Wharton MBA courses online!

[Anil Paranjape]

Guys,

Wharton has put some of their core, foundation courses online and free for everyone.  This is not just passive content but actual courses taught by the same world-renowned faculty.  I don't know which courses are online (have no intention of taking them again :-)  but if you're interested, you should definitely check them out.

It's not always that you get an opportunity to take a MOOC (Massively Open Online Course) from the best business school in the world (yes, I am a Wharton alum but it's not just me saying it, many reputed lists do! :-)

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-13/wharton-puts-first-year-mba-courses-online-for-free#r=read

Enjoy.  Hope it helps you.  Any info or questions about these courses, I am not the right guy to answer.  If you are considering a Wharton MBA, however, I will be happy to help (no, I am not their official rep or anything)

thx

anil

 

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Anil M. Paranjape

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[Anil Paranjape]

Hi Kshitij,

MOOCs will most likely not be considered very highly by employers, at least not as of now.  What you learn by going to school with other students is priceless.  For example, one of my classmates at Wharton was a guy who was responsible for fulfillment at Amazon!  You cannot get a bigger fulfillment guy than that.  What you learn from such friends about OR is more than anything you can ever learn in a course!  I was the only Intel guy in the class and one of our case studies happened to be (quite accidentally) something that I was deeply involved with.  That day, my classmates, for the first time in their lives, realized that Intel is first a manufacturing company and then a design company, something that most people do not realize.  Another classmate sold his startup, while we were in school, to Juniper Networks for a cool $3.5 billion!  Another classmate has had the unique job of carrying the briefcase containing the nuclear launch codes that the US president carries with him 24 hours!  Another one was a nuclear submarine commander.  The founder of one of the earliest search engines in the world (that he sold to Hotbot, anyone remember that? Much before google!) who was not a techie but a Harvard lawyer.  A cool 20-something that had jumped into the dotcom bubble right after school, built one of the most talked-about dotcoms in the world which was the poster-child of dotcoms that had stratospheric valuations and spectacular busts etc etc.  The list just goes on and on and on...  What you learn from such guys is just priceless that no regular class, forget a MOOC, can ever give you.

Having said that, you learn a lot from courses too.  I know, I did!  Surprisingly, one of the most insightful classes at Wharton was Managerial Accounting!  I had never imagined that accounting could be so interesting.  I learned a lot about cost accounting but more importantly, I learned how to make informed, data-driven decisions!  The classes on economics were fantastic.  So were the accounting classes (plain vanilla accounting) because of the fascinating ways that Enron, Worldcom and many others swindled all of us.  You will be surprised how much you learn in courses, beyond the syllabus, if you learn with an open mind and always ask yourself, "I have learned something new.  Now where is this applicable?".  I bet you will find many places where you can apply that knowledge... way beyond and outside the scope of the classes.  That's the magic of taking classes at a top school from some of the most celebrated and renowned (for their knowledge and original thought) professors.

Sorry for the somewhat long-winded answer but my advice is to take such classes for the pure joy of learning something fantastic from a fantastic school and hopefully a fantastic online group of classmates.  Don't worry about the employers.  When you benefit, you will know.  When you know, they will know.  And when they know, you will benefit :-)

Enjoy,

anil

On Tue, Sep 17, 2013 at 3:26 PM, kshitij mehta <kam2...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Anil for sharing the insight.I have a question.In terms of personal growth I understand. MOOCs are fantastic but how highly do employers value MOOCs? Do they consider the courses valid in terms of education/experience/skills?Can these courses take place of a full time degree?

Just wanted to know your perceptive

Thanks

Kshitij