MBA Cohort/Distance education options

Lincoln University offers an option to take its MBA program outside of the campus. The distant MBA program has same program admissions requirements, learning outcomes, program composition, courses content, academic progress, and graduation requirements as the on-campus MBA program. The program differs from the on-campus version as a modular vs semester teaching with some admission procedures and required course sequencing. Modular programs may be offered on-campus for cohort groups.

Lincoln University distant MBA program is a cohort track program. A cohort is a group of students who work together through their academic program. Students in the cohort track program follow the same course sequence taking the same courses at the same time. The courses are taught sequentially one after another and a cohort may start at any time when enough students enroll. When applying to the online MBA program, students select the cohort to join. Cohorts may have different start dates, application deadlines, and concentrations offered. Students must familiarize themselves with cohort schedule and course progression and submit application by the cohort-specific deadline.

Lincoln University may postpone the cohort start if the number of students in a cohort is below the minimum of 12 students. In this case, students will be notified of the change in schedule and offered alternative start dates.

During the cohort track program admission process, students select a preferred module start date from available options. Once admitted, students are pre-registered for the indicated module. If the number of enrolled students for the selected module is below the required minimum, students are notified of the module cancelation and offered alternative module start dates. The registration is completed with the payment of module tuition no later than one week before the module start date. Students are notified of the subsequent modules as soon as the schedule becomes available.

The following is the process of module registration:

1. Students are informed about the module start date as soon as the schedule becomes available (for new students-during the admission process).
2. Student must complete tuition payment for a module no later than one week before the module start date.
3. Students will receive course access information at least three business days before the start of the instruction.

Students may defer enrollment of a module. To do this, students must notify the Registrar Office of their request no later than 2 weeks before the module start date. If available, students may select another module start date. If alternative module start dates have not been scheduled at the time of deferral, students are put on a module waitlist and notified of new module start dates as soon as they become available. A course may be missed or retaken due to documented or academic reasons; the program director should approve the revised schedule.

A typical cohort MBA program consists of four modules. The first two modules cover all core courses except for the capstone course (BA 390 – Business Strategy and Decision-Making). The third module is dedicated to concentration courses. The fourth module includes the capstone course and a research project/internship report/case study course. Students may request a deferral for a module registration. To do so, students must send a written request for a deferral to the Registrar’s Office. Deferral of module registration may require students to wait until the necessary module is offered again, which may increase the length of time to program completion.

The content of each topic is introduced through eLearning modules (recorded video/presentations and online assessment) developed, sequenced, and led by course instructor, approximately 0.5 hour per topic. It is presented via PowerPoint style visual presentation accompanied by recorded explanations by the instructor. The modules contain frequent understanding checks and assessment activities, the results of which inform instructors about the quality of learning.

For each topic, the instructor assigns approximately 2 hours of reading (from textbook and additional materials). The information learned through eLearning modules and additional reading is then practiced and discussed via online forum-style discussions. Students post their responses to the prompt and comment on responses of their classmate.

The finer details, case study discussions, and applications of learned material are discussed during live sessions with the instructor (1 hour per topic). Then students have an opportunity to receive clarifications, ask questions, and discuss material with their classmates and an assistant instructor.

Students dedicate approximately 2.5 hours per topic to the completion of assignments. The assignments are designed to give students and opportunity to practice the application of the material discussed in course. Instructors provide detailed feedback to the submitted assignments.

Approximately 1.5 hours per topic of out-of-class study time is dedicated to the group or individual work on preparing the course project. The course project constitutes a major part of the course grade and culminates in online presentation.

Students enrolled in the cohort MBA program are expected to maintain their grades corresponding to the policy of satisfactory progress (pages 29-31) and the following chart. The chart specifies the criteria for achieving satisfactory progress excluding transfer units in the university MBA degree program based on the allowable number of module credit hours attempted (part-time students are evaluated proportionally to the taken part of a program; foundation courses are not included in SAP; students who changed their program will be evaluated on all courses taken).

*    Units attempted means courses’ units for which the students have incurred a financial obligation or for which any university scholarship funds have been disbursed.