Being an AU MBA student

Weekly: on average 20 to 25 hours
Full Program: 2.5 to 3 years*
*Those in the Accelerated, Accounting or Supply Chain programs will finish sooner.

Weekly commitment

The Athabasca University online MBA for executives is a rigorous and challenging program, and will demand much from you in terms of personal commitment and time. Expect to spend on average 20 to 25 hours per week on readings, course work, discussions, group assignments, and individual assignments. The time you spend on each course may vary somewhat depending on your aptitude for and familiarity with subject matter.

Daily commitment

To be successful, AU MBA students must actively engage in online discussions on an almost daily basis. The program’s collaborative, peer-learning oriented format demands that you be present and contributing within the learning environment roughly five to six days per week—cramming on weekends will not work. Often students struggle with this time commitment during the first and second course, but once schedules and routines are established, finding the best times and places to fit school around life become easier.

Program completion time

Most students complete the MBA in two and one half to three years. It is possible to complete the MBA in less than two and a half years, however, this will require a significant time commitment beyond 20 to 25 hours per week for portions of your studies. Students can take up to five years to complete the MBA should they need to.

Course scheduling

With the exception of some elective courses, all MBA courses are eight weeks long and are separated by a minimum of a two-week break. Courses are taken one at a time, allowing you to dive deeply into one topic area at a time while also ensuring that you can balance your student life with your professional and personal lives.

Time and location are barriers to participation for many students when it comes to classroom based learning. At traditional bricks-and-mortar schools, you have to organize your life around set school hours. At Athabasca, you can schedule your school hours to fit the rest of your life.

The AU MBA is online, asynchronous, and paced:
What does exactly does all that mean?

Online

All of your course activities take place in one course environment that you can access on your laptop, home computer, work computer, tablet, even your smartphone if need be. Everything you need to read, discuss, collaborate, and submit work will be organized in one spot.

Asynchronous

We have students and academics across Canada and around the world engaged in learning and teaching 24 hours a day. Asynchronous learning means you are never required to be online at a certain date and time. You can complete your work, contribute to discussions, and ask questions of your professor at any time as long as you meet your deadlines.

Paced

Too much flexibility can be as bad as not enough. AU’s paced courses have set start and end dates, with assignment deadlines and requirements for group work and collaboration within each course to keep you on track. In short, they are just like regular university classes, minus the trip to the classroom.

Online / offline

Whether you are in Saskatoon or Singapore, at home, or over the ocean on a flight, you can engage with others and never worry about missing a lecture. Our robust learning environment is key to providing flexibility as it allows you to work on or offline, meaning you can draft your contribution to discussions while working remotely and upload once you can connect to the Internet again.

You control when and where

You are expected to contribute 20 to 25 hours per week on average to your studies over roughly five to six days per week, but the when and where is completely up to you: early mornings, over your lunch hour, after work, even into the wee hours of the night – what works for you works for us.

In-residence electives are delivered with a blend of online and face-to-face formats. They are 10-week 6-credit courses, each containing 5 days of very intense face-to-face instruction.

The in-person format is usually 5 days long and held in a major Canadian city.

The delivery method may vary depending on the elective course. Students are expected to be present and available for the synchronous component/activity in the course.

6-credit in-residence electives are designed for completion over a ten-week period. This typically requires students to complete preparatory work consisting of readings, participation in course applications, and a short assignment in the first three weeks, followed by an intensive week-long, in-residence session. In most cases, in-residence courses will focus on both individual and group work and, in all cases, will require completion of an individual assignment during the four weeks following the in-residence week.

Please visit the current elective schedule for more information.

Athabasca University online MBA for executives students are experienced managers with interesting and diverse backgrounds across many different industries, sectors, countries, and cultures. This diversity of opinion and life experience adds depth to the program’s curriculum, and helps students understand how theories can be applied in a variety of contexts.

Why do you think the way you think?

Expect to engage in daily discussions with students in your group throughout each course. And expect to be challenged to examine and explain why you think the way you think.

In any AU MBA course, participation in group discussions will count for up to 40% of your grade, and is based on:

1. How you think through and respond to questions posed by other students and your academic coach,
2. How you help others understand your point of view by sharing insights and examples from your own experiences, and
3. How you integrate others’ points of view and experiences, as well as new theoretical knowledge, into your overall management perspective—in other words, how you demonstrate that you are developing and maturing as a senior manager and leader.

All voices heard equally

Your identity as an MBA student at Athabasca—how you are perceived by other students and your professors—is not based on how old or young you are, or your gender, or ethnicity, or physical abilities. You are known by the way you think. What matters is the strength of your arguments, how you connect academic theories and concepts to your organizational issues, and, most importantly, that you effectively share ideas and thoughts with your peers.

A chance to think things through

Your first answer isn’t always your best answer. That is one of the challenges with a traditional MBA classroom model and the inherent competition between students to answer questions and participate. At AU, interaction and peer learning are not constrained time or location, and neither is your ability to fully think through problems or collaborate on solutions. You can always revisit what you have said and add nuance, examples, even change your opinion.

Better questions, better answers

Your academic coaches have the same advantage. When you ask a question, they do not have to answer immediately with their ‘top of mind’ answer. They can think a few minutes, maybe even go and look something up before they respond. That gives you a better answer too.

We believe that having time—to think and reflect, to craft a response, or to make sure you understand someone else’s argument—is of fundamental importance to your studies and will help move you beyond simple memorization to mastery.

Design your AU MBA experience

Whether you are looking to increase your expertise in a particular field or branch out into new disciplines, the AU MBA can help you customize your experience to fit your unique learning objectives.

1) Use your own work scenarios as case studies

Within almost all core courses, weekly discussions and individual assignments are focused on connecting your learning directly to your company and your industry. Our goal is to move you beyond imagining what you “might” do within a scenario and instead help you connect your learning to what is happening in the real world and in your workplace. You will come away from each course with tangible and usable knowledge and abilities. You will also have a series of deliverables you can take back to your organization. This is perhaps most significant way you can tailor the MBA experience to your goals.

2) Select a stream or design a customised path tailored to your goals

Electives are available on a wide variety of subject areas and are delivered in online as well as in blended online/in residence formats held across Canada. You can choose to concentrate on one topic area or mix things up and take courses from different streams. The following streams are available:

• IT and Digital Strategy Stream
• Strategy, Organizational Behaviour, and Leadership Stream
• Technology, Innovation, and Operations Stream
• Finance, Economics, and Banking Stream
• Customized Stream

The Capstone project

To conclude the program, you will complete a 6-credit capstone project, designed to integrate learning across all phases and apply it to a real-world strategic business challenge. The capstone integrates strategic problem-solving with leadership reflection, enabling leaders to address a real business challenge while critically examining their own decision-making, leadership approach, and strategic mindset.

As with any university, your current course professor will be your main point of contact at any given time. However, at AU, there are many others working to ensure you have a positive and successful graduate school experience.

Your professors

Core Faculty members teach, conduct research, and lead academic disciplines within AU’s undergraduate and graduate programs. They shape the overall direction of the AU online MBA for executives, and oversee course and coaching quality for all core and elective courses within their academic specialization.

Academic Coaches work with small groups of eight to ten students in each course, ensuring a high standard of student-academic interaction. We call them academic coaches because their job is not to teach in the traditional sense, but rather to facilitate active discussion and collaboration among students. They guide conversations and provide insights, tools, or new information to help clarify points or themes. Most academic coaches are PhD qualified (master’s degree minimum) and all have significant industry experience. Many are full time faculty members at other universities.

Graduate enrolment advisors

All AU MBA students are assigned a Graduate Enrolment Advisor upon acceptance into the program. Your advisor becomes your main administrative contact and works with you throughout your program to help you manage your schedule and meet your degree requirements. When your job demands or other life issues get too big even for an online study schedule, your advisor will help you find the best way through. Your advisor generally stays the same throughout the life of your program

Library

The AU Library supports students in AU courses by collecting online, print and audiovisual resources in subject areas taught at the university, and making these available to the AU community. You can access the following services:

1. A massive collection of online full-text journal databases, e-books and other electronic collections.
2. AUCAT, the online catalogue of library materials and borrow materials from the AU Library collection.
3. Library assistance and instruction from staff at the Library Information Desk.
4. Interlibrary loans (ILL) for journal articles and book chapters.