As hybrid graduate programs are becoming more popular for working professionals around the country, cutting-edge studio technology is allowing the Smeal College of Business to offer students aspects of both residential and online learning.

Last fall, the first cohort of the Hybrid MBA program started classes, first with in-person classes at University Park and then online, where students receive instruction from faculty who are teaching from studios in the Business Building that utilize multiple screens, digital whiteboards, and other technology that simulates a residential learning environment. The studios have been used to teach Smeal’s hybrid Executive DBA program for the last two years; two new additional studios will expand opportunities for both programs and for a planned master’s program in applied artificial intelligence for business transformation.

Both hybrid programs utilize a cohort model; Penn State was the first Big Ten school to utilize the technology, which allows the programs to be accessible for students who don’t have the time or ability to regularly travel to University Park.

“We know one of the values of residential [instruction] is [the] place-based component, and the social network that you develop and the relationships with faculty and fellow students,” Smeal dean Corey Phelps says. “That’s really hard to replicate in a purely online world, especially an asynchronous online world. But then there are the benefits of online. I don’t have to quit my job and move to State College. I can be anywhere.”