I would say that it's not required. Every single class that you would need to meet that we understand life happens at times for folks and you that you can always attend every class.

00:20:11:04 - 00:20:34:01
Unknown
What is broadly speaking, expected. So if you were a person that was looking for an MBA program, not only maybe program, where you never had to sort of show up to a life class, then we're not the program for you. And that's okay. You know, I wish you all the best, but I think we're really trying to value that in that classroom experience, even though it is online, you can ask about sort of class sizes and cohort sizes overall, a cohort.

00:20:34:02 - 00:20:52:21
Unknown
You know, I think we bring in a couple hundred students each year that's split between two different cycles. But we are very intentional to make sure that your online class section, your your core section that meets on, let's say Mondays at 6 p.m. is a manageable size and a manageable size for a faculty member. So some of those can get capped right around 5055 or so.

00:20:52:21 - 00:21:13:21
Unknown
It kind of fluctuates right in there, but that's main. So it can still be an engaging class and faculty member has time to engage with you. So I think that's really valuable that we still think about smaller classes even in online space. They're not simply about conference in our state being an online program there. It's one flat rate, so it doesn't really matter for and state versus state.

00:21:13:23 - 00:21:31:09
Unknown
ABC asks, how is it to be a career switcher? And that's a great question that I don't know. We have all the time in the world to go towards. But ultimately, you know, I think a lot of our students, probably about a third, are looking to make a move within their career. And that can mean often very moving from a technical role.

00:21:31:11 - 00:21:51:24
Unknown
Maybe they've been a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, or a mechanical engineer or software developer, and now they're moving into a broader management role. They want to manage those departments. They want to look at the overall business model. Their company. And so I consider those folks career switchers because it's, you know, sort of a very different type. And it's a big part of our our area and others are coming from all kinds of backgrounds.

00:21:51:24 - 00:22:09:06
Unknown
You know, we have students that come from the performing arts and are looking to get into edtech or some of the lots of different opportunities there. And that's where you really work intensely with the Career Coaches network building to try to build out your your opportunities to make those changes and really take what you're learning in our classes.

00:22:09:06 - 00:22:28:17
Unknown
You know, the the live cases then are really great opportunities to build your resume. You're working with a business client to build out a new product launch plan that's a resumé builder. That's a really great opportunity and why I think our program is valuable for folks that might be switching career paths. I said no dare. I said to answer class size vaguely.

00:22:28:17 - 00:22:50:03
Unknown
What is our maximum class size. So yeah, maximum would be like 55 or so. That that is meant to be really intentional for us. And that as you move through the program, especially our electives and then then the size of those really actually go down. So the biggest class sizes are early on with those core programs. In those core courses, let's see a real answer there, scholarships available.

00:22:50:03 - 00:23:17:02
Unknown
So yes, right now we do offer scholarships. It is part of our application process in the sense that you don't have to fill out a separate scholarship application. So once you get all the way through our phase one and phase two, we would take a look at your overall application materials, your your transcripts from undergraduate institution, your resume, your leadership experience, your interview that you have with our admissions staff, and be able to look there to see what sort of funding options that we have available.

00:23:17:04 - 00:23:54:10
Unknown
Right now, we offer our scholarships as a per credit, our rate reduction. So right now our tuition rate is 15, 21 per credit. Our for our fall class. And typically they're anywhere from 100 to $400 off per credit. Our in terms of the size of the scholarships. All right, Cory, we talked about fees yet pre asked a little bit about the acceptance rate in your apartment is about like 36% or so for both the in-person online program.

00:23:54:12 - 00:24:13:09
Unknown
We have a lot of great interest. It's a great place to be for my end to have a lot of interest the students in the program. And so I do think it is a very competitive process. Ultimately, it's coming to call you and be part of our program, whether you're online or in person. All right. I think that's really it for for question.

00:24:13:09 - 00:24:28:24
Unknown
We must draw you see anything else? Otherwise I would encourage folks to reach out to us, you know, via email or phone call. We're happy to take your questions. Talking through the application process. You know, our website, I think is great, has lots of materials, and we'll be in touch with you all soon.

Description of the video:

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:17
Unknown
Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us today for our online learning sneak peek. I think that we're still waiting for some others to join, but we'll go ahead and get started and be mindful of your time. Again, thanks for joining us. I am really excited to go over kind of what online learning looks like and the Kelly Direct program.

00:00:23:17 - 00:00:45:12
Unknown
That's one of the number one questions that we get in the admissions office. So my name is Sarah Winger. I am the director of addition for Kelly Direct online MBA and M.S. programs. Today, we're going to be primarily focusing on content within the online MBA, although a lot of the same similar themes around our MBA courses happen in our MSC courses as well.

00:00:45:17 - 00:01:03:24
Unknown
So no matter if you're looking at an MBA or an MS degree, I will be able to answer some of your questions. Later today, I'll be joined by two of my colleagues, Will Gagan, who is the interim faculty chair for Kelley direct online programs as well as Megan Reese, our associate director of interactive recruiting, who will be facilitating our Q&A.

00:01:04:01 - 00:01:26:23
Unknown
As you have questions throughout the webinar today, do feel free to use the Q&A function in your Zoom screen. So if you have particular questions that you'd like to ask Will about the online learning experience later in our webinar, please at any point during the webinar, use that Q&A function and send in your questions. Megan will be monitoring the Q&A.

00:01:26:23 - 00:01:52:15
Unknown
And so will either answer your questions virtually. She'll chat back with you or we'll answer them live later on in our session. So first, I'd like to go over the Kelley Direct program really briefly and make sure that you have kind of that overall context for our program. So we are a 54 credit online MBA program that and that's comprised of the four buckets that you see on the screen.

00:01:52:17 - 00:02:23:15
Unknown
So one of the key hallmarks of our program is that we provide a ton of learning experiences that are actually really face to face in nature. So whether or not that's connecting with your colleagues online, connecting with your faculty in our live virtual class sessions, or coming to campus for our Kelley on campus experiences. And then also as soon as COVID is is wrapped up, we'll be able to get back into our immersions global and domestic immersion experiences.

00:02:23:17 - 00:02:45:14
Unknown
So you see that our curriculum is is kind of within these four buckets that you see on your screen. Half the program is core coursework that you need to take in the program, and half the program is electives. So the two year plan for the program is kind of outlined as how you see it on your screen, your one and your to the core courses.

00:02:45:14 - 00:03:08:01
Unknown
You take six credit chunks during those core courses. The and those are the three red areas. And then the gray areas are actually where you fit in your electives and fundamentals courses. And you can take as many credits as you want during those times. So we offer a really nice mix of kind of core coursework as well as flexibility with those elective courses.

00:03:08:03 - 00:03:28:14
Unknown
And then when we're looking at a little bit more deeply at what those core courses look like as opposed to the elective courses. So you have three quarters. We are based on the quarter system, three quarters of core during that quarter. You definitely will take six credits during that time. So this is the one time in the program that you can't go faster or slower.

00:03:28:14 - 00:03:52:10
Unknown
We make sure that during those three quarters that you're going or you're taking six credits and usually that equates to two virtual live classes per week. And those five classes will start either at six, 730 or 9 p.m. Eastern time. That's opposed to our electives that function a little bit differently. So you'll have anywhere between six and 12 quarters of electives depending on how quickly or slowly you want to go through the program.

00:03:52:10 - 00:04:17:18
Unknown
And again, this is your opportunity to kind of take our curriculum and make it a little more flexible for your own personal time frame. During those quarters of electives, you can take anywhere between three and nine credits per quarter, and it's normally one weekly live class session per course. And what you're going to be learning about today is digging a little bit more deeply into and have those weekly live class sessions.

00:04:17:18 - 00:04:39:17
Unknown
What does that look like as well as other aspects of online learning? And then the start times for those electives vary. Hey, so now that we've covered the program overview, now we want to hear a little bit about you. So we have quite a few people who are joining us for the webinar today, and we would love to get some some more information about who's in the room today.

00:04:39:19 - 00:05:04:17
Unknown
So first I'm going to have you use your your chat to actually. So if there's still questions for us, use the Q&A function. But now let's use the chat. And if you could tell us a little bit about yourself and we're looking for maybe your first name, where you're at anywhere in the globe. We typically have students and Kelley direct from across the nation, the US as well as around the world.

00:05:04:17 - 00:05:25:00
Unknown
So do tell us kind of where you're from and your profession or your industry. We love to hear a little bit more about you, so go ahead and use the chat area to tell us a little bit about yourself. And after you've had the opportunity to do that, then we'll have a second question for you that's around. What do you think about online learning?

00:05:25:00 - 00:05:54:24
Unknown
So what are those kind of preconceived notions that you might have about what the online learning experience looks like? So go ahead and use your chat box. Let us know a little bit about yourself and what do you think about online learning? So if you want to use the chat there and then again, if you have questions about online learning that you want to make sure that we answer today, then go ahead and use the Q&A function and we'll get to those questions live or later on in the session.

00:05:55:01 - 00:06:23:19
Unknown
So I know that we have a lot of participants in the room today, so go ahead and use that chat function to tell us a little bit about yourselves. Wonderful. Hello, Sumana from India, Welcome. It's great to have you. Tell us a little bit about your industry if you'd like. Hi, Laura from Philadelphia. Welcome. We'll give you some time, too, to use the chat function to type in your answers today.

00:06:23:19 - 00:06:55:03
Unknown
So we'll give a little bit of time for this. But again, if you would like to tell us a little bit about what you think about online learning, we'd really like to get a feel as to what the perceptions are out there about online learning and those preconceived notions that you might have probably did not expect that we were going to push you to engage today might be new, and you'll actually notice that in our classes we do a lot of this.

00:06:55:03 - 00:07:17:24
Unknown
You will be pushed to engage throughout all of our Kelley Direct courses. This is not a kind of a sit and get type of program. You're going to be engaged throughout all of our virtual live class sessions. Welcome, Lydia. Hello, Carly Fantastic. It's great to hear from you. And let's see. And we still haven't heard any of those preconceived notions about online learning.

00:07:17:24 - 00:07:44:01
Unknown
So go ahead and use the chat to tell us about your preconceived notions around online learning. That would be great to hear. So while we're waiting for others to chat in, feel free to continue to do that. Just to be mindful of time. I'm going to go ahead and introduce Will Gagan, who's going to kind of take take the next portion of of this webinar and tell us a little bit about the online learning experience.

00:07:44:01 - 00:08:11:22
Unknown
Do feel free to keep chatting him about yourselves and what you think about the online learning experience, because I know that will is ready to kind of challenge some assumptions today. So welcome. Well, thanks, Sarah. Appreciate the opportunity to give a brief introduction. So I started to think about what would be effective for a 20 minute recording to really show you guys some of the nature of how you will learn in Kelley Direct and some of the things that we do to engage you in class.

00:08:11:24 - 00:08:35:02
Unknown
I'm going to play a video in a second is approximately 20 minutes and there's six main postures. So the first posture is basically explaining some of the differences between synchronous and asynchronous learning. We use both and Kelley direct and we try and take advantage of both mechanisms and both styles for effective learning. The second main major posture then is some of our expectations and Kelley direct.

00:08:35:08 - 00:08:59:19
Unknown
So maybe slightly different to some of the other programs that you may be thinking about The last four postures out at six are specifically aligned to different technologies. And what I've done is I've chosen two technologies for synchronous learning and then two technologies for asynchronous learning. So approximately 20 minutes, hopefully I'll give you guys a little bit of an overview into what I call your classes and some of the learning mechanisms that we use in college.

00:08:59:19 - 00:09:24:01
Unknown
Right? The most important question that we want to answer in this webinar is what does it really feel like to be a direct student? And some of you guys may be afraid that online programs mean sitting in front of a laptop watching prerecorded, boring videos of some stuffy professor with no technological acumen writing indiscernibly on a far distant blackboard.

00:09:24:03 - 00:09:49:12
Unknown
So the purpose of this webinar is to try to allay some of your concerns and show and tell some of the virtual technologies that we're using to try and enhance an educational experience in ways that might even outperform an in-person context. Let's kick off with a discussion on what is the difference between asynchronous and synchronous learning. So firstly, asynchronous.

00:09:49:14 - 00:10:18:02
Unknown
While this means that it doesn't happen at the same time with asynchronous learning, the participants can learn at their own pace and asynchronous learning allows the student view instructional materials each week at any time that you choose. It's not a live video lecture, so you can see in the video example of my strategy class that's playing here. Students are asked to watch this video in preparation of coming to a live class.

00:10:18:04 - 00:10:45:22
Unknown
And this is one of about 15 bite sized videos on average each week that are approximately 5 minutes in duration that I will ask you to watch in advance of coming to my synchronous strategy class. Sometimes we use roundtable discussions to mix things up based on the topic. So here you can see a quick example of Veronica, Tracey and I discussing a macro environmental analysis of Netflix industry.

00:10:46:03 - 00:11:12:01
Unknown
So we're looking at the business government relationship here. Did you guys find any trends that are influencing this industry within a political legal context? So I think the biggest one that stood out to me, which even applies to the music industry, is when you look at like royalties and the copyright infringement. And I think now let's look at what synchronous learning means and synchronous means happening at the same time.

00:11:12:03 - 00:11:40:08
Unknown
So in essence, students are required to log in and participate at a specific time each week, and we drive attendance by having our live sessions to be as engaging and as dynamic as possible. And it's something that you need to get live as opposed to watching later. And I have one rule of thumb when I develop any of my classes, and that is what you can consume asynchronously should be consumed asynchronously.

00:11:40:10 - 00:12:02:22
Unknown
So that allows you to make the most of your time. If you are watching videos in an asynchronous context, you can watch them at 1.5 x speed or two speed. You can watch them while you're minding your children. You can watch them while you're on your peloton or on your treadmill. You can watch them while you're on the subway to work.

00:12:02:24 - 00:12:31:18
Unknown
So synchronous needs to leverage that. You are all in class together. And we have some superstar students in our program. And when I have a synchronous class, I try and leverage the skills capabilities and experiences of our stellar Kelley direct students. I think of myself more of as as an instructor for the asynchronous components, whereas I think of myself as a facilitator for the synchronous component.

00:12:31:20 - 00:13:01:02
Unknown
And you can see a video recording of one of my large classes here where we have about 30 people per class and we try and use technology as much as possible to drive engagement and dynamism. So using as much as breakout rooms as possible, poles, whiteboarding, classroom response systems all allow for different pedagogical approaches depending on the topic, to drive engagement and participation in a synchronous setting.

00:13:01:04 - 00:13:26:23
Unknown
Let's talk about some expectations now. Expectations that we have of you and expectations that you can have of us. In most cases, we do not require you to come to the live or synchronous classes, but unlike other programs, we have only full time Kelley Faculty teach these classes. So if you are paying for a Kelley Direct MBA, then you get the same faculty as our full time MBA program.

00:13:27:00 - 00:13:46:14
Unknown
We try to be flexible to your needs. So if you can't make a live class, in most cases you can complete a task in lieu of attendance. But it's far more fun to come to class and to get to know your professor and your classmates. Remember that one of the reasons you will do an MBA is for networking opportunities.

00:13:46:16 - 00:14:16:16
Unknown
Secondly, most classes have a cameras on policy and remember how much communication is nonverbal in some situations and circumstances, it's okay for you to have your camera off, but like all work meetings, it's far more effective if you have your camera on and are actively engaged, you'll get the most out of the class by doing so. As I alluded to earlier, you get the same degree as the full time MBA program, that same piece of paper.

00:14:16:18 - 00:14:44:03
Unknown
So it's the same level of rigor. Typically, class times are a minimum of 27 and a half hours per semester for a three credit course. So that equates to about two and a half hours of contact time each week, usually are typically about an hour and 15 minutes of that is asynchronous video and typically about an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and 30 is synchronous video.

00:14:44:05 - 00:15:09:15
Unknown
Depending on the course, though, each professor can alter this mix. But there needs to be a minimum of 50% synchronous class time so that you're getting the most out of interacting with your classmates and your professors. Let's jump into one of our first tech solutions, our facilitators for effective online learning. And this is Canvas. This is our learning management system.

00:15:09:17 - 00:15:36:22
Unknown
Other schools have different learning management systems like Moodle or Blackboard. So specifically, Canvas allows us to simplify teaching and learning activities and organize coursework and it's best potentially to show you a canvas site to give you an overview as to what each class that you're enrolled in will typically have. So here we are in canvas and I have student view turned on.

00:15:36:24 - 00:15:58:06
Unknown
I'm going to give you a quick tour of one course. So this is a course in core. Three is the integrated capstone course, and I'm going to be teaching that in a couple of months time. So let's click on the course. You're getting the student view here. I have a welcome announcement, so you'll see my welcome announcement here.

00:15:58:08 - 00:16:18:16
Unknown
It gives a couple of bullet points as what the students need to do in advance. There's a video embedded here in this announcements where I talked to some of these components. If we jumped now to the home to where we just were, you see, I have a number of folders and we can go to any one of these folders.

00:16:18:18 - 00:16:48:21
Unknown
Let's go to class five integration, validation and storyboarding, and you'll see I have three subfolders here. So what students are expected to do before class. So if I click on this year, it will open a portal. There's a number of different assignments, so individual assignments students in this class are asked to watch six of eight summary videos. So these are videos that I've recorded with other faculty that have taught previous classes in the core.

00:16:48:23 - 00:17:12:01
Unknown
So you'll see that the core objective of this assignment is to watch and respond to these videos. The goal of this exercise is to refresh many of the core classes that you've taken, and I've asked students to complete six of the eight videos, and you can see all six that all YouTube videos are starting to populate right now.

00:17:12:01 - 00:17:39:23
Unknown
And if I click on the first one, I can watch an interview with three of the business law and ethics professors. So Professor Sellers, ask you and Parry, these are also linked to assignments. So again, if I go back, I can see all of my modules, all in different folders. There was the folder I was just in the before class folder.

00:17:40:00 - 00:18:04:18
Unknown
You can see the tabs across the left hand side. Here we use Microsoft teams as a discussion board and sharing platform and there's a hyperlink to teams, the hyperlink to my zoom room for synchronous classes, the hyperlink to the syllabus. That's where each of the learning outcomes are core goals and assessments and grades. The schedule is all lists.

00:18:04:20 - 00:18:33:22
Unknown
We have the assignments that students are expected to prepare and complete. So you see the dates here to completion dates for students to respond to these. The grades associated with the scores that students will get in these assignments. That's students in the class that are populating. I've obviously obfuscated some of their names and photographs for for for the issues.

00:18:33:24 - 00:19:00:24
Unknown
And then we have a hyperlink to the library that allows people to see exactly library resources and databases. So that's a quick overview into the learning management system that we use. Each class has a slightly different configuration for our conversation based on the topic. Now let's look at some integration of our asynchronous video and the way in which we create engagement and interaction.

00:19:00:24 - 00:19:24:21
Unknown
In some of our videos. Me personally, I'm going to discuss a tool that I use called Play Pauses and that allows us to try and engage you while you're watching an asynchronous video. And I've used this for various different applications. First of all, I've used it for my own recorded asynchronous videos in my class. I've used it as a check for comprehension.

00:19:24:23 - 00:19:54:16
Unknown
I've used it as a mechanism to capture discussion, board thoughts and perspectives. I've used it for case studies and I've used it for entrepreneurial pitches to get feedback. And right now I'm going to show you a use case. So this is a video that I'm using on the ski resort industry, and it's an amalgamation of several videos that I found online that really give a great overview to the industry that is the ski resort context.

00:19:54:18 - 00:20:30:13
Unknown
So you're seeing here, it's embedded in a canvas site. So you navigate true canvas to the page that it's held. You see some instructions for how to watch the video illustrating that there's going to be interactions that are going to count as part of the students participation. Great. So you press play and you start watching the video. There are few sports as expensive as skiing a daily live ticket alone typically costs more than $100, with top resorts such as Vail charging up to $209 for a day skiing in the east.

00:20:30:16 - 00:20:47:05
Unknown
This, after all, all those $200 going to you is not limited to 103 to 2 hours a day. I'm interested you really consider how much for research about lifts? Well, the answer is sort of ski lifts, concepts passenger. It connects to it in terms of getting people the top or bottom of list between all audiences tendencies and safety systems.

00:20:47:05 - 00:21:09:10
Unknown
So they end up being very complex and complex means because of, well, here's why you and the link, it happens to occasions. Vacation costs figures are usually rarely much. $10 million and most large ski resorts have dozens of lifts. You see that after about a minute, an interaction appears. And the question is all about ski manufacturers and what they are to the ski resort industry.

00:21:09:12 - 00:21:38:05
Unknown
And it gives a number of different options. So are they rivals or are they buyers? Are they suppliers? And you can see that I've I've been organized over this answer and I eventually got it correct that they are, in essence, suppliers. Having answered that question, then I press play again and I continue to watch the video too. So the goal of these interactions in my strategy class are, first of all, to force the student to pay attention to the video so that they're not watching it passively.

00:21:38:07 - 00:22:17:13
Unknown
Secondly, it allows me to insert different theoretical applications that refresh students and position it specifically in the theory that I'm trying to allow the students to learn. So here in this context, it's to understand the different forces in an industry. Each of my case study videos have about ten interactions, and they vary from things like multiple choice questions like you just saw to, for example, discussion board to short answer essay solve questions that allow for you to contribute during the video.

00:22:17:13 - 00:22:47:19
Unknown
Watching using this type of technology gives us as instructors a lot of opportunities and allows us to create more engagement in our videos by asking real time questions and interactions. And we have a variety of different options. We have options such as multiple choice questions, free responses, polls, checkboxes, fill in the blanks, discussion boards, and we can set a number of different playback options as well.

00:22:47:24 - 00:23:16:17
Unknown
So we can allow you to rewind after an interaction. We can allow you to skip interactions, we can allow you to fast forward, we can allow you to retake this. This video. We can allow you to see a printable report of all the questions, and we can allow you to increase the playback speed. I One of my favorite tools is the discussion board tool in these videos, and it allows us to hear and see our classmates thoughts and perspectives at a point of time.

00:23:16:17 - 00:23:48:05
Unknown
In the video. So here I have a screen capture of a discussion board question in a Ryanair video that I have and specifically ask how they are responding to the global COVID 19 pandemic and what are low cost carriers or legacy airlines are best positioned. The answer to these discussion board type contributions. I can then leverage in the live class and draw out more insights and ask more people to contribute and explain some of their thoughts and ideas.

00:23:48:07 - 00:24:18:22
Unknown
The class obviously can see the rest of the classes, thoughts and opinions as well. At that point of time. In the video, the first you tools, and I've just discussed our use predominantly in an asynchronous context. So in the prerecorded videos now let's look at some tools that we use in the synchronous contexts or the live classes where you show up at 7:30 p.m. on a Thursday night and you work with your classmates in a live class context.

00:24:18:24 - 00:24:43:16
Unknown
So the first one of these tools you've heard of, for sure, you're on it right now. It is Zoom. And I'm not going to spend much time on this, but I want to talk about a couple of different things that we try and do. And the first is that a lot of us in the Kelley Direct program, we use breakout rooms again, going back to my golden rule of what can be consumed asynchronously should be consumed asynchronously.

00:24:43:18 - 00:25:19:08
Unknown
So if I want to discuss a theoretical philosophy or a model without engagement and participation, then I can record a 15 or 20 minutes summary of that if I want to leverage the skills, experiences and abilities of the class in general, which have amazing acumen, then it is best facilitated in a synchronous context and using breakout rooms where I can put three or four people in a room to discuss a problem and then report back to the rest of the class.

00:25:19:10 - 00:25:55:11
Unknown
We also use a lot of classroom response systems, so things like quizzes using tools like Top Hat AKA whose we use videos, we use polls and we use presentations. We also like to use a lot of software such as Google Docs or Microsoft 365. And here you'll see an example of a breakout room with three students working in their own tab in a Google sheet, you can see that the students are working through connecting different roles to different selves.

00:25:55:16 - 00:26:24:19
Unknown
Within that Google sheet, you can see the table along the bottom that corresponds to their specific breakout room. So I will share one Google sheet that has potentially ten different tabs each of those tabs corresponds to a discrete breakout room where they will work on a template that I have pre-populated there. Another example is a colleague of mine who loves to use the stylus on his iPad to summarize student contributions.

00:26:24:21 - 00:26:48:00
Unknown
And here we see a summary of some of the student contributions in a Disney Pixar case study that is using. I'm going to finish with one of my favorite tools for synchronous engagement, and it's a whiteboarding tool called Mural. Some of you guys may have used this or may have used other whiteboarding tools such as Miro or Clarkson or Google's.

00:26:48:00 - 00:27:22:12
Unknown
John bought some context is that it's most useful for is company analysis projects or designed sprint weekends. It's really really helpful as a visual workspace where end products can become a really neat reality. I like to use mural by sharing a template in advance so students have a template, and each of those components in my template are a unique posture where I will ask students to work on that posture in their own breakout rooms.

00:27:22:14 - 00:27:47:17
Unknown
After they've worked on that in groups of three or four, they can come back and report their findings and we can learn from a number of different people or groups in the class, and I can give my perspectives. It's really, really helpful for engagements. Everyone can contribute at once and there's also accountability. So that people have discrete contributions within the mural workspace.

00:27:47:19 - 00:28:08:14
Unknown
There are timers that we can use here so we can keep a track of time so it doesn't get away from us and it allows us to bring what we do in a real class sort of virtual context. One of the other great things about mural is that it's not a typical whiteboard or not a physical whiteboard where I always seem to run out of space on a physical whiteboard.

00:28:08:16 - 00:28:42:09
Unknown
So you have infinite space in a mural whiteboarding template. Let's look at a couple of use cases for mural. So the first use case is when I've used it for a case analysis on Trader Joe's. So first of all, of our students in advance of the synchronous or live class, to listen to a Freakonomics podcast on Trader Joe's and to answer some of those questions in advance, then they arrive in our Zoom room and I share a hyperlink to the mural that will be using and kick off the session.

00:28:42:15 - 00:29:13:12
Unknown
I ask every student who has been to Trader Joe's to share a photograph of their favorite Trader Joe's product. And you can see here they're all grabbing photographs and they're starting to populate those photographs into the mural. And what we get is a whole mosaic of different photographs of students, favorite products and Trader Joe's. Then you'll see on the right hand column A Dan asked them to describe a typical Trader Joe's experience.

00:29:13:14 - 00:29:39:21
Unknown
So in the space of about 2 minutes, I have this super neat mural or mosaic where most people in the class of contributors you see here, you see here that I have a screen capture of what the finished mural looked like after two or 3 minutes and I could then draw from this throughout the rest of the class, positioning specific examples of different people's favorite product items within the main case takeaways.

00:29:39:23 - 00:30:06:19
Unknown
So the example that you've just seen is the whole class, all 30 people working on this same mural for most of my classes. I then have a mural that is discrete for each group to work on in their own breakout rooms. And you can see the example of a template for Trader Joe's below. So as I said, the first 5 minutes, everyone's working from this class mural.

00:30:06:21 - 00:30:37:10
Unknown
And then as we start to go into more ingrained or niche topics, I'll ask four or five people to get into a breakout room and then to work through these discrete postures. So this is a template that is empty, that is awaiting student contribution that I have here on this screen. Now you're going to see a video that I captured of a group of four people working on a value chain analysis, which is the bottom left quadrant of this mural.

00:30:37:12 - 00:31:08:05
Unknown
Each of these quadrants are four major postures that I want students to explore in cohorts of three to 4 to 5 people. And in the video, you'll see that they've inserted these yellow and purple sticky notes, and they're now trying to connect water to reinforcing activities like a secret society. Yeah, and that's what drives their excitement and so many fans that they just don't know what they're going to get when they go in there and they don't know too much about it.

00:31:08:07 - 00:31:30:12
Unknown
I mean, that was the interest that was interesting in the podcast, really. They didn't there was not pictures of the owners on the Internet like like it's not a business thing. That's how these guys run their lives. They they don't want people doing anything about it. Yeah. What about the guy that wrote it? He went to go work for them, wrote a book about them, expecting for them to say something, and they heard nothing.

00:31:30:12 - 00:32:07:20
Unknown
Back When I heard that, I thought he would say he expected them to sue him. Right. But they didn't say anything. They just didn't respond whatsoever. I wasn't saying that. I thought it was a nuisance. The law. Exactly. But. The Aldi Aldi CEO is a college graduate. Kelley MBA really got it all for us. So hopefully that helps to give you a sense of what it's like to be a Kelly Direct student and you can see some of the technology that we use in an effort to make this as good, if not better than the in-person learning experience.

00:32:07:22 - 00:32:32:12
Unknown
All of the technologies we use are there to enhance that educational experience. And Kelly direct and each professor has different preferences and pedagogies based on the topic that they're teaching and their own personal needs. And tactics. Thank you so much, Will, for that amazing presentation. And so I'm going to have you come back out from behind the curtain.

00:32:32:14 - 00:32:58:02
Unknown
Also to bring up Megan Reese. So Megan's going to facilitate our Q&A. Hi, Yes, my name is Meghan Reese. I am the associate director of Interactive Recruiting. I have been answering your questions and we've had quite a few great questions come in. And so will I am interested to hear some of your answers to these, if you don't mind sharing.

00:32:58:04 - 00:33:29:07
Unknown
Can you explain what are some of the differences between Kelley Direct and our top competitors? Cool. So there's a couple of things, and maybe some of our top competitors are on the webinar with us, but the first thing that we would like to say is that you only get full time Kelly faculty teaching classes so that people who grade your assignments, the people who are responding to your emails, the people who are leading that synchronous class once a week or twice a week are people who are actually teaching in the full time program.

00:33:29:10 - 00:33:52:04
Unknown
So not necessarily the case in a lot of our competitors, and it's something that obviously has a huge impact on cost. But we believe that it drives a lot of the value for us as a program. So that to me is the first thing that differentiates us not against all programs, but against at least two or three of our top competitors, let's say, and I don't want to say anything bad about our top competitors.

00:33:52:06 - 00:34:17:19
Unknown
The second thing that I think differentiates us is our integrated core experience. So the curriculum is really important. Spending those 18 credits out of 54 credits is foundational, and that is like the threshold of getting your your competency in your MBA. But what is the most interesting and the most unique, I guess, about our program is then we open up 24 credits for any classes.

00:34:17:19 - 00:34:39:20
Unknown
So you get to major in any class or any topic across seven different major topics. So we're all we're giving you the breadth that an MBA comes with, but we're also giving you that that's that you have a major, whether it's in analytics, whether it's leadership in strategy, whether it's marketing, whether it's finance. So we've spent a lot of time trying to redesign this curriculum.

00:34:39:20 - 00:35:00:07
Unknown
And the curriculum went live about a year and a half ago, and something that any of us were involved in are pretty proud of that we've managed within a strategy context. I'm a strategy guy, we've managed to reconcile both of those different paradoxes of breadth and depth. I believe one of the other things that I think is quite different about us is our flexibility.

00:35:00:09 - 00:35:19:03
Unknown
So I talked a lot about synchronous classes and I love our synchronous classes. I think that they're spectacular, but if you can't make a synchronous class, then you will not be detrimental effect. You may have to do a makeup task in lieu of that 75 minutes or not 90 minutes that you miss in order for your class to have equal equity.

00:35:19:04 - 00:35:40:21
Unknown
But we we equally appeal to someone who's going on deployment in Afghanistan that may not have Internet connectivity over the course of a number of weeks. So that flexibility is a major differentiator for us as well. Some of the other things that I think are important too are the number of our immersions on or Kelley on campus experiences.

00:35:40:23 - 00:36:04:08
Unknown
So I know a lot of our competitors do something similar. And again, I don't want to disparage any of our competitors. It blew me away. I've been in college for three and a half years and when I got to Kelley initially about these Kelley on campus experiences, I taught that everyone here needed our head examined. So like a different lifeline for each Kelley on campus experience, We pay for your hotels.

00:36:04:10 - 00:36:34:20
Unknown
We make sure that it's this amazing interactive networking experience. And I saw it as a participant just to see what was happening during the first week, and it blew me away. So that's something else that our immersions go to countries like Vietnam, like South Africa, like China, like Brazil, like Ireland. These unique small sample, Our small students at immersions are something that's really, really unique as well.

00:36:34:22 - 00:36:59:23
Unknown
And I know I don't want to mention, but I think we're far cheaper than our competitors. So we don't pay 50% to an online program manager. So it's a publicly traded company that goes out and recruits our our students. So we reinvest all of that into a cheaper price point for you. And then to some of that, the faculty resources that I think are most important.

00:37:00:00 - 00:37:22:08
Unknown
So that's four or five things that I think we do a little differently. But I would encourage everyone on to call to actually go out and explore it themselves. I dig deeply into this decision because it is a very financially important decision, but also the time and effort over the next two and a half years. So please make that decision with a full awareness and knowledge if at all possible.

00:37:22:10 - 00:37:50:24
Unknown
I don't miss anything there. Sara, I know you have some some thoughts as well. I think that you covered it, although I know that we've had some questions come in around the networking and oftentimes I think there are certainly networking opportunities that our competitors schools have. But I'm really, really pleased the networking opportunities that we provide. And Kelley direct, I actually think that that's a major differentiator for us.

00:37:51:01 - 00:38:11:11
Unknown
So when you're coming to the Kelley Direct program, you're going to be able to network not only in these live class sessions because you saw how interactive our life class sessions are. Students are fully engaged and you're essentially networking in every team activity you're doing in every one of those Google Docs where you're working with your classmates. I'm filling those out.

00:38:11:13 - 00:38:41:10
Unknown
So you're really networking throughout all of those life classes. Those classes happen with our faculty, and our faculty have amazing networks, so you're able to get in touch with them. But then there's all of that outside of the kind of curriculum and networking opportunities as well. So I think I'll take the opportunity now, if that's okay. Megan To kind of dive right into what some of those networking opportunities are, you may not know that the Kelley School business has the largest business school alumni network in the world.

00:38:41:10 - 00:39:20:17
Unknown
So oftentimes you'll hear some of our competitor schools talk about their amazing alumni network, but really poke them on, is that your business school alumni network? Because actually Kelley has the largest at 120,000 living business school alumni. So you have an amazing opportunity to network with Kelly's school alums. We have an alumni ambassador program. So if you're looking at various different options and you want to talk with one of our alums during the application process, you can do that already during the application process, we'll pair you with an alum who is in perhaps the industry that you're in or that you'd like to be in so that you can get a feel for what Kelley

00:39:20:17 - 00:39:48:23
Unknown
Direct is all about. From from the perspective of someone who's been through it. And then during the program you're going to be able to network it with our Global Connect Nights, which is through our slate. So we have kind of two pieces here. Our SLA is our Student Leadership Association. You have an opportunity to be a board member and actually make some kind of decision around what type of networking opportunities and what type of professional development opportunities are available for students.

00:39:49:00 - 00:40:22:21
Unknown
Or you can be part of a sub association. So we have some association such as women in business finance, business analytics, we have a military and vets association, so you have opportunities to get involved in network with our Student Leadership Association and they hold global connect nights typically in around 40 different locations, not during COVID. We actually go in into those locations and into a bar or restaurant in Boston and all of the Kelley Current students and alumni from the Kelley Direct program all get together and really network in person.

00:40:22:23 - 00:40:41:14
Unknown
So even though you're in an online program, again, we are offering a lot of opportunities for you to figure out how to get in touch in a face to face way. And of course, not to mention Kelley on campus experiences. You'll get lots of networking opportunities throughout all of those. We kind of make that entire experience one big networking session.

00:40:41:16 - 00:41:08:09
Unknown
And then of course, our live classes and our merchants that will already mentioned. So you have lots of ways to connect in the program in person. In addition to, of course, the online experiences. And Sara, if you don't mind elaborating a little bit on the Kelley on Campus experiences, both the in-person and we also have virtual versions. We do have some students who are enjoying working from home and don't really want to leave, and they're wondering what what does that look like?

00:41:08:11 - 00:41:34:24
Unknown
Yeah, actually Kelley on campus is something that we get the most positive feedback around our Kelley on campus experiences because they are so incredibly powerful. So I know Will was mentioning sitting in that he was a little skeptical at first and then he got there and it's kind of mind blowing the connections that students make and the connections that you make with your faculty when you're on campus and doing something together.

00:41:35:01 - 00:42:10:11
Unknown
And so our Kelley on campus experiences are extremely valuable. We have moved Kelley on campus virtual during COVID, and we are exploring options to continue to offer some virtual options. But there's really nothing that can truly take the place of that in-person experience, whether or not that's in Bloomington or other locations around the world, we will provide you with a really strong opportunity to network together in person and get that kind of Kelley feel wherever you are around the globe and can make connections together.

00:42:10:13 - 00:42:34:24
Unknown
So, Will, is there anything you want to add to that around kind of Kelley on Campus and that component or that experience? Now I do summarize it perfectly. Sara, and I think it's one of those that you have to really, really engage with. You have to do it before you understand what I'm talking about right now, that my skepticism as to how Kelley could pull this off three times a year just just blew my mind.

00:42:34:24 - 00:42:57:21
Unknown
And some of the ways in which that that Kelley operationalize is that is ingrained in our culture. I think so, yeah. And that's the feedback that we get from students, too, is at first they're like, oh, I guess I'll, you know, I'll come to campus. I know you have a residential component and then they are after the first Kelley on campus, they're like, okay, when can I come back where I'm ready for my next Kelley on give us.

00:42:57:22 - 00:43:27:17
Unknown
So you have two of them and and that you have a couple of different opportunities to to get together with your colleagues but then again you have those other opportunities to get together like our student Leadership Association hosting our Global Connect night. So it's certainly not going to be the only time. And we have students doing meet ups and lunches and going to coffee all the time just because organically you're going to build connections in your virtual life classes, that you're just going to start building a network.

00:43:27:17 - 00:43:51:06
Unknown
It just happens really organically. And actually in one of the other webinars that we did that is posted on our website, it was a student panel and a couple of the students remarked that they built stronger connections in the Kelley Direct program than they feel like they got in their undergrad. Traditional kind of on campus experience. For your experience that they built tighter connections in the online MBA.

00:43:51:06 - 00:44:13:10
Unknown
So take a look at that webinar is you can hear it right from the horse's mouth, from the student panelists, but really that was powerful. When I heard that it was it was really a reminder that we are doing something really right here. Awesome. Thank you both for answering that question. We are coming up on the 45 minute mark, so I want to be careful with our time.

00:44:13:12 - 00:44:38:05
Unknown
Robert is wondering course videos available for online or offline viewing? I believe the answer to that is yes, that those are going to be recorded. But well, if you want to. Yeah, expand on the professor. So most of our professors and not all of them have made it available for offline viewing. So most again, once you have any type of Internet connectivity and most professors will work with you.

00:44:38:05 - 00:45:08:09
Unknown
But I do not want to promise that across that this slate, one of our professors, for example, last semester had it posted online and then someone was going on deployment. So she made sure that that person could download the videos. So yeah, it's still a professor by professor decision and it's not been a programmatic decision for the professors to potentially retain that IP is not shared across 2000s of other people that it's only available to.

00:45:08:09 - 00:45:30:07
Unknown
Kelly Direct students. Yeah, and we've got a few concerns about work life balance and a few who are wondering how do I complete all of my coursework while working full time? What is the time commitment for this program and is it feasible to do this while working full time? Cool, I'll take that. I guess it's the typical time allocation.

00:45:30:07 - 00:45:50:21
Unknown
Megan, as we talked about, is two and a half hours of a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous. That two and a half hours is sort of the maximum. I know some people watch my video. I like to speed. Megan I think you were planning to increase the speed playback of my video there to try and get like 20 minutes down to 15 minutes.

00:45:50:23 - 00:46:11:11
Unknown
So that is the max on two and a half hours. As I said, 150 sorry, an hour and 15 minutes asynchronous and then an hour and 15 minute synchronous. There's a lot of caveats here, too. Some of the extra work that you have to do outside of that two and a half hour. So, for example, potentially some teamwork on projects.

00:46:11:13 - 00:46:29:18
Unknown
And it depends on two main factors. I think the first factor is what grade do you want? And it's lots. If you want to score a higher A, then the time allocation is going to be greater. Obviously, if you're okay with coasting and getting a grade that's a little lower than an AA, then it's going to take less time.

00:46:29:20 - 00:46:52:02
Unknown
Ironically, from what I found of working with calendar X students, most college students are pretty type-A, largely made up of. So that's that's the first thing the nature of the grade that you're looking for. And secondly, I think it's the argument that you have in different subjects. So if you are working in finance, then finance class should be relatively straightforward for you.

00:46:52:02 - 00:47:15:05
Unknown
If you're working in strategy at strategy class would be relatively straightforward. I know people push me on the time allocation and if I give you my strategy class, the two and a half hours in video, whether it's synchronous or asynchronous, and then approximately two extra hours, if you are looking to get a B plus grade, if you're looking to get an A-grade, then probably an extra 4 hours.

00:47:15:07 - 00:47:37:05
Unknown
And what we try and really emphasize in all of our classes is that there's no busy work. So for example, in my strategy class, those 2 hours, what you're working on in my strategy class is you are applying strategy frameworks to the organization that you work for or to an aspirational organization. So you're learning more about your company and the context in which your company competes.

00:47:37:07 - 00:48:00:05
Unknown
And the ultimate goal of my strategy class is to present out a strategic recommendation. So again, the busy work, you're not necessarily working on some aloof product or aloof business that you will never have interaction with and subjects like business law to asking you about regulatory context in the legal context for you and your organization and organizational behavior advice.

00:48:00:05 - 00:48:18:23
Unknown
They're asking about the culture and the leadership of your organization so that 2 hours as a minimum, for example, in my class is not busy work. It is directed towards having an incentive to use impact on what you're doing. And that's why any of us fight with you teaching. Kelly We love it because we get positive reinforcement on that.

00:48:19:00 - 00:48:48:19
Unknown
I will get students immediately say, Wow, I presented out your your strategy canvas to my senior manager and now we have a completely new product direction that we want to go in. So really tough to give you a rule of thumb on time, but I would say allocate at least 5 hours of your time for each class and that could be up to ten or 15 hours if you are struggling on quant or on finance or something like that.

00:48:48:21 - 00:49:08:07
Unknown
And tastic. Thank you so much. I know that we're at time so we could probably go on with definitely are getting questions and we could go on for a long time. But we are going to wrap things up just given that we're getting close to time here. I want to say a huge thank you to Will for creating such a stellar presentation about the online learning experience.

00:49:08:07 - 00:49:28:11
Unknown
It really encapsulates exactly what this experience would be for you if Kelley Direct turns out to be the right fit for you. So if you have more questions, we would love to talk to you in our admissions office. Feel free to get in touch with us. You can get us all the contact information is on our website, but k direct at you.

00:49:28:11 - 00:49:50:05
Unknown
Dot edu is the email address. We'll put that in the chat direct at IU dot edu. Feel free to email us any other questions. We will be sending out the recording of this webinar today so you'll get that in your inbox in the next week or so, so that you'll be able to go back over this content. Because I know we gave a confirmation to you today.

00:49:50:07 - 00:49:59:04
Unknown
So thank you again for joining us. Thank you again to Wil and Megan for joining me today. Thanks to all of you. And we'll hopefully talk with you soon.

Description of the video:

Kelley Direct Online MBA program overview

Description of the video:

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:13
Unknown
Hello, everyone. Welcome. Thank you so much for coming today to the Kelley Direct online MBA webinar regarding work life balance. This is one of the topics that we get questions about so often from prospective students. So if you're looking into the program and you're thinking, Oh my gosh, I work full time or at family commitments, I travel often for work, how am I going to make this work?

00:00:25:13 - 00:00:44:08
Unknown
How am I going to put this? And that's what we want to talk about today. And we're going to hear from a couple of our current students about how they currently do work life balance. Again, my name is Sarah Wenger. I'm the director of admission for Kelley Direct Programs and I'm joined today by one of my colleagues, Megan Race, and I'll let her introduce herself.

00:00:44:10 - 00:01:07:20
Unknown
Hi, I am Megan Reese. I am the associate director of Interactive Recruiting and I will be answering all of your questions on the back end today. So if you have any questions as we go through this webinar, as our guest speakers are speaking, please send those in the Q&A function at the bottom of the screen and I will get those answered and send those off to our student panelists as well.

00:01:07:22 - 00:01:32:16
Unknown
So I'm sure that you have burning questions for our panelists about work life balance, or you may just have burning questions about the online MBA experience in general, just like Megan said, use that Q&A function down at the bottom, chat in your questions, and we will make sure that we get your questions answered either live via the the questions to the panelists or Megan will be chatting answers back on the back end.

00:01:32:18 - 00:01:55:09
Unknown
Or if you have really specific questions, you can always set up time to meet with Megan and talk through your questions with her or with another one of our admissions staff members. So you have lots of ways to get your questions answered today. So before we dive in to hearing from our panelists, we really want to set some context and give you a little bit of background on the program relating to this schedule.

00:01:55:11 - 00:02:18:09
Unknown
So the curriculum for the program is 54 credits and it's broken down into these four distinct buckets. So we have our Kelley Connect Week experiences. That's our in resident and experience that for right now is offered virtually. We do have four fully virtual options for Kelley connect weeks but that's really your opportunity to make connections in the program along with other ways of networking.

00:02:18:11 - 00:02:49:07
Unknown
But it's a really nice opportunity to get to know your colleagues in the program and get to know your faculty. So there's three credits worth of in residence options, then 24 credits of the core. So we have a signature integrated core experience, and we do have a full webinar that outlines the core and our specializations and majors. So I would encourage you to check back on our website if you want to know more about the core or the next bucket, which is the 24 credits of elective credit where you can specialize and your major.

00:02:49:09 - 00:03:10:21
Unknown
And then the last three credits in the program are global perspectives credits. And you can either do obviously when COVID is not around the travel immersion experience, where you would do a Chase competition or consulting overseas or domestically. But we also have professional development courses that you can do those three credits in offered to our graduate career services office.

00:03:10:22 - 00:03:30:02
Unknown
So that's how our curriculum is broken down. But let's dive a little more deeply into timeline and kind of when courses are offered. So, Megan, do I talk a little bit about the two year plan? Yeah, I think. Sara So most students do complete their online MBA in two years. And on this slide you can see what that two year plan actually looks like.

00:03:30:04 - 00:03:50:20
Unknown
So the red blocks represent those core blocks and those can be taken together over three terms. They're spread out over the two year plan, and these are three classes, two credits each. Now, I want you to take a look at those gray blocks. And these represent your electives, the gray blocks, and you have a lot of flexibility there.

00:03:50:22 - 00:04:16:10
Unknown
This is, you know, showing you the two year plan, how you can extend out your degrees through those gray blocks. So if you want to extend that out to a four year time period, you can do that. You'll just take fewer classes at a time in those gray blocks. And if you want to accelerate your degree over maybe 18 months, for example, you'll just simply take more classes at a time and finish your degree much sooner.

00:04:16:12 - 00:04:37:14
Unknown
Fantastic. Now that we know what a two year plan looks like, let's dig more deeply into our next slide, which really covers the courses. So how are courses broken down? Well, like Megan just was telling you, there are the integrated core courses. So those three areas of red that you saw before on the two year timeline, well, those are the integrated core courses.

00:04:37:16 - 00:05:02:20
Unknown
When you're in your core courses, you're in a cohort, you move through all together. So everyone begins in their core courses and during your core, you're always going to be taking six credits during that term or quarter quarters, as we like to say. So you'll have three total quarters of core courses. And again, during those three total quarters of core, each time, you're going to have six credits during that.

00:05:02:22 - 00:05:24:12
Unknown
So that's the one time in the program that really can't be flexible. As far as adding or subtracting credits from your workload, you'd really be doing six credits every time you're in your core. And again, that's three total quarters throughout the program. When you're in your core, you're going to be in life classes two times per week, and the life classes start at six, 730 or 9 p.m..

00:05:24:14 - 00:05:54:17
Unknown
They last for an hour and 15 minutes. And so that's really a typical core. And let's look at the second area, that gray area of your fundamentals in the wackiest courses. So for your fundamentals and electives, depending on how you spaced out your program, your timeline can be anywhere from six quarters to 12 quarters. So you really can go a little bit faster, go a little bit slower as it builds your schedule during those quarters, Your workload during those quarters again, can be anywhere between three and nine credits per quarter.

00:05:54:18 - 00:06:12:22
Unknown
So it'll be up to you and how much time you have in your schedule. So in order to anticipate your live class session times, you're going to want to anticipate one weekly live class session per course per quarter. So if you're going to take two courses at a time, you'd be in two weekly live class sessions per week.

00:06:12:24 - 00:06:47:04
Unknown
And again, those sessions only last an hour and 15 minutes. So it's a quick way to touch base with your faculty and connect with your colleagues in the program and for your elective courses. Those are a little bit more flexible based on the faculty schedules. So those courses could start anywhere between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern. So now that you know, a little bit about how the courses are structured, what the timeline for the program is, now let's talk a little bit about how this is manageable for working adults who may have outside obligations that you need to attend to as well and what this looks like.

00:06:47:06 - 00:07:15:17
Unknown
So I'd like to welcome our two panelists. We have build Officer and Lucy Turner with us today. There are two of our star students. We wanted to make sure that you had an opportunity to meet with two people who have very different perspectives on the program. They come from different professional background and there are two different places in the program, so I'd love to have them go ahead and introduce themselves and tell us a little bit about their professional background, where they're at in the program, what their goals are for the program.

00:07:15:17 - 00:07:35:24
Unknown
So Bill, do you want to go ahead and go first? Sure. Hi, everybody. My name is Bill Dawson. I'm a VP of operations for a software company called Validity Inc. I've spent most of my career in technology and startups dealing with a lot of M&A as a matter of fact, my company, right as COVID was kicking off, my company was acquired.

00:07:36:00 - 00:07:57:12
Unknown
So the company had been out for a few years that my friend had started, had been acquired. And so I've been in the process of integrating into a new organization throughout this. So that's definitely added to the challenge and the fun of doing an online MBA. As Sara said, I'm in my second year as a Kelley Connect, as a as a Kelley student.

00:07:57:14 - 00:08:16:01
Unknown
I just finished all my core classes, so I'm into that block of electives. I've attended two different Kelley connects now. One was live and in person and the other was was virtual this summer due to COVID. The goals for me when I entered this program were really since I had had a lot of business experience, it had been organic.

00:08:16:03 - 00:08:40:12
Unknown
What I wanted was a framework to relate to the experiences that I'd had. And Kelley Connect allowed me. Kelley direct allowed me to keep doing that, even though I was working and traveling pre-COVID. Of course, it allowed me to adjust and be flexible and get the education and the context I was looking for and tastic. Thanks, Bill. Lizzy, do you want to go ahead and tell us about yourself tour?

00:08:40:13 - 00:09:15:21
Unknown
I'm Lizzy Turner, so I'm actually a little bit further along than Bill. I have about five terms left, so roughly are not five terms and so five courses, so roughly 2 to 3 terms. So I am also on the board for the Student Leadership Association for Katie. So I stay involved in that way. I actually just started a new job this week, so I'm in a weird place to be explaining my background, but I have worked in program and product management for the last seven or so years.

00:09:15:23 - 00:09:44:13
Unknown
I am a mom, so I have a first grade daughter in remote learning right now, some balancing that. And I live in the suburbs of Chicago. Wonderful. I actually I want to comment and you had said that you're in kind of an interesting position to be talking about this right now in taking a new job. I want to point out for attendees that many, many of our students end up taking a new job while they're in the program.

00:09:44:13 - 00:10:08:14
Unknown
So I think you're actually a prime example because most of the time our students are getting promoted while they're in the program. And and you're a great example of that. Yeah. Okay. So let's talk a little about your typical daily schedule. So maybe, Lizzie, do you want to take a stab at that first? Kind of what is your typical daily schedule looks like or even your typical weekly schedule, however you want to approach that?

00:10:08:16 - 00:10:31:15
Unknown
Yeah. So a typical day for me, which it's a lot of days are different. So typical relative. But for me the first thing I think of when I wake up is coffee. So I'm sort of like, you know, until I have that, I can't function. But once I am functioning, I log in and start checking my email because we're all virtual right now.

00:10:31:15 - 00:11:02:05
Unknown
And so we don't have to spend as much time sort of getting ready and out the door in the morning, which is nice for the flexibility. So once I've kind of checked a few emails, I'll start getting my daughter ready for school, get her logged in, make sure that she's ready to go for the day. Thankfully, she is somewhat self-sufficient in school at this point, but after that I start working and my job is thankfully flexible.

00:11:02:05 - 00:11:29:06
Unknown
And so I do kind of go back and forth answering questions for her coming back and doing some of my work, going to a meeting, etc. And then afternoon is really my break time. My daughter is out of school by that point, my husband kind of takes a break so he can hang out with her and I'm allowed to just go take an hour and take a nap or read a book or, you know, whatever I want to do for that hour.

00:11:29:06 - 00:11:54:19
Unknown
And I definitely prioritize that time for myself because that is important. And then my I love to cook, so I cook dinner every night. And after that I spend maybe, you know, depending on what point in the term we are or what I have going on that week, I might spend 1 to 2 hours on coursework or going to lecture or in some way thinking about school.

00:11:54:21 - 00:12:18:14
Unknown
So I pack it in. But it works. So heads stick. Bill, do you want to take a stab at that question? What is your daily life look like? And is yours as packed in as Lizzie does? And actually, I was going to keep eye on that phrase because I think pack it in is it was very appropriate. So most of the team that I work with is is bi coastal and I have a couple of folks internationally.

00:12:18:14 - 00:12:41:06
Unknown
So my day usually starts with me getting up and catching up on emails that I've maybe missed out on, either because they were after hours or before ours. I try to kind of collect myself and be productive first thing in the morning before the coasts wake up and I get a lot of a lot of attention. A lot of my day time is just spent moving from meeting to meeting and working with different groups.

00:12:41:08 - 00:13:07:01
Unknown
And so I like Lizzie. I kind of use some of my my downtime is is focused on on coursework and trying to figure that out. pre-COVID, I went to an office and that gave me some flexibility to hang out an extra hour or go an extra hour early if I wanted to focus with COVID. I'm interrupting the life of my wife who works from home and our dog, who's now suddenly has attachment disorder because I'm home all the time.

00:13:07:03 - 00:13:33:09
Unknown
And so I have to kind of change up the way that I interact during the day to adjust. And so I spend those. I do pack it in when there's free time. I'm usually trying to work on coursework When I get done with work before classes kick off, I'm usually sitting on the couch looking at my iPad, going through courses, looking at my notes and trying to prepare for classes that happen or for team work that happens in the evening as well.

00:13:33:09 - 00:13:55:12
Unknown
So you do you find yourself gravitating those gaps and spaces are places that you start to fill in with, with a way to think and process and and prepare for for classwork for sure. Wonderful. Thank you. Well, now that we have kind of a the stage is set. Talk a little bit about what your biggest balancing act is like.

00:13:55:15 - 00:14:29:11
Unknown
What what's the thing that you really noticed that since starting school you had to focus on on balancing and prioritizing? You want to go first? Yeah, sure. So for me, maybe like the first 2 to 3 terms after I started, you know, it got really easy to just like, order takeout for dinner or fill up all of my available minutes of the day with something work or school related.

00:14:29:13 - 00:14:55:01
Unknown
And it became obvious very quick that I wasn't taking the right time and the right care of myself in my own well-being. And so for me, that was the biggest thing that I knew I needed to balance. And so now I've gotten a lot better about prioritizing that and always pushing that to be the last thing. And so it's better now.

00:14:55:01 - 00:15:19:13
Unknown
But that's, you know, if I were kind of starting a program and someone could give me good advice, that would be good advice. Great. Bill, do you want to speak to that? Yeah, I think I think you're you adjust a bunch as you take on this new workload. And I think one thing that I maybe did was underestimate the amount of work that there might be there.

00:15:19:15 - 00:15:36:16
Unknown
And to to my wife's credit, and I think Lizzie, to her husband's credit, is that it takes a lot of family support, I think, to to understand, hey, I'm going to in this downtime, I'm not going to be cleaning gutters. I need to catch up on this reading. I need to do this. And so flexibility is really key.

00:15:36:16 - 00:15:57:03
Unknown
And that's one of the great things about the program. As you as you work a lot of the core classes you depend on teams of students and those students are aren't always going to be in your time zone or local to you. And so that was one of the balancing acts for me, was not just working in my schedule or my family schedule, but working in the schedule of other folks in other families.

00:15:57:03 - 00:16:18:15
Unknown
And so with with a lot of gratitude, those folks were very flexible and very supportive. And a number of those folks have continued to be friends through the program. And I've sort them out in other classes because we figured out how to work together, but also to the credit of the professors, I got a lot of support from professors as I was trying to understand concepts.

00:16:18:15 - 00:16:36:10
Unknown
They made themselves available for calls for Slack messages and things like that to help you adjust. They're really dedicated to you being successful, but you have to kind of sort out that cadence and that balance for yourselves. And then there will there are people that will fill in to help you fill the gaps in that balance for sure.

00:16:36:11 - 00:16:59:23
Unknown
Teammates, classmates and professors as well. Great. Thank you to our attendees. If you have questions for our panelists, do feel free to use the Q&A function at the bottom of your screen and chat in questions. And we're happy to to throw those to our panelists live. So just wanted to put that out there. I do have a question about the time commitment for the courses.

00:16:59:23 - 00:17:23:07
Unknown
So one of the questions I get a lot about live sessions and what does that look like? What does homework time look like? How do we kind of fit in the time commitment component into an already full schedule? So, Bill, do you want to maybe take a stab at that? Yeah, I mean, I it sounds maybe this will sound like a pushback, right?

00:17:23:07 - 00:17:47:14
Unknown
But it really depends. There are just like anything in your life, there are topics and subjects that you're passionate about and that maybe you have experience with already and those for you are going to be much easier. There are other courses that are different for you, so I come from a marketing and a technology background. Technology marketing, even the legal stuff I flew through that was those were very easy and conceptual for me.

00:17:47:19 - 00:18:09:12
Unknown
Some of the finance and accounting things were more difficult. I had to set time aside to really give myself room to process and think about those things and ruminate on it, but to keep up with the coursework as well. And so that was part of my, my balancing act was really understanding myself. Don't, don't take into account that that that 3 hours is not a lot of time.

00:18:09:18 - 00:18:30:15
Unknown
You put a lot of work outside of that 3 hours to get to work. And certainly for me like I said, the finance and accounting took a lot more than that. I probably spent 8 hours a week on some of those courses because I was trying to for me, I wanted to make sure the concepts stack. So I was rereading and I was practicing and I was preparing for quizzes that were coming at the end of the week.

00:18:30:15 - 00:18:53:03
Unknown
And so that took a lot more time for me than some of the other courses. Wonderful. Lizzie, want to go? Yeah, I mean, I agree with Bill. It totally depends on the subject and the professor that you got and sort of, you know, how much work they typically give their students or on what in what cadence they give that work.

00:18:53:05 - 00:19:22:14
Unknown
It's it's all variable, but in general it is totally manageable. I think, you know, not only that, but during a term, the workload is going to ebb and flow a lot. You know, towards the beginning, you're getting more introduced to concepts or your professor or the syllabus or what have you, and you spend some time kind of getting acclimated to that before you start doing the real work of the course.

00:19:22:14 - 00:19:54:02
Unknown
And of course then you have like finals, just like you did an undergrad or any other course you've taken in. So yeah, I think it depends on that as well. Wonderful. So we have a lot of aspects of our courses that are team based. So could either of you talk a little bit about the team components? Because we often will get questions from prospective students around what does that team component look like?

00:19:54:04 - 00:20:12:01
Unknown
And particularly right now during COVID and everyone's hungry to actually talk to people and, you know, network and and how does what does that look like for you? How do you fit in kind of that teamwork component? Or even if you want to delve into that area of networking, how are you fitting in networking while you're doing program?

00:20:12:03 - 00:20:48:18
Unknown
I mean, I think back to the time commitment. One of the things that really helped through the process was teamwork, frankly, because in a lot of the teams, you have diverse backgrounds and diverse experiences. And so for me, the finance was difficult. There was definitely a team that I had during the coursework where I had a couple of finance people in there that could almost, almost like an an undergrad, right where you have lecture and then recitation afterwards that served to help me understand concepts because it was someone that I could ask, maybe not in a classroom setting where you have, you know, 50 people on Zoom listening to ask a question.

00:20:48:18 - 00:21:12:08
Unknown
It was, give me a little bit more confidence to say, Hey, Lisa, can you explain this to me? Because it's not clicking. And so that the teamwork for me was great because everyone's at different levels in their career and experiences. They can contribute to how you learn. It's definitely a networking experience. I've had teams with folks in Dallas and in California, even a gentleman due to COVID who is in Kenya.

00:21:12:09 - 00:21:31:19
Unknown
So he was he was dialing in at 3:00 in the morning. And so I got exposure to folks I probably wouldn't have in my professional career. And those people I mentioned earlier, those people have followed me. A couple of those folks I've seen again in different semesters and we've seen each other out to be on teams because we built a rapport and kind of understood how we worked with one another.

00:21:31:21 - 00:21:55:06
Unknown
So yeah, I would I would add to that too. I think, first of all, you're going to get used to teamwork because every pretty much every course you take, you're going to be working with a team. And it's I will say, I've never had a bad team because everybody in the program is is sort of, you know, good quality people.

00:21:55:06 - 00:22:26:12
Unknown
They want to come to their courses. They're they're engaged and invested. And so I've never had a bad team. The team has always been a benefit. I think it has definitely helped me develop my emotional intelligence, especially given that, you know, it's not like your your job where you kind of you're in a role typically for 1 to 3 years and you get really, really used to the people.

00:22:26:12 - 00:22:51:12
Unknown
And so it's it's 12 week courses, you know, so you're switching teams and dynamics all the time. But it's it it helps you grow so much as a person learning how to interact with people in that way. I think as well, you you develop really strong connections with people in this program, even though, you know, we do go to colleague Connect weeks when we are not in a pandemic.

00:22:51:17 - 00:23:16:05
Unknown
And so you do get some face to face interaction. But I think it's amazing to me, like how how great of a connection you can form with people just virtually. I think that says a lot about where we're going as a workforce. So, yeah, the virtual teamwork is obviously paramount right now and I think it will continue to be in the future.

00:23:16:06 - 00:23:49:06
Unknown
So yeah, I think again, teamwork in my mind has there's nothing but benefit to that aspect of the program. So I have one last question before we kind of jump into some questions from the attendees that revolves around what are some of the kind of planning mechanisms that you have use? Sure. That this this whole thing, you know, this all the pieces on the place where you build your own speakers?

00:23:49:08 - 00:24:11:12
Unknown
Sure. I mean, I think there was an administrative adjustment to going to an online course, right? So you do you do have to own that canvas. Some professors are very adept with canvas. Canvas is a tool that we use to manage classes and classwork. Great. Some professors are very adept. They set up reminders and triggers and to do news and they have calendars embedded.

00:24:11:14 - 00:24:36:08
Unknown
Other folks don't they just upload a PDF right of the syllabus and in your responsible for for kind of graphing that and adjusting it for yourself. So what I had to learn really early on is that not all setups for classes are similar and so I started to build out calendars for myself and certainly with teamwork where I was dependent on other folks and they were dependent on me, I'd spend a lot of time setting up calendars and invites and reminders for myself.

00:24:36:10 - 00:24:53:24
Unknown
I keep my I literally have a Kelley folder on my laptop where I've broken out every semester and every course and all the coursework that happens. And it's noticeable to me if I get midway through the week and a folder still empty, it means I haven't downloaded some of the the course materials or I haven't watched the video.

00:24:54:01 - 00:25:19:02
Unknown
And so it's a way that I kind of keep pace with am I doing the work and I'm keeping up with some of the activities that are necessary to be prepared for the live sessions, but also the quizzes and tests that I would add. So for me, you know, as a as a mechanism or a tool, a calendar like Bill said, is is necessary, I think, for this program.

00:25:19:08 - 00:25:50:16
Unknown
But I would say too. So, you know, it's funny because I work in program management and, you know, I'm a mom and I do all these things where organization has to exist in my life in some way, but I'm not great at it. I mean, as far as like, you know, I'm one of those people who it is completely arbitrary, whether I pick up a pen and paper to write down a note or I add it to, you know, my my phone notes or my computer, I mean, it's they're all over the place.

00:25:50:16 - 00:26:20:06
Unknown
So I try to I try my best. But I think what I would say, which is a little bit contradictory, is that you got to get used to changing a lot. That's just part of growing, I think, in the program. And just a realization that you'll come to is that even if you do plan your life, you know, two weeks, two months in advance, it's very likely going to shift course at some point a lot of times really frequently.

00:26:20:06 - 00:26:39:08
Unknown
Right. And so I try to always just kind of look at the next week and I just go, what's what do we do in the next week and and make sure it's on the calendar and everyone in the House knows what's going on. And I don't plan the next week after that because it will probably change if I plan it now.

00:26:39:13 - 00:27:03:11
Unknown
So and I think to add on to that, I think the one thing you're keying in on, Lizzie, that is was really important for me was the pace. Yeah, right. To your point, like right now I'm preparing for next week's classes even though I'm finishing up this week's work because the pace 12 week seems like forever. But when you're in there and you're doing the work on a daily basis and you're working with teams, it flies really fast.

00:27:03:13 - 00:27:30:01
Unknown
And so I mentioned earlier for me some of the bigger concepts. I want time and space to think about it, and there's kind of maybe a natural procrastination that happens with that which is not conducive to the pace that goes. And so when early on, before I kind of figured out my cadence or rhythm and I would, I would have work that I was finishing up and submitting right before I needed to already have caught up with next week's class and be prepared for it.

00:27:30:01 - 00:27:49:24
Unknown
And so I had, like you described, I had to really start working a week ahead so that I could be in this moment, but already starting to think can visualize about what I needed to do for the upcoming week. And so you do have to be organized and understand that cadence and pace for yourself and how it faces, how it changes based on subject, for sure.

00:27:50:01 - 00:28:17:01
Unknown
You know, right. Well, I think we might have a couple questions from our panelists. So, Megan, do you want to jump right in? Yeah, we've got some great questions coming in. Brian asked a really interesting question. Do you feel like you sacrifice anything by choosing an online program versus an in-person program or do you feel that? Kelley The college experience has been a holistic one for you.

00:28:17:03 - 00:28:42:11
Unknown
So to me, I'll answer that. Okay. It's it's a net benefit over an in-person program. And what I mean by that is you're always going to sacrifice something. In this case, the very obvious thing you're sacrificing is face to face interaction with your peers. But again, we're in a pandemic, so guess what? We're all learning virtually right now.

00:28:42:11 - 00:29:12:09
Unknown
What most of us and to me, we as a as a cohort or as a a program are more prepared and getting more out of our program right now because we've already been set up for this. This is what we were intentionally doing right? So yeah, it's no, I mean, I think you're always going to, like I said, you're always going to sacrifice something because they are different.

00:29:12:11 - 00:29:38:03
Unknown
But the things that you gain because of the virtual nature of the program outweigh what you're sacrificing. And that makes sense. And I what I would add is I think some of it is up to your commitment to the program. You get out of it, what you put into it. And so my my phone, my WhatsApp has more than a dozen folks that I have worked with in the past.

00:29:38:03 - 00:29:56:20
Unknown
And like I mentioned earlier, that flexibility, they catch up with me for the holidays, but they also catch up with me even if they're in a different section to say, Hey, did you catch that lecture? How did that work for you? And that that really offsets the the times that maybe I'm not in front of them right. And interacting with them?

00:29:56:22 - 00:30:14:10
Unknown
I'm still interacting with them. Like Lizzie was saying, with the COVID, we're all in Zoom meetings nowadays. And so to be able to ping a professor or ping a classmate that's on me to kind of do that and it's part of my commitment to go out there and engage with these folks because it's where I gain value from the program.

00:30:14:12 - 00:30:39:05
Unknown
Mm hmm. That's awesome. Thank you for those answers. We also just had a really interesting question come in from Kyle. Has it been a challenge to fight Zoom fatigue with being virtual? I think this is a question a lot of people couldn't answer and in the world right now. But yeah, interested to hear your responses. Yes, usually a rant about 7:00.

00:30:39:05 - 00:31:03:20
Unknown
I've had headphones in the entire day and I've moved from one zoom meeting to another. And so by the end of the day, the last thing I want is to to maybe be focused and dialed into to another class. And the nice thing is and I saw some questions come in earlier about flexibility, the professors definitely understand the needs of working students, and so they build a lot of flexibility into the program.

00:31:03:20 - 00:31:30:07
Unknown
A lot of my professors will encourage me to maybe sit in another section. If I'm always in a monday class, they will encourage me to go to Wednesday classify of conflicts, or maybe pick a different time frame, or even if you aren't able to attend a lecture. I think almost every class the professor is given kind of a non lecture option, so the recorded video is always up there, but they may ask you to just write a few paragraphs about key concepts out of the class or ask some questions.

00:31:30:07 - 00:31:51:15
Unknown
And so what's great is there is flexibility that if you do have Zoom fatigue and it's a real thing and you've been staring at the screen all day long and your eyes are teared up and your ears hurt from headphones, but you can take the day, right? You can step away from that and the program definitely gives you some flexibility to to reengage in different ways or to come back to that lecture at a different time.

00:31:51:17 - 00:32:18:24
Unknown
Yeah, I think just in general, I'm probably spending no more than 2 hours a week on Zoom for my courses. So, you know, I guess we'd with the 8 hours or so a day that I'm putting in on mostly on zoom at work, if it doesn't add so much that it's noticeable. But that's not going to be the case for everybody.

00:32:18:24 - 00:32:44:06
Unknown
Everybody's different and I do agree it is a thing I think I've probably, you know, gotten more used to it because I worked remotely before the pandemic and, you know, just kind of accustomed to spending a lot of time. But I can imagine for people who who did and kind of suddenly shifting to this, you're just staring at a screen instead of actual people.

00:32:44:08 - 00:33:27:20
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah, that would get tiring. But I don't think the program itself is going to add a noticeable, you know, difference. Awesome. Thanks. That's good to hear about the flexibility in the program there. I do have a question about stress. So with finals and exams, is that a stressful time and how have you both managed? Yes. So I will tell you, it's been a while since I was an undergrad and so I was getting adjusted to online learning to begin with.

00:33:27:22 - 00:33:46:24
Unknown
And then it was getting back in the groove of of being a student and having those expectations. My first quarter in the Kelley program, you take some heavy core classes. Like I said, economics for me was one. And the first time you sit down and you see a little timer pop up that says you have 45 minutes to take this exam, you only get one chance to do it.

00:33:47:01 - 00:34:05:15
Unknown
There's no leaving it, right? Once you've opened the window, you can't close it. In all honesty, I was sweating bullets and shrieking like there was stage fright of, Oh my gosh, what have I gotten into? What's going on for me to do that now? It's it's just part of my everyday life, right? Like, I don't even sweat that anymore.

00:34:05:17 - 00:34:22:04
Unknown
A lot of the professors I saw someone ask the question earlier about, well, like, what's the what's the pace and expectation? A lot of the courses that I've had, professors have given you kind of they'll give you a videos or lecture. I'll give you like a little baby quiz in the middle of the week just to see if you're getting the ideas and you've done some of the reading.

00:34:22:10 - 00:34:44:06
Unknown
And then at the end of the week, they may give you a more in-depth quiz to make sure that you understand the concepts. Those for me have become pretty comfortable, right? It took getting over being online and being prepared and getting the administrative stuff down to getting more flexible with that, and it definitely becomes part of your everyday life.

00:34:44:08 - 00:34:58:16
Unknown
My wife and, I have now developed this pattern where I know where my lecture is and then I know where in the week I'm going to spend some time just processing, doing work. And then I know there's a point on the Saturday or Sunday where I'm going to block 2 hours and sit in my office and knock out the quiz or exam.

00:34:58:16 - 00:35:20:00
Unknown
So it definitely felt more stressful for me up front than it does right now. So, Lizzy, what do you think? I agree. I agree. And I would go back to something I said earlier too, that managing stress, I mean, there is, you know, every doctor in the world will tell you exercise and eat healthy food. Right. And that can't be overstated.

00:35:20:00 - 00:35:48:03
Unknown
And that's something that in the beginning I was saying, you know, it gets really easy to just order out for food to spend time on school work. Instead, it you really have to prioritize taking care of your self. And I think that that helps astronomically with stress management as well. So that would be my advice. Very good advice.

00:35:48:05 - 00:36:11:03
Unknown
We've got two more questions actually from Jennifer and Brian. Wondering you know, how much time we did discuss this, but how much time per week do you think you spend doing coursework? You know, the live class sessions, group projects, all of that combined. And I know of course, I think Bill is going to say it depends. But yeah, we're curious to know what you think.

00:36:11:05 - 00:36:26:20
Unknown
I mean, we could we could do the math real right in a in a three hour class or if you have three hour classes, then you're spending an hour and a half in lecture. Right. And so each semester you have at least two classes. So there's 3 hours just where you're sitting on on a lecture watching your video.

00:36:26:22 - 00:36:48:06
Unknown
The quizzes or exams that you take are usually 45 minutes to an hour. So if you assume that there's a quiz or an exam and each that you've added a couple hours there. So you're you're up to 5 hours in a week for a three hour course. And that's before you sit down and start to study. And I will tell you some courses are more have a lot more reading than others.

00:36:48:06 - 00:37:08:16
Unknown
Others are exercise based. But I usually spent maybe 2 to 4 hours on each one of those courses. So at the end of the week I was probably spending 10 to 12 hours easily between lectures and some of the prep work and then and then quizzes and and I guess I didn't even include some of the teamwork that goes in there too.

00:37:08:16 - 00:37:27:06
Unknown
But some of that is, you know, multi week or multi session. What do you think was it? I think I think I agree with you in aggregate. I think the thing that sounds scary, though, is you think 10 to 12 hours a week, like where am I going to find my time? Well, you're not sitting down on Sunday and spending 10 to 12 hours.

00:37:27:10 - 00:37:46:09
Unknown
I mean, when it's 30 minutes here or 30 minutes there, maybe I'm going to like as I'm exercising, I'm going to re do my readings for the classes. Think I mean, this things that we do, right? I mean, if you can kind of be more efficient with it, you'll learn more about that and operations then. But then you should do that.

00:37:46:09 - 00:38:14:22
Unknown
And so I think you are correct. It definitely it depends. 10 hours a week is to me that's a little on the high side, maybe maybe 5 to 10, depending on the class, you know, where you are in the term, all kinds of things. But in general, I think that's a good estimate. Just remember, that's not a chunk of time that you need to somehow carve out in one sitting for you.

00:38:14:24 - 00:38:31:08
Unknown
And you had mentioned earlier that maybe in the beginning of the program when you're still getting used to the technology, that's the learning management system and you know how to log in or where to go on, I use websites and maybe that took you a little bit longer, but that now you're in the groove, it's a lot quicker.

00:38:31:08 - 00:38:58:21
Unknown
Oh, definitely, Definitely. You always have like that initial overhead because you're still getting acclimated to like the canvas platform that we use for courses or just the different ways to communicate with the different people that you need to communicate with in the program. That takes some time, but then you sort of you get used to just the flow of that stuff and it becomes much less time consuming.

00:38:58:23 - 00:39:15:24
Unknown
So that's another thing to keep in mind for sure. And I think it's I think it goes to the balance you were talking about earlier. The flexibility, the difference with being in a classroom is that the the things and resources that I need for class are always available to me. So I found myself at the beginning kind of struggling to find a pace.

00:39:15:24 - 00:39:33:06
Unknown
And now part of my pace is getting on the treadmill with my iPad and watching a lecture, and it gives me some balance for my stress, but it also gives me, because of the availability, it gives me a chance to make that ten or 10 hours fit wherever I need to in the week. I can attend that, I can attend that class anytime I need to.

00:39:33:06 - 00:40:01:20
Unknown
I can read those details. I mean, it's definitely awesome. Those are great answers. We've also got a really good question about our Kelley Connect Week experiences, so we are curious to know if you've done the virtual version, what that's like. How does that feel to be in the virtual Kelley Connect week? I have not done the virtual one, so my hope is that I started the program, I think it was February of 19.

00:40:01:20 - 00:40:25:16
Unknown
It was. And so I attended Kelley Connect Week in-person in May of 2019, which was before this nightmare that we're living through right now. My hope is that I can put off my second year Kelley Connect week and until late spring, when hopefully we'll have a vaccine and we can all go do things in-person again. I'm hoping so.

00:40:25:16 - 00:40:53:01
Unknown
No, I have not done a virtual version, but I might. We'll see. What about you, Bill? Yeah, I did one of each, actually. So I did a Jill a July Kelley Connect week last week or last year and then earlier this year they actually did a virtual Kelley Connect week that was based around COVID. And so a very similar kind of format where you're coming up with business ideas and you're working and informative and you're given a problem, you do lectures and then you come up with a solution all in the course of a week or so.

00:40:53:07 - 00:41:18:14
Unknown
And it was it was very challenging. It was very different. There's something to the teams and the bonds that you build in a Kelley Connect week because it's a very rigorous they pack a ton into a week where they're trying to lecture and then you immediately apply the lecture and then you're working on a project. And so some of those those late nights and that pulling your hair out and pacing hallways and stuff kind of dissolves because of COVID.

00:41:18:14 - 00:41:38:12
Unknown
Right. But the the pace was still there. I mean, we I took a day off work because we literally had one day where we had to dedicate 14 hours to kind of cranking out an idea and getting it recorded and put in place. So it changed. It didn't change the experience, but it changed the interaction a little bit, right?

00:41:38:12 - 00:41:55:00
Unknown
Because it was all working remotely. And for me personally, it kind of helps because it gave you time to take a time out, right? You could literally work and then say, okay, we're all going to get back on the phone at 3:00 and you go clock off and you do your own things and you come back together and that is good.

00:41:55:00 - 00:42:27:16
Unknown
And bad at Kelley Connect Week because you're everyone's cheering together. There's a fight for resources for copy machines and things like that. Didn't have to do with that. Virtually, but definitely missed out on the camaraderie of sitting there and kind of cranking through ideas for folks who did. Yeah, I do think it would be hard to match virtually because some of those you talk about like the late nineties, I mean, you know, you are with your team constantly for like four days straight, people that you've never met before.

00:42:27:16 - 00:42:48:18
Unknown
You are suddenly and literally in a maybe ten by ten room with a round table and, it forces you to just get past sort of the awkwardness of being with new people really fast. And you just you do you develop a connection with these people, whether you really liked them or not. You end up being friends with them, you know what I mean?

00:42:48:18 - 00:43:10:20
Unknown
So it's sort of like it's a cool experience and to me it would just be hard to match that much by and almost by necessity. You have to, right? So you show up, you don't know anyone, you don't know what to expect. Suddenly you got four or five people that are now your pod and you are you find yourself eating lunch with them, going to dinner with them because you're all focused on the same goal.

00:43:10:20 - 00:43:39:19
Unknown
And it creates a lot of alignment and camaraderie. It's hard work, It's a really hard week, but it's so much fun and I have really fond memories of that week. So that's why I'm holding out hope in that, Oh, I can do the next one in person to agree. Sounds like a mixed bag. Someone who's really gung ho for the in-person and someone who is interested in the flexibility of the virtual option.

00:43:39:21 - 00:44:01:00
Unknown
We've also got a good question about and I'm not sure if either of you have attended the immersion program, but of course, if you have or if you even just attended the College Connect week, what was that like getting vacation time and coordinating that travel? Was that what was that process like for you? I didn't, but I think Lizzie did didn't she?

00:44:01:02 - 00:44:34:01
Unknown
I've done an immersion course, but it wasn't an agile immersion course. It was actually a and I don't know if he's done another one since, but one of our one of the best professors in my mind, Regan Stevenson, he we did a course on disruptive innovation sorry back and I'm in that right now. Actually that was January of 2020 right before COVID craziness.

00:44:34:03 - 00:45:11:06
Unknown
Anyway, it was I would absolutely recommend taking part in some kind of immersion course while you're in the program. I wish that I could have taken one of the actual Agile immersion courses. But, you know, I'm I'm all getting involved in sort of ways that you wouldn't typically. So joining an association, working on a board with an association, taking these kind of immersion courses, it's all it all adds value and makes the program that much richer in my mind.

00:45:11:06 - 00:45:36:00
Unknown
So yeah, I'm I'm doing a dual degree, so I'm also doing the entrepreneurship and innovation and that course that was he's describing I'm in right now and it's been virtualized. Yeah. And I also love readings by the way. So you don't get to go to Vegas. No, it's similar where I have to block like three days on my calendar because we were going to complete the virtual CS then.

00:45:36:03 - 00:45:56:03
Unknown
Yeah, we're doing a full. Yeah, we're doing a virtual same project kind of, but virtual, see. Yes. And so it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. If it's like the COVID class, which coincidentally enough, Regan was instrumental in that classes as well. But I agree with you that one of the things that appealed to me right off the bat was the immersion classes.

00:45:56:03 - 00:46:18:12
Unknown
And I know with my MSEI, I'm going to have some of those. And I know this I was looking forward to before COVID appeared. Regan's doing a lot to try to keep that experience possible, but I know classmates who have done immersion programs, the value that you get, just like Kelley Connect, we just like Lizzie's comment about how you can actually it's it's not a vacation, right?

00:46:18:12 - 00:46:43:20
Unknown
Either you're not going off for a weekend and getting a VIP tour of Google in Ireland. You work it out. And so a couple of my classmates did the India trip last year and they described besides the really long travel to get there how just packed they cover the country in seven or eight days and so they were constantly either moving or working on something and so they loved the experience that it was.

00:46:43:20 - 00:47:05:07
Unknown
Ramesh took everyone to it, thought it was great, but it was a lot of work, too. So I'm with Lizzie. Don't pass up an opportunity to do that if you can. That's a great experience, but be prepared to work out for sure. We have so many good questions. I hope you guys don't mind sticking around a little bit longer.

00:47:05:09 - 00:47:37:02
Unknown
So I have a really insightful question from Brian. If you had the chance to talk to your past self before going into the program, what is the most value added thing that you would tell yourself to get the most of it get involved? I'll just reiterate that again. I think if you just go through the program and take the courses and get the degree and that is great in itself, you'll get a really high value education you really well.

00:47:37:04 - 00:48:22:11
Unknown
But if you get involved and it just adds another dimension to it and you know, I have I have connections with so many more people because of those experiences and those responsibilities that I kind of put on my own plate. It's it has changed sort of my whole outlook, honestly. So I would say get involved. I mean, you don't have to be on an association board, but all of our associations put on events every month where you can kind of meet up with a small group that's, you know, most of them right now are sort of industry or functionally organized.

00:48:22:11 - 00:48:50:12
Unknown
So like the product management Association, there's a business analytics association, but you know, go to those events and get to know the people in the program who either are really interested in something that you do or also do the same thing that you do. You know, you guys can kind of relate or, you know, you can get advice from people if there's something you're looking to to pivot to, there's just a whole bunch of benefit to it.

00:48:50:12 - 00:49:12:03
Unknown
So that would be my advice. And it's something that I don't know that we've got. We are great yet at making sure our new students are super aware of how to do that. So if you're not really ambitious and sort of seeking it out, it might not fall on your plate in enough time to really get what I think you can get out of it.

00:49:12:03 - 00:49:31:12
Unknown
So as a new student, start looking at that right away. That's my advice. Yeah, I would totally agree with that. I can't imagine taking on a leadership role like Lizzie has done, but I also can't imagine not being involved and getting a chance to network and interact with folks in some of the different associations. So definitely I agree with that.

00:49:31:14 - 00:49:53:16
Unknown
The other thing I would add is and it seems like a subtle thing, but take it with all seriousness, do the work. That's the thing that I have found. And the core kind of reinforces as your education builds, there's a reason that you do economics right up front because it plays into even some of the legal and the marketing stuff.

00:49:53:16 - 00:50:16:16
Unknown
There's a reason that finance comes later and is tied to accounting. And so where I struggled and where I saw some of my classmates struggle was, Oh, I know economics, I don't have to dig into that. And then a class or two later you start to reference some of those core concepts and it builds together. And so don't underestimate any bit of work or ask that comes in those classes.

00:50:16:18 - 00:50:39:12
Unknown
Attack it like it's a brand new concept to you because it all builds together. And so doing the work is a really critical thing. And I know like I said, it sounds like a silly thing, but it all relates and it all connects together to the point where your core finishes up with a class that's almost a retrospective on everything you do, a capstone project that relates all of those things that you've touched.

00:50:39:12 - 00:50:57:11
Unknown
And the first thing the professor said on that class was Go grab every set of notes you've ever had and and be prepared to go back and figure out what you liked and didn't like and where you struggled because you're going to call on it in this class. And it was a very true statement. So, so do the work and stick with it no matter how hard it is.

00:50:57:13 - 00:51:21:02
Unknown
No. Very good advice. We are coming up on the hour, so I'm going to ask both of you one final question, which I think is a really interesting one from Kyle. I believe you both slightly mentioned this, but how has the Kelley Direct experience benefited your personal and your professional lives? I mean, for I can take this one.

00:51:21:02 - 00:51:57:12
Unknown
First of all, if you were going so personally, well, gosh, maybe I'm not prepared to take those. I think I do think that it has changed both those aspects of my life in major ways. I think, you know, there's there's kind of the metrics people will typically look at, like, what's your salary now versus when you started or, you know, have you had a promotion or But, you know, I really I those things, to me, they don't require this experience.

00:51:57:12 - 00:52:29:12
Unknown
I mean, you can you can get those things if you work hard enough. But to me, like the emotional intelligence, even this like speaking in front of a large group of people, I mean things that I use to invoke sort of anxiety for me, I've gotten so much better at saying, you know, just saying levelheaded and sort of calm and going through those experiences.

00:52:29:14 - 00:52:51:16
Unknown
I think knowing how much I can do at one time. I mean, when, you know, I'm thinking of like 25 year old me and if I was kind of looking forward ten years and thinking, you're going to be a mom and you're going to go to school and you go to work full time, you know, and you're going to you're going to do all these things.

00:52:51:18 - 00:53:23:17
Unknown
I would have thought like, kill me now, because why bother? Right? But here I am. And I, I have to say, my life is is so awesome now. I mean, just to know what you can accomplish, I think opens a lot of doors and opens a lot of, you know, thought pathways. And I don't know. It's a great experience and it really does change you as a person, not just sort of the things that happen in your life.

00:53:23:19 - 00:53:49:14
Unknown
I think professionally, I mentioned this earlier in my intro. Professionally, I was looking for context, right? I've had I've been fortunate to have a lot of business exposure during my career. And so I think I came hoping to credentials myself and put some context to that. What I found in the journey, it's been very reflective for me. What I found in the journey is that what I really enjoy is that being a lifetime learner and that's the ability to coach and mentor.

00:53:49:14 - 00:54:16:02
Unknown
And and so for me professionally, it's actually and personally it's kind of changed the direction that I was looking for. I think I had come to maybe go and work at a VC or to go and work with entrepreneurs on a regular basis. What I've really become interested in on this journey is maybe becoming a professor myself and taking some of the things that I've experienced and being able to to coach and build folks like myself that are coming into the program and and looking for ways to apply it.

00:54:16:02 - 00:54:33:24
Unknown
So that's what's turned me around. And one of the questions that I answered in the Q&A sorry was was do you have mentors and how do you get connected? And I will tell you, I've mentioned a couple of times in the call, the professors are great folks. They're very open. They'll connect you on LinkedIn, they'll follow up with you.

00:54:33:24 - 00:54:57:17
Unknown
Part of my journey came because one of the professors was a former customer of mine, and I pinged him and asked him how did he get into this? And it became a mentorship. And the conversation that I started having with other professors about how they got into academia, in academia. And so that's how I ended up on this journey was by leaning on those mentors and and enjoying and embracing this experience.

00:54:57:19 - 00:55:22:02
Unknown
That's awesome. Thank you both. We've had so many good questions coming in. And a wonderful note from one of our participants to wish Bill and Lizzy the best of luck in their future success. So thank you so much to our participants for coming today. Thank you so much to Bill and Lizzie for taking so much time out of your day to do this amazing webinar.

00:55:22:02 - 00:55:46:12
Unknown
Have a really good conversation with us. We really appreciate your time. You're so welcome. Happy to help. Enjoy. And good luck. Good luck. Thank you. And if you have any other questions, please shoot an email to us. I've put my personal email there a few times, but you can also send additional questions that we didn't get to at K Direct at IU dot edu.

00:55:46:14 - 00:55:52:13
Unknown
We will be sending out the recording. Thank you for joining us and I hope you have a great rest of your day.

Description of the video:

Description of the video:

Kelley Direct women in business

Description of the video:

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:21:08
Unknown
All right. Welcome, everybody. We're going to go through some information for our international applicants. I do want to just remind everybody that this webinar is more for prospective students. If you are a current student, feel free to reach out directly to us with any questions just to get us started here. We are going to be hearing from Kylie Smith.

00:00:21:09 - 00:00:44:06
Unknown
She's our associate director of admissions and really focuses on international applicants. And then I am Drew Smith. I am the associate director of Interactive recruiting here for Kelley Direct. Hi. So I said, my name is Kylie and I work with our international applicants, and I wanted to start out with a quick explanation of who we consider to be an international applicant.

00:00:44:08 - 00:01:12:12
Unknown
So I u looks at citizenship when they decide who is considered international. So anyone who is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, so have a so having a green card is considered international. So that includes people who are living abroad. That also includes people who are living in the US on an H-1B. Anyone who does not actually have that permanent residency is an international student.

00:01:12:14 - 00:01:35:15
Unknown
So you'll mark yourself as that in the first part of the application and you'll also mark yourself of that in the grad school application, which is the second part of the application. Now, in terms of a basic breakdown, so Kelley Direct has about 20% of our students as international students, which is great. We currently have about 43 non-U.S. countries represented by citizenship.

00:01:35:17 - 00:01:57:05
Unknown
All right. Thank you so much, Kylie. I'm just going to go through a quick breakdown of both our MBA and our MS curriculums. As you can see here are MBA is broken down. It's 54 credit hours broken down into the integrated core courses and fundamentals and electives. Just so you are aware, the core courses are going to be broken down into core one, two and three.

00:01:57:07 - 00:02:23:19
Unknown
Each core ties is made up of six credit hours with two life class sessions per week. Life classes are going to start from either six, seven, 30 or 9 p.m. Eastern. I do want to really stress that the life class assumptions for both the core courses and fundamentals and electives are really important and they're highly engaged. And you definitely want to make sure that you are going to be available.

00:02:23:21 - 00:02:43:06
Unknown
You're always going to be looking at start times between six and 9 p.m. Eastern for those. All right. And then our MS curriculum is going to be made up of 30 credit hours. You are able to complete that anywhere between 15 months and three years. Similar to the MBA classes, though you are going to have live lectures or life class sessions.

00:02:43:08 - 00:03:07:20
Unknown
You're looking at one life class session per week per course. Also with start times between six and 9 p.m. Eastern. So one of the things that really sets Kelley direct apart is that in addition to the interaction you get from our live classes, we also have two residential components. So we have a Kelley on campus and we have a Kelley on location, and those residential components are only once a year.

00:03:07:20 - 00:03:34:05
Unknown
So you're not looking at huge travel commitments and they're typically maybe five days long or so. And that gives us a great opportunity to provide some really hands on experience in terms of working with clients on developing business strategy that may be in an area outside of your personal expertise. Also, there's an opportunity to really develop your leadership skills and strengthen those.

00:03:34:07 - 00:03:59:09
Unknown
So we students tend to really enjoy those opportunities and we're really happy to have a chance to have you get to do those hands on opportunities and meet with your fellow students and faculty face to face and get a chance to do some live networking. Now, as a quick note, so students who are already in the US on an H-1B or another visa can just travel on that visa.

00:03:59:09 - 00:04:33:22
Unknown
There's no separate visa needed. Anyone who's living outside of the US does need a visa to come in for those opportunities and that is something we can work with typically to help you get a temporary I-20 so that you can come in for the week that something will assist you with further along in your application process. But I do just want to make you aware that our Office of International Services, which we'll talk about later, does not recommend that you come in off of A, B one or B two tourist visa.

00:04:33:24 - 00:05:00:16
Unknown
They do recommend that you get the I-20 and come in off of an at one visa, temporary F-1 visa, because you are coming in for that educational opportunity. Are you and Kelley direct you have the number one ranked graduate from our services and that is a really important opportunity for students to take advantage of. And the nice thing is that you have an opportunity to use it both as a students but also with an alumni.

00:05:00:18 - 00:05:24:13
Unknown
So even if you're not looking to make a change right now, maybe you're looking to make a career move three years down the road or five years down the road, and you still have an opportunity to use our great resources. Now we're equipped to help people in several different career paths, so we have some students who are looking to change industries or maybe just make a career move all together.

00:05:24:15 - 00:05:44:11
Unknown
We have students who really love where they are but are looking to move up in their current organization. And we also have students who are looking to make that leap into consulting. And those are all opportunities that we're able to assist with. I think the most important thing that we provide is that we provide one on one career coaching.

00:05:44:13 - 00:06:00:22
Unknown
So you will be assigned a career coach to help you. They can assist with several different things so they can help you if you're looking to make that career move and you don't know where you're going to kind of pick apart what are the parts of your job that you're really interested in? Maybe where can you go from there?

00:06:00:22 - 00:06:31:24
Unknown
Who can you maybe be networking with there? How really in terms of kind of figuring those things out for your next career move, they can help you practice salary, negotiation, those types of things. So in terms of job resources, one thing that we do also have available is that we're connected with companies all over the US, so we're able to provide jobs postings for companies that are really looking to hire Kelley graduates.

00:06:32:01 - 00:06:54:10
Unknown
And that's a great resource for people who are looking inside of the US. Now. We don't want to only provide resources for students within the US because we are cognizant that some of our international students have no interest in coming here and would prefer to be elsewhere in the world. So we do also have job boards that are more focused on international applications.

00:06:54:12 - 00:07:32:21
Unknown
So if you're looking to maybe look in a certain region, so you're looking in Europe or Central Asia or specific countries as well. So like Nigeria or Canada or other places that you're looking into now for those students who are looking to look in the US, one of the resources that we're really happy to provide is some H-1B preparation, as I'm sure you're all aware, if you're looking into that process, H-1Bs are very competitive and one of the things we want to do, if you're interested in going that route, it's really set you up for success because you need to have a good strategy in place.

00:07:32:23 - 00:08:20:08
Unknown
So what we do is we're able to help you figure out lists of companies that traditionally do actually sponsor H-1Bs. So who's hiring traditionally and sponsoring those? What types of jobs are they sponsoring? And so maybe they're sponsoring in cybersecurity, but not marketing. How do I set myself up for success to target those companies? So you really have to be strategic and knowing what companies you're targeting and your career coach, that will be very helpful in terms of helping you figure out what your unique value propositions are and figure out what are you going to be able to provide that company that they're looking for that's unique to you, that's going to set you apart

00:08:20:08 - 00:08:46:07
Unknown
from other applicants? So maybe it's your unique technical skills, maybe it's your language abilities, things like that. They're going to want to make them sponsor you. Now, I do want to be clear that we, of course, cannot provide visas ourselves. That is a U.S. government thing. But we are able, again, to really help you strategize on your career search to help you find those companies that are really hopefully going to want to sponsor you.

00:08:46:09 - 00:09:27:14
Unknown
Now, whether you're looking to do an H-1B or whether you're looking to look at jobs abroad, it's really important to network. And Kelley is blessed in that we are the largest alumni network of any business school. So we have 123,000 living business school alumni, and that's a great resource to take advantage of. Again, whether you're looking domestically or outside of the US, if you're looking to move into particular industries, looking to move into particular companies to really make some connections that will help you gain more information and just get kind of an insider perspective.

00:09:27:16 - 00:09:51:04
Unknown
Now, as I mentioned previously, we do have an Office of International Services. This is because IU has enough international students here on campus that we really want to provide some great resources for students. And what they're able to do is they're able to provide assistance with admissions, they help process visas. So doing I-20 is helping students answer questions about the visa process.

00:09:51:06 - 00:10:14:12
Unknown
For us, one of the most important things they do is they'll do a transcript evaluation, which we'll talk about here in a minute. They utilize a portal system called Atlas that's going to be very important for you, and that's going to be, if you're accepted, one of the first resources you should sign into. And what they do is those contain some essential steps that you really need to start out your program on the right foot.

00:10:14:14 - 00:10:41:02
Unknown
So they'll have a list of things that you need to be doing, including submitting documents that you may still need to submit. You might need to upload or upload passport information and other things that you may need to do to complete out your record with them. Now, in terms of admissions, our admissions process is largely the same for domestic and international students, but there are a few ways it's going to be a little bit different.

00:10:41:04 - 00:11:07:10
Unknown
So one thing that I do want to point out is that IU requires that students have the equivalent of a four year bachelor's degree from the US. So we do have a great website on the office page that has equivalent degrees. So if you're looking for some does mind count does might not count. That's a great resource to look at.

00:11:07:12 - 00:11:41:06
Unknown
And our Office of International Services does do the evaluation themselves. So that's a really great resource in terms of not having to pay to get a website evaluation or some other nations evaluation. We do have a transcript. Evaluators here on campus, they are able to do the evaluation. Now, typically what we'll do is we'll start with a copy of your documents because getting official documents from other countries can take a little while and our Office of International Services can start to do the evaluation off of those copies of records.

00:11:41:08 - 00:12:06:04
Unknown
And once they're done with that, they can pass it on to our ambitions committee. Assuming all your other parts are in, we're able to make what's called a conditional admissions decision and let you know whether you're accepted so you're able to plan your next steps. Now, that being said, if you're accepted and you do decide to attend our program, we do require official records from anyone is actually a student at IU.

00:12:06:06 - 00:12:35:10
Unknown
So then you would want to work with us at our Office of International Services to get your official transcripts and records. And now the other thing that is a little bit different is that if you're from a non U.S. speaking country, you are required to submit an English language exam. So we accept any of the following three we accept Duolingo English test, TOEFL and IELTS so that gives you a lot of opportunities to see are you wanting to test at a testing center?

00:12:35:10 - 00:13:03:22
Unknown
Are you wanting to test at home? There's plenty of at home options that are great. And also look at what other schools are you applying to. If you're applying to other schools, there may be, Oh, we only accept emails or things like that. We personally, again, we take any of the three. We don't have a preference, although if you're looking to take one for the first time, I will say that Duolingo is a great option for people looking for easy testing at home.

00:13:03:24 - 00:13:34:09
Unknown
So to continue while they're testing a little bit, we do require two different tests so all students are required to take the GMAT or GRC. We don't have a preference on either or and we take either at a testing center or online. There's online versions of both. Now to now there are potential waivers available to qualified candidates, and that's something that you can request to be considered for when you're filling out part one of the application.

00:13:34:11 - 00:13:54:00
Unknown
There's a box that you would check that says, Yes, I'd like to be considered for a waiver. You would upload a current resume and typically after you do your interview, our admissions committee would review it to see if we're able to waive in your situation or if we still need a test score. In terms of the English proficiency exams.

00:13:54:00 - 00:14:19:12
Unknown
We also do have some waivers to qualified candidates. If you have a bachelor's degree or higher that was taught in English, you are eligible to potentially be waived out of that requirement as well. So in terms of preparing for the application process and and potentially starting the program, there's a few things that you should be working on. So one is that you should be establishing your support network.

00:14:19:14 - 00:14:44:22
Unknown
So talking to your family, talking to people who are going to be able to help make sure that, let's say if you have kids that the nights you have classes, maybe they're handling the kids bedtimes or talk to your boss about, hey, maybe if I'm in a time zone that requires me to take classes during my normal work hours, I can shut my office door, take a class, and then stay late or come in early to make up my class times.

00:14:44:24 - 00:15:05:03
Unknown
So you need to really establish those support networks. And again, the live class sessions, as you said, are very important. And we do think you're missing out a lot if you're not there. So we really encourage you to figure out how that's going to fit in. What kind of time zone difference are you looking at? Is this going to be something you do before work, something you do after work?

00:15:05:05 - 00:15:31:15
Unknown
Figure out just kind of where it fits into your schedule and how that's going to work for you to make sure that this is a good fit. And in terms of gathering documents. So you'll need for the second part of the application, which is the formal part of the application, you will need a current professional resume, you'll need a personal statement, and that'll go over your academic goals, your career goals, and why you think you're a good fit for the program.

00:15:31:17 - 00:15:57:06
Unknown
You'll also submit contact information for three references, and those will be professional references. People who just know your work well and are able to talk about your professional abilities. We also do you require, again, official transcripts or other academic records, again, understanding that it is possible to go through a conditional admission first and start with copies if it's going to take a while for your official records to get here.

00:15:57:08 - 00:16:25:16
Unknown
You also want to look at how are you going to pay for this program? You know, education is very important. We have a great return on investment. But look at, okay, how am I going to look at this? We do have merit based scholarships that all students are automatically considered for, and that certainly something that you can look into if you are offered one, it would be in your decision letter so you would know right away and be able to take that into account in your planning.

00:16:25:18 - 00:16:48:00
Unknown
But what other options maybe can you use as well? So one option that many students use and is a nice thing that you'll want to talk to your h.r. Officer boss and see if that might be available for you. Is that does your employer provide any tuition assistance? That is great money that your employer can potentially help you with.

00:16:48:00 - 00:17:13:07
Unknown
And i would never turn that down. I would always look into those options and try to see how you can reduce the cost as much as you can. So thank you so much. Kylie. You were great at providing a lot of the resources that are available to our international students just to move along with the webinar. We do have a current student and an alarm that we're able to kind of give us some insights within being in the program and their time after.

00:17:13:07 - 00:17:34:18
Unknown
So we do have a couple of prerecorded videos here for you to check out. We're going to start with Livy. She is a current KD student. Hi Livy. I really appreciate you joining me on this call today and talking a little bit about your experience with Tele directs. Just to get started, do you want to tell me a little bit about yourself?

00:17:34:20 - 00:18:01:19
Unknown
Yeah, I think it's a myself. It's very simple. And I'm from Shanghai, China, and I currently working daytime surveys in MasterCard. Yeah, the MasterCard the is the brand now your credit and debit card. Yeah. And though our department has both provided the loyalty solutions to banks and margins and I work as a program manager in the Iowa department.

00:18:01:19 - 00:18:25:24
Unknown
Yeah and I have a four year old as a only one. So yeah. Well, I want to as well. I'm sure that going to the program with the child can be a little difficult at times, but also setting a really good example. Speaking of that, will you just kind of tell me a little bit about where you are in the program and kind of what your plan of study is?

00:18:26:01 - 00:18:53:04
Unknown
Well, okay. So I enrolled in Kelley direct fall of 2020 and I’m going to take the course this spring. So my progress is a little bit too slow because I plan to finish the program in four years instead of two. And I also plan to do an extra year for the second degree. Yeah. Awesome. What degree are you doing?

00:18:53:06 - 00:19:13:02
Unknown
Oh, the business analytics. Yeah. Well, that just is a really good point on how flexible the program is and it does allow you to kind of slow down a little bit and take it in four years rather than the two. That's the typical plan of study. Can you explain a little bit what it is like to complete the program?

00:19:13:02 - 00:19:42:09
Unknown
in another time zone obviously is significantly ahead of us here in the Eastern Time Zone? Yeah, to be honest, it's very challenging, you know, So at first I need to get used to the different time zone. So in order to get to the live session time right. I set every course in my calendar. So. So that's why I couldn't know what is the time of the class, especially, you know, for US you have different so awesome.

00:19:42:09 - 00:20:05:19
Unknown
Oh, a lot of my classmates, they are in different parts of the U.S. so they also have a lot of time zones themselves like Eastern Time, on those other Central Time and also the U.S. time. So has the wintertime and the summertime. Yeah, very, very complicated for me. So. So yeah. So the first thing I do is is gathered the calendar to help me.

00:20:05:21 - 00:20:31:24
Unknown
And the second thing is a lot of my class, especially the live session, they are in the early morning for me. Some classes are as early as 6 a.m. so you ordered. You should get myself a custom and shoot these to these early early morning courses before I know the program. I just just thought you are just a my bio clock.

00:20:32:01 - 00:20:51:24
Unknown
So for now, every day I get up at 6 a.m. and though for the days I don't have class, I would adjust plots before I go to work. Yeah. So this is how I get used to all of these. But, but this program is so good to see because it really gets me in the in the right bio clock.

00:20:51:24 - 00:21:21:06
Unknown
So when I need to sleep early so I put together by early. Yeah. And also for the whole program as they happens in the early mornings. So it will not have a lot of conflict with my working time but to be honest, there are a lot of readings and the videos you need to watch. So for international students, especially for me, the English is not the native language.

00:21:21:08 - 00:21:51:16
Unknown
So I need I need more time on finish all of these three class work. So in order to do this, I really need to make full use of the fragmented time. And for now, every day I need to take 2 hours every day, two or four full commute. So every so every week I have 10 hours. So all of these readings and the watching videos are done during during the commute.

00:21:51:18 - 00:22:16:17
Unknown
Yeah. So, so in this way I also have no conflict with my work and the family time. You have really provided a lot of really great information and I really appreciate it. One thing that I think will really help out some prospective students though, is just kind of understanding why you chose Kelley Direct. Yeah, I think that the reason why she was carried away way is very similar to others.

00:22:16:23 - 00:22:40:23
Unknown
So for us, I don't want to quit my full time job. So the full time mediator going to work for me and also for the part time MBA, I can't guarantee the time. So the only the only program with a B, the only choice for me. And after that I did a lot of research on the internet and I find that Kelley Direct is one of the top five programs globally.

00:22:41:00 - 00:23:04:02
Unknown
So these are the ranking by the Financial Times, the U.S., and also the U.S. News and World. And after that, I need to check the time zone. Yeah, again, the time zone is very important. So the Kelley Direct has the least a conflict of ways. My work and the rest are the sleeping time. So. So this is another reason why I chose Kelley.

00:23:04:02 - 00:23:37:20
Unknown
Right. And the after I browsed the information on on the Kelley website and I found that it's really a very perfect program because with an extra 12 credits, you're going to get a second master's degree. So it also can help save my time and money. Yeah, my time on the money, on the on the two degree. And also because of the flexibility, I could have finished one in four years.

00:23:37:22 - 00:24:16:04
Unknown
Actually, I'm very busy in my work work days, so if I could slow down my pace and it, it would be very helpful or it would be very stressful for me to do, even though it's all my program here, it's very stressful. Yeah. And I think the last reason, yeah, the last year is a that my I'm working on an international company and who's had had two careers in U.S. right so so I think you could have helped me to better understand the Western culture so they could help me to enhance my communication with my global team.

00:24:16:06 - 00:24:42:07
Unknown
Yeah. So this is the reason why I chose Kelley. Awesome. Well, again, I really appreciate all of the help that you've given me here and all of the great information, and I want to wish you luck throughout the rest of your program. This has been a really great conversation. Thank you so much, Larry. Yeah, thanks. Awesome. And now we are going to hear from Nicholas, who is a KD alum.

00:24:42:09 - 00:24:50:02
Unknown
He's going to give us some great information on his time on the program and his time after graduation.

00:24:50:04 - 00:25:16:09
Unknown
Hello, everyone. My name is Nicholas and Shame. And I want to share with you my experiences online MBA programs at the Kelley School of Business. Actually, I'm a Lebanese entrepreneur who managed 11 years ago to launch a firm active in the field of enterprises planning and the beginning of studying engineering in my country, Lebanon, and later on earned a master's in management from France.

00:25:16:11 - 00:25:43:24
Unknown
I was also interested to store an American degree because it will complement my profile while giving me more credentials at work. Of course, I could not disconnect from my work and duties, and that MBA program had to be studied in part through the online delivery option. A quick research led me to the Kelley School of Business. After looking at international ranking and program's reputation.

00:25:44:01 - 00:26:17:14
Unknown
That was my first experience in online studies, and my satisfaction was full for many reasons. At first, the program was structured in an optimal way and I was able to browse and search back all courses, content, communication, references and posts in a very smooth way. Any course would include theoretical content, online sessions, practical examples, group discussions, etc. making it flexible and very diversified.

00:26:17:16 - 00:26:48:19
Unknown
The content of the program was also very rich. As an IT guy, I was surprised to find many electives that relate to technology affecting businesses like the AI, machine learning, big data I.T, innovation and strategy and so on. All courses also included exercises, both asynchronous and asynchronous sessions was possibilities to communicate with teachers and get a quick support.

00:26:48:21 - 00:27:24:23
Unknown
The terms used for the program delivery was very efficient. For instance, I could browse a profile of people within the same class, read about you and your resume and groups along with the ability to launch online meetings with them through an automated tool. As a matter of fact, my learning greatly improved with the program and I was able to leverage the knowledge later on gained through the program in a focus area, which was the machine learning hands, I was able to launch a new entrepreneurship activity in a successful way.

00:27:25:00 - 00:27:53:23
Unknown
Finally, I wish you everybody the best in your educational plan. All right. So I want to thank highly again for all of the great information and resources that she provided about the program that's available to our international applicants. I'm going to just kind of briefly touch on some of our upcoming deadlines. So for the fall of 2022, you do have a priority application deadline of May 1st with the final application deadline of June 1st.

00:27:54:00 - 00:28:14:02
Unknown
The difference here is going to be a scholarship scholarship consideration. Like Kylie mentioned, we do have merit based scholarships that are available to our applicant, so I would highly suggest getting all of your materials in by May 1st and then your class start date is going to be August 22nd. And then just kind of a final slide here.

00:28:14:04 - 00:28:31:23
Unknown
You do have a link to phase one of the application. Phase one is free and only takes a few minutes to complete. Once you're able to get that done, that's actually where you'll hear back from Kylie, who will reach out to you to go ahead and set up an interview. I think I want to thank everybody again for attending.

00:28:32:00 - 00:28:49:11
Unknown
If you have any questions for us, you can email that to kdirect@iu.edu down in the bottom corner again, just thank you all for attending and I'd like to thank Kylie and our students and alumni panelist as well. Thanks. Have a great day.

Description of the video:

Military Benefits

Description of the video:

Kelley Direct community members discuss the program's domestic and global immersion experiences. Watch for insights from current students that have traveled to locations in the US and abroad.