Academic Session ACA18
How Less Face-to-Face Can Create Better Programmes – Two Stories from a Business School
Date Friday, Dec 2 Time – RoomPotsdam I
Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) is a research-based business school in The Netherlands with pre- and post-experience bachelor, master, MBA and short open programmes. The Part-time Master Business Administration (‘Bedrijfskunde’) has been around for 20 years. This part-time programme is targeted at experienced professionals around Rotterdam and attracts about 100 students annually. In 2013 we concluded that applicants were less and less inclined to travel and we decided to cut back on the time for face2face teaching, without lowering our standard or learning outcomes. The programme was one of the first in our school to use blended learning, it was the launching customer for the RSM Learning Innovation Team and is seen as an example for others to apply blended learning in pre-experience and other programmes.
One such programme is the Executive Master in Customs and Supply Chain Compliance, aimed at professionals in the customs domain. A main vision fueling the educational design was to create a blended community of learning: a program where globally dispersed professionals who face a challenging work-life balance can learn with and from each other to achieve a full Master degree in 2,5 years. Furthermore, the program provides a unique combination of the three main disciplines that are important for the current Custom profession: 1) Custom regulations; 2) Supply chain management; and 3) Information technology. We will discuss the approaches to teaching and incentives for faculty, the instructional design, student experiences and evaluations, and the impact on RSM’s blended learning strategy.
Klaas Wassens
Executive Director, Erasmus University - Rotterdam School of Management, The Netherlands
Bas Giesbers
Learning innovation consultant and researcher, Erasmus University - Rotterdam School of Management, The Netherlands
Bas Giesbers is learning innovation consultant and researcher within Rotterdam School of Management's Learning Innovation Team. After studying educational psychology, he gained experience in educational technology, teaching, teacher professionalisation and research in the context of both on-site and (remedial) distance education. In the learning innovation team of RSM, he works on the innovation of the whole educational portfolio in collaboration with program directors and teaching staff. This includes educational (re)design toward blended models of delivery, providing advice to management and faculty, organising teacher professionalisation, and participate in project teams that work on a variety of projects such as digital assessment and the development of multimedia learning material like video.
He obtained a PhD in educational psychology at Maastricht University (2013), on a dissertation that focused on the use of synchronous and asynchronous communication in distance education, and the role of motivation and learner interaction. His current research interests lie in the field of online collaborative learning, synchronous and asynchronous online communication, motivation, and the use of learning analytics to understand and improve learning.
Links
Moderator
Ian Wigston
Co-founder, Bright Field Consulting, UK
Originally a banker, Ian has worked as an independent consultant for over 20 years. He has a BA(Econ), an MBA from Henley Management College and is a Fellow of the School for Social Entrepreneurs. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2005.
Ian developed and built one of the first Innovation Units in Europe for Barclays. He was also responsible for introducing coaching into Barclays. He now specialises in leadership education and has a reputation for originality and innovation across a range of client projects. These have included Boeing, the DfES Innovation Unit (projects on pedagogy and parental engagement), the SSAT’s Community Leadership Programme, and Odyssey Charter School Pasadena USA.
He is a Trustee of the LIFE Education Trust and the Thomas Deacon Academy Education Trust. He is also a Trustee of the St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Diocesan Board of Finance.
Links
http://www.brightfield-consulting.com/o…