Mediaboss Marketing

By Jeff Schmitt

(Poets&Quants) -- So you want an MBA, but you can't afford to take two years off and invest upwards of a quarter of a million on tuition, books, living expenses, and lost wages?

Boy, do I have a proposition for you.

Now, it's a little unconventional. And it'll require a load of self-discipline. When it's over, you'll have an Ivy League education on your resume. And it won't cost you a cent.

Sound too good to be true? Maybe it is.But I got your attention. And that's one of the first things you learn in a foundational marketing class. And one of the world's best business schools -- Wharton -- offers one of those for free through a MOOC.

MOOCs -- an acronym for massive open online courses -- are courses that can be accessed globally over the Internet. Thanks to their flexibility, students covet them.

It can be hard to describe what a MOOC is. To paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart, you "know it when you see it." Most MOOCs rely on set start and end dates, though a few are self-paced. They can be scaled to accommodate tens-of-thousands or just a select community. Occasionally, students can earn grades and college credit through MOOCs. Mostly, though, students receive a certificate of completion.

Tests can be proctored, but many MOOCs rely on the honor system. Textbooks are often optional (though some courses come with eBooks and downloadable software). Although professors deliver content through videos and PowerPoint in MOOCs, many engage with students on message boards in realtime (and even keep office hours for online students). Although MOOCs are grounded in distance education, many students form regionally based online communities.

Still, there is one characteristic that marks all MOOCs: They are available to anyone. And that's why they're booming. Sure, many MOOCs are free. But they're also drawing millions of students, potential future customers for universities. That's why platforms like Coursera, edX, and Udacity are partnering with schools to house content. For example, edX started as a consortium between Harvard and MIT -- and has since added the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Texas to its membership (along with recently joining forces with Google (GOOG)). Coursera was launched by Stanford professors and offers courses from the likes of Wharton, Columbia, and Yale.

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Getting an elite MBA for free: It's possible