Synchronous

Synchronous is instruction that happens at the same time for faculty and the learning group. A campus classroom is synchronous. A live video seminar is also synchronous. AMBA’s floor for an MBA is 120 synchronous hours. Those hours do not have to be face-to-face. They do have to be live, mandatory, and with the group. One-to-one supervision does not count.

What AMBA is counting

In a traditional campus MBA, contact hours are expected to be delivered entirely synchronously, and the total contact floor is 500. Online and blended designs may move some of that 500 off the live clock, but not below 120 live hours. AMBA’s language is “demonstrably effective technologies that enable synchronous interaction between student learning groups and faculty.” A webinar where 200 people listen and five ask questions is a weak version of that test. A seminar of 40 with required cameras, cold calls, and breakout teams is a stronger one.

The 120 is a minimum, not a target. Many campus programs far exceed it without trying. Online programs have to design it. Put 120 hours on a 24-month online MBA and you are looking at about 1.25 live hours a week if you never break. In practice schools bunch live time into weekly seminars plus residencies.

AACSB does not copy the 120. It copies the equivalency idea: if the diploma is the same, live-online and live-campus should not be different degrees in disguise.

Example: 24-month online MBA. Weekly 90-minute live seminar × 80 weeks = 120 hours on the nose. Add two 3-day residencies at 6 hours a day and you have another 36 live hours. Total synchronous 156. That clears 120. It still has to sit inside 500 contact hours once asynchronous group work is added, and inside 1,800 hours of learning effort once reading is added.

Synchronous versus in-person versus residency

Word	Clock	Place
Synchronous	Shared	Room or live link
In-person	Shared	Room
Residency	Shared, in a block	Usually campus or hotel

All residencies are synchronous (if class is in session). Not all synchronous hours are residencies.

Common errors

Treating recorded “live-looking” video as synchronous. Counting optional office hours. Letting students skip the live session and watch the tape without a makeup rule, then still logging the hour. Assuming 120 hours of Zoom Q&A with no group work satisfies the learning-group test.

FAQ

Does synchronous have to be on campus?+

No. AMBA is explicit: it does not have to be face-to-face. It has to be synchronous.

Can I take the live session at a different time in another section?+

Only if the school built parallel live sections. Moving yourself to a recording is asynchronous. Doing that every week can put an AMBA program under 120 for you even if the catalog is compliant on paper.

How is a live session different from a webinar?+

Participation. AMBA contact is interaction with a learning group. A broadcast fails that even if it is live.

Do breakout rooms count?+

Yes, when they are part of the mandatory live design and faculty still own the session. A breakout that students could have done on their own time is group work; the live wrapper is what makes it synchronous contact.