BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
‘Trying to get the same environment and to use the same language’ Amir Michael, Programme Director, Full-Time MBA, Durham University Business School ‘We had a full plan, called the Digital Campus, which simply entailed that we needed to digitalise everything that was happening physically, and that’s not just what we were doing in the classroom, but outside the classroom as well. ‘For example, how will students access reception services? Sometimes students feel secure when they see the reception. We have a statistic that shows, in 80% of cases, that students are just going to reception to say “hi”. They feel secure going there because there is someone there to whom they can ask their questions, even when the answers are already available elsewhere. We created something called the ‘MBA virtual reception’ and made it available two hours every day so students can pop in virtually, and they use it heavily. ‘The same thing is true in terms of staff consultation: how are students going to see the academics, or pop into their offices? We created a virtual office for every academic, which is available during dedicated consultation hours, and for use outside consultation hours [at their discretion]. For example, a student might email me, and I say: “Can you see me in my virtual office for half an hour?”. They know exactly where to find the virtual office and it's similar to the physical office. We were trying to get the same environment and to use the same language, as we don’t want to use different language.’
the business of tomorrow is going to look like. The need to overcome
business sectors), the amount and variety of knowledge, what students want from us, and how we can deliver all the classes. ‘This is why we need to test a lot of new things. While the test and learn approach is quite common in the digital sectors, it’s not necessarily our way of thinking in higher education and that’s why we need to take this on. ‘Beyond all the tools and skills we can develop with our students, I do think curiosity is one of the greatest skills for our students. Because when you are curious about something, and when you want to learn how the world is working, then you are going to learn all the time. ‘We are facing so many challenges and we need to learn how to cope with all of that and educate future generations to better deal with these challenges. Technology is only a small part of this changing story. ‘Lifelong learning is really important and it’s not just in Business Schools and universities – for me, it has to be a way of being as a human.’ ‘A drive towards different expectations’ Sam Blyth, Senior Sales Director, Education, Instructure ‘In terms of student success, a key theme is around expectations and the perception of value. I think at a Business School that perception of value is crucial like nowhere else. When students start a one-year online MBA, their expectations of the value are very different compared to being six months into a face-to-face or blended course and having to change [format]. ‘I also think it depends on the pedagogy and the modes of delivery that you have as a School. That will very much differ based on your unique selling points. ‘Once you’ve understood student expectations, their perception of value, and your modes of delivery, all our research says it’s those intersection points of contact – emotionally and ‘physically’ – that are the most powerful and most important for students. ‘If you can get those right, and if you can meaningfully design them into the structure of the course, that’s where we see success.
isolation has paradoxically prolonged the idea of synchronous [learning]. Digital technologies have made it possible for us to deliver knowledge to people when they need it and where they need it. This is a
different way of being relevant. ‘The question is: has the public
discovered that yet? They are the people that require us to replicate the classrooms. I personally would be more than happy to get rid of the classroom, but the students aren’t.’ ‘Recreate the social exchange’ Alain Goudey, Chief Digital Officer, NEOMA Business School ‘One of the key questions that we had to solve was how to recreate the social exchange in a context of distance. It’s true that it’s important to have a good lecture, but it’s also really important to get the cohesion of all the classmates and the presence of the professor to create a good learning experience. ‘This year, we have launched something a bit different: the first virtual campus, bringing the context of the campus to students’ homes. ‘We believe that video conference systems are not the norm concerning distance learning. Innovation is mandatory to generate a better teaching/learning experience online: making a simple lecture on Zoom or Microsoft Teams is not teaching. The brand is also key, and thus we believe that creating a framework where students, staff members and faculty members can gather inside the same virtual space and have unity of time is interesting. ‘During the lockdown, it was interesting to see how real classes in the real world are important and also how online learning was very difficult to draw on because you need proximity and interactivity. You need to create attractive content and all these emotional approaches are so important for pedagogy. Technology can help professors to work with all of that, even distantly.
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‘The business of tomorrow’ Jan Ketil Arnulf, Dean Executive, BI Norwegian Business School
‘I told students that we knew technological difficulties were going to happen, so we made backup solutions – we made chats and all sorts of things. I said we are going to be bombarding each other with emotional signals that we are staying alive, and we did that before the class, during the class and after the class. ‘In the beginning, students said they didn’t want to do it; they wanted their money back – but afterwards they were enthusiastic and they said this is what
‘I believe we are in a moment of disruption for our sector because
everything is changing at the same time: what companies expect from our students (in line with what is happening in their own
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