Online Careers in Education

Harvard Business SchoolHBX emphasizes interaction among its students.This week, Harvard Business School launched an innovative new online education program to the public that it thinks is so far ahead of free online courses that it's worthy of a $1, 500 price tag.

The 11-week pre-MBA program called CORe accepts about 500 students and is taught in the school's signature case-study method. The first official session started on Feb. 25, and applications are open for spring and summer sessions.

CORe is made up of three courses — economics for managers, business analytics, and financial accounting — and primarily targets young professionals with liberal arts backgrounds who aspire to rise to management or are considering getting an MBA.

Students who pass the program receive a certificate that carries the weight of one from HBS's executive education program.

HBX chair Bharat Anand tells Business Insider that most online course offerings are still in their infancy, where long video lectures posted alongside multiple choice questions is the norm.

Conversely, HBX CORe is built on a proprietary platform that uses the case-study technique that distinguishes HBS. "This has some very interesting and exciting potential for education, " Anand says.

It started as a way to find an online tool to address the "non trivial" 20% to 30% of students accepted to HBS's MBA program who lacked the necessary background in "the language of business": accounting, economics, and data analysis. These students always had access to a two-week primer before matriculating in the fall, but Anand says the short time was insufficient for achieving a thorough understanding, and traveling to HBS's campus before the school year officially starts could be an inconvenience for many students.

HBXThe CORe program includes three courses that represent the "language of business."

So Anand and his team decided to create a thorough, 10-week course (an extra week has since been added) based on the three elements of the case-study method: engaging in real-world problem solving, beginning with actual problems managers face rather than theory; active learning, in which a student is not given the chance to doze off as a lecturer drones on; and social learning, which allows students to learn from each other.