MOOC and MBAs.. a symbiotic relationship ..

It is very interesting to see how how knowledge available for free over Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) could be used by MBA schools of the world to further the knowledge base of their students.

As an experiement in India, at Alliance University Bangalore where I teach, I am integrating a course of Competitive Strategy offered as a MOOC on www.coursera.org by Prof. Tobias from LMU Munich to my classroom brick and mortar course on Operations Strategy to the final semester students of MBA.

The MOOC discusses advanced concepts of Game Theory and its applications in markets, under simultaneous, sequential, co-operative, commitmental, finite, infinite, positive sum games. It also goes to look at quantitative analysis of Innovation, like finding the value of innovation and impact of R&D in organisations.

The additional activity I do in the class to prevent impersonation and ensure that students learn each of the 6 modules well before they proceed to the next is to have a module-wise quiz on the concepts handled in that module. After the quiz we discuss the doubts and problems relating to that module so that students can clear that well before taking over the next module. In the final exams which we conduct locally here on the MOOC, we expect the students to score minimum of 80% to pass.

The advantage is that element of knowledge can be left to the student to assimilate from the Internet. The students can do that learning in an asynchronous manner discussing with their peers, extensive referencing, interactions etc.

The potential of this approach is great as students get to know more and above the matter given in the syllabus, get to know of global interesting industrial applications and cases, interact with global experts and students from across borders than be constrained by geographical boundaries of time and distance ..

Once the MBA students is given this exposure, he comes to know of this vast knowledge base out in cyberspace waiting to be tapped and can tap into this resource at leisure and convenience to improve his professional abilities and knowledge to rise up in his career ..

Interesting article by Professors Terweich and Karl Ulrich on the potential of MOOC to disrupt brick and mortar Business schools .. Click here ..

Watch the youtube video of this paper ..

george,,