Compressed Thoughts

Ali Weideman, who expects to graduate from the Part-Time MBA program in 2021, says she was initially drawn to the Persuasion and Influence course not only because of Professor Vlad Griskevicius’ reputation as being both knowledgeable and interesting in the classroom, but also because she wanted to try her first condensed-style course. “The format makes it easy to fit classes in without skipping a beat professionally or in your personal life,” she says. “I used vacation time for this course, but am glad that I did and would do so again.”

Since class time was compressed, she read the entire assigned text prior to stepping foot in the classroom. “This allowed me to keep up with the number of assignments and essays over the shortened length of the course,” she says.

Although the biggest benefit of the class was being able to take an entire course while only slowing down life outside the classroom for a few weeks, Weideman adds that another significant benefit was that the class felt more like a seminar or crash course. “It was a nice change of pace from courses that meet once a week for an entire semester,” she says.

Weideman says the main downside of the class format is that you do not become as immersed in the course when it is taken over a few days versus an entire semester. “There is also not as much time for discussion boards on the course page or group work, so less peer networking is involved in a compressed class,” she says, adding however that “from my standpoint, the benefits far outweigh the negatives of a compressed class. These classes offer the flexibility of an online course while maintaining a true face-to-face classroom experience.”

All in all, she feels condensed classes are a nice addition to the curriculum. “I would urge anyone interested to try a condensed class,” she says. “These classes are a great way to knock out some credits in just a few weeks and take pressure off of the rest of the semester.”

This feature originally appeared in the Spring 2017 Carlson School Alumni Magazine. View the full magazine and other articles here.