This study examines factors important for students selecting an online MBA. Georgia WebMBA current students and alumni participated in the study, which looked at flexibility, employment benefits and programme quality. Results suggest that flexibility is significant for current online MBA students. Additionally, respondents felt there would be a significant benefit to them in terms of their employment. Finally, alumni of the WebMBA programme reported a significantly higher-quality rating than current students, though AACSB accreditation was a critical factor for both groups. Results suggest that programme directors should stress flexibility, employment benefits and programme quality to potential applicants.

This study examines characteristics important to online MBA students and alumni. The study looks at what characteristics are important in an online MBA Program and if the level of importance of these characteristics varies by demographic variables. The study focuses on availability, program quality, program length, cost, and courses in the curriculum. The results suggest that the importance of characteristics in a MBA program falls into three tiers. The most important characteristic is availability. The next tier of importance is quality, program length, and cost. There is no significant difference in importance among these three characteristics, but they are all significantly lower in importance than availability. The final characteristic is courses as this is rated significantly lower than the other characteristics in terms of importance. The research also examined if there were differences in importance characteristics by gender, age, years’ work experience and income and found while the basic order rankings were very similar across the different demographic variables, there were a few differences among demographic groups. Women rated as quality, length, and courses at a higher level of importance than men did. Finally, those with more years work experience rated availability at a significantly higher level of importance than those with fewer years work experience.