Motivational Factors, Characteristics, and Computer Skills of MBA Students in Web-Based Courses

Not everyone is necessarily suited for, or is comfortable with, participating in courses offered over the World Wide Web. This recent form of asynchronous distance learning is being implemented or considered by a number of business schools, often with no consideration or knowledge of the market. In this paper, in order to begin a characterization of the market, we investigate the motivations, characteristics, and skills of MBA students who had a choice of regular classroom or Web based classes and chose web-based classes. We find that they are motivated more by convenience and necessity, or the same average age and gender proportions as regular MBA students, predominately technically trained as undergraduates, working in predominately technical fields and possessing average to strong computer skills.