IMC 2015 Update: Harvard Business School's HBX and Coursera to highlight digital learning trends

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
June 29, 2015
Impact of Digital learning platform like MOOCs, Coursera and HBX, is one of the hotly debated topics globally. IMC 2015 will be hosting talks by Dr Bharat Anand, the Henry R. Byers Professor of Business Administration in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Busin
Impact of Digital learning platform like MOOCs, Coursera and HBX, is one of the hotly debated topics globally

Sixth edition of Indian Management Conclave (IMC) 2015, to be held on July 29-30, 2015 at the ISB Hyderabad campus, is all set to host keynotes and discussions on latest trends and themes in management education. Impact of Digital learning platform like MOOCs, Coursera and HBX, is one of the hotly debated topics globally. IMC 2015 will be hosting talks by Dr Bharat Anand, the Henry R. Byers Professor of Business Administration in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School, and the faculty chair of the HBX initiative and Ms Anjuli Gupta, Lead, Coursera's academic partnerships in Emerging Markets on the role digital platforms in enabling learning in a B-school and how Indian B-schools can leverage these platforms.

‘Can Technology Enable Quality Education at Scale? Learning’s from HBX’

In June 2014, Harvard Business School launched HBX, its new online education initiative. At the time, the focus of other B-schools was to create an individualized experience where students would primarily watch streamed video lectures from experts. Stimulating lectures with star professors, perhaps, but lectures nonetheless — with a passive, individualized learner experience HBX wanted to change that. To that end, HBX designed a program that would a) Focus on solving real-world business problems, b) Encourage active learning and c) Foster social and collaborative learning.

So what are the results of the first HBX CORe program? and is HBX planning to launch more programs. Dr Bharat Anand, the Henry R. Byers Professor of Business Administration in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School, is the faculty chair of the HBX initiative, and serves on the HarvardX Faculty Committee will address IMC on the theme of ‘Can Technology Enable Quality Education at Scale? Learning’s from HBX’.

Dr Bharat Anand received an AB in Economics, magna cum laude, from Harvard University, and his PhD in Economics from Princeton University, where he was nominated to the Princeton Junior Society of Fellows. Dr Anand has authored numerous case studies in business and corporate strategy, including those on Capital One, The Economist, International Management Group, News Corporation, Random House, and Schibsted. For several years, Dr Anand taught the popular second-year elective course in Corporate Strategy, for which he received the Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence from the MBA class of 2006 and the MBA class of 2007. He has served as course head of the first-year Strategy course at HBS, and he currently teaches Strategy in the General Management Program.

Coursera: A challenge or an opportunity?  
Coursera, the US-based online education provider with 10-million-plus learners, believes in "connecting people to a great education so that anyone around the world can learn without limits." Coursera has partnered with 115 top-tier universities and institutions from five continents to more than 10 million learners from every country to provide 800+ courses across a broad range of disciplines. India is Coursera’s largest user base outside the US with over 700,000 learners.

Recently ISB became Coursera’s first Indian partner to produce and own content that will be served via the online education provider to learners worldwide. A course on “A Life of Happiness and Fulfilment”, designed by Professor Raj Raghunathan, visiting professor at the ISB, will be the first to be offered in the series.

Ms Anjuli Gupta leads Coursera's academic partnerships in Emerging Markets and will be speaking at IMC 2015 about the role of education technology tools in furthering management education. Her team at Coursera partners with top academic institutions in Asia, Latin America, and Africa to develop courses toward Coursera's mission of universal access to the world's best education. Anjuli spent several years as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and Innosight (a global growth strategy firm co-founded by Clayton Christensen), where she led projects on new product and program development, strengthening consumer-driven growth capabilities, and business model innovation within education, financial services, and healthcare organizations. She holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a B.A. and B.S. from U.C. Berkeley.

IMC 2015 will feature addresses by 30 leading management thinkers from India and Abroad on the theme of 'Enhancing B-school Competitiveness'. IMC Conclave, now widely recognized as India's biggest and best such conference, will host keynote addresses by academicians, corporate leaders, deans, directors from across the Globe; panel discussions by Directors from leading Indian B-schools; IMC Awards finalists’ presentation and workshops for understanding the micro-factors that enhance B-school competitiveness in current Indian context. Key speakers at IMC 2015 include Mr Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, Indian School of Business (ISB), India; Ms Avani Davda, CEO, Tata Starbucks; Mr Dilip Shanghvi, MD, Sun Pharmaceuticals; Dr Edward Snyder, Dean, Yale School of Management & Former Dean, Chicago Booth & Darden; Dr Kalok Chan, Dean, The CUHK Business School, Hong Kong (a triple-accredited Hong Kong based top B-school); Mr RS Sodhi, MD, GCMMF Ltd (AMUL); Mr Sangeet Chowfla, Global President & CEO, GMAC; Mr Sanjeev K Gupta, MD- H&PS, Govt. Rel. & Corp Affairs, Accenture India; Dr Shekhar Chaudhari, Former Director, IIM Calcutta, India; Dr Sofri B Yahya, Dean, Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia; Mr Sridhar Venkat, CEO, Akshaya Patra Foundation; (All names in alphabetical order. Conference website http://www.mbauniverse.com/imc2015 has more details.