If you’re investing time and money in an online bachelor’s degree that syncs with your military life, do the homework before you enroll.
Knowing whether your school choice is accredited is a given. But you’ll also want to know the institution’s history of online education. Has the school distinguished itself in this format of learning? Who are the instructors you will interact with each week? Assuming, of course, that these classes encourage interaction.
Consider two bachelor’s degrees that would be of interest to many active military or veterans: the bachelor’s in business administration and the bachelor’s in logistics and supply chain management.
You can pursue either of these programs through Ball State University, which is not an online school but a residential university located in Muncie, Ind., with a history that now spans a century. Accredited today by the Higher Learning Commission, the university has had continuing institutional accreditation since 1925.
Ball State was among the nation’s first universities to offer online-only classes in the 1990s. We offered our first all-online degree in 1999.
Both bachelor’s of business administration and logistics programs are housed in our Miller College of Business, which was a pioneer in digital distance education in the 1980s when it offered business classes by TV and satellite. Those innovative efforts evolved into the interactive, online programs we offer today.
Miller College of Business is among less than five percent of the world’s business schools to hold accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the most rigorous and globally recognized accreditation available for business schools.
With the proliferation of online programs in recent years, you want to know that the online provider excels in online practices so that you can excel as a business professional.
Ball State was the first higher education institution in the country to earn Learner Support Program Certification for its online programs, a recognition given by Quality Matters (QM), a leading quality assurance organization for online education. This certification tells you, the student, that we provide all the critical student and academic services needed for learner success.
The same professors who teach on our main campus teach online classes. In addition to their commitments to both research and teaching, they are pioneers of the online classroom, having developed best practice methods for delivering course content. With the help of instructional designers, faculty design course work that is engaging and exciting. Exciting classrooms make for exciting classroom experiences for you.
Your online experience will connect you with instructors and classmates and provide many occasions to collaborate on assignments and participate in discussions.
Instead of face-to-face lectures, you will communicate or learn through email, discussion boards, videos, file sharing, wikis, blogs, web page posting, and other channels. And you will be learning and completing assignments at times most convenient to you.
Ball State’s Veterans Affairs provides advice, guidance, advocacy, and outreach sources to veterans, reservists, guardsmen, and family members who use veterans’ benefits.
Ball State Online was named No. 8 among universities offering all-online programs by Victory Media, publisher of G.I. Jobs magazine. We have been named Military Friendly every year since 2009—a designation given to less than 15 percent of more than 8,800 schools nationwide and is based on input from veterans and surveys of participating institutions.
Bachelor’s in Business Administration
The bachelor’s degree in business administration will provide you with a core business skill set that you can take into virtually any industry. The skills you cultivate as a manager, leader, critical thinker, decision-maker, and problem solver will work in a range of work settings—from a small entrepreneurial operation to a multinational corporation. The placement rate in the Miller College of business is over 95 percent.
The business administration online classroom brings together students from different levels on the org chart as well as different industries and enterprises, which enriches class discussions.
When we say your online classroom will have professors who are the best in the business, it’s because our AACSB accreditation requires it.
Bachelor’s in Logistics and Supply Chain Management
Core classes provide you with a solid foundation in logistics, science, technology, and management through interdisciplinary, relevant instruction. Internships and a senior capstone project give you the opportunity to work on-site with leaders in the logistics industry.
You’ll learn how to move goods from one place to another quickly, safely, and efficiently as well as understand linkages with procurement, operations, and other supply chain functions.
As one industry insider put it, “The logistics field is hot. If you’re looking for a job today, chances are you’re going to be hired tomorrow because there are not enough professionals out there.”
That may explain why logistics graduates have a 100 percent placement rate.