AMBITION | BE IN BRILLIANT COMPANY
transformation and skills development. In late November 2020, AMBA & BGA was joined by experts from online learning platform, Coursera, as well as representatives from the business education community, for a discussion of the ways and means by which Business Schools are tackling the principal challenges and opportunities of digitisation; and how they are ensuring students are equipped with the business skills needed by employers in the post- Covid-19 workplace. Participants were, in particular, encouraged to take stock of what has changed in the past year, what has been learned, and what the future might look like for Business Schools and their students in the digital economy. Here is a selection of responses to some of the key questions posed to the expert members of this roundtable.
academics are not experts. This is not just about the curriculum; it's also about ensuring that our staff and faculty are equipped to have a full understanding of these issues and an understanding of the technology. Anthony Tattersall, Vice President, EMEA, Coursera I think we're seeing forces coming together, which are going to continue to drive change long beyond the impact of the pandemic. These are around AI and machine learning in tech and this landscape is changing very quickly. It is a challenge for institutions’ staff to maintain a cutting-edge knowledge about what's current and relevant. The second thing is that, due to the impact of the pandemic, expectations of how students can engage with learning has changed. We talk about blended learning being here to stay but I think more [students] are concerned about employability outcomes and the ‘job-ready’ skills that would better help their career. Things have also changed in the way students want to engage with learning opportunities. I think global competition for choice will open up and people will be looking more for innovative blended learning experiences that allow for the best of the campus experience and the flexibility that they are now looking for. Have you seen a cultural shift around education and industry 4.0 and how are you, as leaders in Business Schools, responding to that? Christopher Tucci, Professor of Digital Strategy and Innovation, Imperial College Business School With MBA students in particular, we've been experimenting quite heavily and trying to figure out how we can bring digital skills into the curriculum. In the full-time MBA, we're creating an entirely new track for [digital skills] and we've already been introducing more elective courses and different core courses on business analytics and data science. I've been working on a challenging new course for full-time MBA students which is going to bring them into contact with different parts of Imperial College, showing them the different labs and having them work on a technology commercialisation problem in small groups. There is also the Data Sparks project with Imperial’s Data Science Institute. Students will be working as paid interns with a business analytics student, side by side.
33
How would you like to see the business education landscape develop over the next 10 years? Andy Poole, Partnerships Director, Coursera for Campus I would imagine that the move towards blended [learning] is here to stay and I think that is only going to pick up pace. I think that the need for Business Schools to adapt is going to accelerate. We can already see a need for new skills, particularly related to AI, data analytics and the fourth industrial revolution. I would hope that Business Schools will be well placed to lead in addressing those challenges and preparing the economy for that shift. Anthony Aldred, Deputy Pro Dean for Student Education, Leeds University Business School I think that Business Schools need to equip students and graduates for the global challenges that are out there – AI being one of those, along with digital transformation of industry and analytics. We have to move quickly to ensure that we are equipping graduates with those skills and that is a real challenge. I think [Business Schools] need to seek to work more with businesses and industry, to allow us to partner – in terms of experiential learning – across areas in which traditional
Debbie Kemp, MBA Director, Kent Business School, University of Kent
All of our courses are introducing elements of AI and data. We must keep up to date – that goes without saying. Marketing can't be taught in the same way it was two years ago, because it's more about digital marketing, augmented reality, and how you use these technologies. We are introducing these aspects into our courses, however we're starting to consider more optional modules that allow students, who maybe have got
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online