Inside a New Mobile-First Business Analytics Degree

New, mobile-first master’s degrees are poised to help students learn high-demand data and software skills on their own schedule.

Quantic School of Business and Technology, an online business school accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission, generated buzz with its mobile-first master of business administration (MBA) program. Now, the school is rolling out new master of science degrees in business analytics and software engineering.

Those degrees are both in burgeoning fields. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects much faster-than-average growth for both management analysts and software experts over the next decade — and those are just a sampling of the jobs students could land with data-heavy business degrees.

Quantic’s approach to education combines two major student demands: affordability and flexibility. Graduate business students are increasingly staying in the workforce and building their degrees around their busy schedules, and prioritize flexibility when looking for a program.

A number of brick-and-mortar institutions have adopted asynchronous, online degrees, but Quantic has taken a highly mobile-oriented approach to rolling out its degree programs, CEO Bill Fisher told BestColleges in an interview.

Our version of flexibility is quite different from every other online school, or most other online schools, Fisher said. We’ve designed it to be natively mobile.

That means students get instruction in bite-sized chunks, similar to how language learning apps like Duolingo deliver their material. That’s not all the degrees consist of, however: Quantic also incorporates group projects and real-world learning into the curriculum.

AI is a key interest among prospective business students and employers alike, and is included in both the Quantic business analytics and software engineering curriculum. The software engineering degree includes courses in AI engineering, machine learning, software testing, software engineering management, cloud computing and other related topics. The business analytics curriculum likewise includes instruction in AI, as well as statistics and analytics methods and frameworks.

AI is increasingly an important topic for students and employers alike as it shakes up the business landscape, and a growing number of business schools are embracing the emerging technology. That includes the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, which recently announced it would scale up its investments in AI, and the Kogod School of Business at American University, which infused AI throughout its classes.

Both of the degrees at Quantic also put an emphasis on project-based learning alongside the mobile-first coursework. The business analytics program will end with a consulting project where students collaborate with a real company to deliver an analytics solution, Fisher said.

That sort of project-based work is really how we reinforce the learning that you get in the app, Fisher said.

Affordability is another major selling point of the degrees. Both are priced at $950 per month, the same price tag as Quantic’s other programs, including its MBA. That puts those graduate business degrees well under the average price for a master’s program.

Fisher said he’s seen high interest from Quantic’s employer partners in software engineering, data, and AI skills. He said the specialized master’s degrees in software and business analytics will serve to deepen students’ skills in those areas, as opposed to the broad, leadership-oriented approach of an MBA or executive MBA program.

We’re trying to sort of expand our content portfolio with an eye both to taking people deeper and broadening their skills, he said. But it seems to be very important for companies to both be able to hire and upgrade people on data and tech skills, in particular, given our focus on AI in the curriculum.

Quantic also recently debuted its own AI tools for students, AI Advisor and AI Tutor, which provide students with feedback and guidance as they work toward their degrees. When it comes to incorporating AI tools and topics into coursework, Fisher said Quantic has had to keep constant tabs on the ever-changing technology.

We constantly have to update our courses because stuff’s moving so fast, Fisher said. That’s sort of both a blessing and a curse, but necessary to keep up and make sure that our students are learning what they need to learn.