ThE ChAnGinG FACE oF
DISTAnCE
lEArnInG
»Jonathan Calens talks to Dr richard Thompson
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What we hear time and again
to which all the degree programs align; we will train students to be ef-
from our employers and prospective
fective communicators, and ethical decision makers, with the ability to
work in teams and lead groups.
employers is that they want people
who can communicate and lead.
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The higher outcomes mentioned by many schools are actually our
founding principles and these also drive the MBAs specifically: so in
talking about the value proposition, the initial statement therein is that
students will graduate with the professional competencies and capabili-
Introduction
ties required for business leaders today and tomorrow. Simply put, we
are really talking about being able to write and communicate effectively,
The story behind Jones international university® (Jiu®) is an make ethical decisions and have a global awareness. All of these factors
interesting one. Can you talk to us about how Jiu started?Our are built into the program.
founder and chancellor, Glenn R. Jones, has devoted much of his life
to his passionately held belief that education should be available to ev- Most MBAs will have core courses allowing the majority of people to
eryone, everywhere. A cable magnate, Jones in 1987 launched the cable take a subject of choice such as accounting, marketing etc. and you will
television network Mind Extension University™ (ME/U™), which en- find that here as well. However, what we hear time and again from our
abled 30,000 students to take courses from more than 30 colleges and employers and prospective employers is that they want people who can
universities via television. In the nascence of the Internet, Jones foresaw communicate and lead. Accordingly, we have built those concepts into
the potential and started JIU in 1993 – the first university anywhere to the course work. We evaluate and make it part of the assignments, so
exist completely online. the students come back to these large concepts time and again as they
work on some of the more specific business knowledge and skills.
Despite the naysayers, Jones knew in his heart that this was the future
of education. So it was with great pride that, in 1999, JIU became the Some schools prefer to use senior faculty members when teach-
first fully online university in the U.S. to be accredited by the Higher ing courses. is this something that you advocate at Jiu? Again,
Learning Commission, and a member of the North Central Associa- we work somewhat differently here at Jones International University.
tion. Since then, we have continued to develop and expand our degree We are first and foremost a teaching university. Even though we offer
programs – all of which are designed to meet the needs of busy profes- programs at the Doctorate level, for example in Education and Business
sionals eager to shape their futures. Administration, the degrees are very practitioner focused. As such, we
are really looking for experienced practitioner faculty who can teach.
Kindly define the Jiu’s mBA value proposition? The University’s
value proposition is founded on the fact that we are 100% online: Instead of having tenure faculty we have contract faculty, many of them hav-
designed to work well and function at the highest levels as an online ing taught on and off for us for 7or 8 years. We expect them to have terminal
school. The MBA itself has adopted many of the initial underlying degrees, and at least 3 to 5 years experience in their particular industry. So for
propositions put forth by Glenn Jones concerning what a University us the term ‘senior faculty’ refers to people who have a pedigree in our line of
should deliver and to this end, we have a set of institutional outcomes education, and have terminal degrees and industry experience.
58 | CEO
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