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Technology is enabling ‘lifestyle learning’ for MBA students
Technology is enabling ‘lifestyle learning’ for MBA students
Business schools are increasingly adopting digital technology to give students greater flexibility in their studies with the international trends of ‘lifestyle learning’ and online MBAs beginning to catch on in New Zealand.
Andrew Crisp, Director of CarringtonCrisp a UK based, education marketing consultancy recently visited New Zealand to speak at the 2014 Asia Pacific Association of MBAs (AMBA) Conference. He comments, “Technology is having a dramatic impact on business education. Flexibility is the key theme to consider, it means that people can learn at any time and anywhere, working at their own pace. This is what we call ‘lifestyle learning’ – the ability to learn in a way that fits around your life commitments.”
‘See the
Future’, a recent international study conducted by
CarringtonCrisp,
found that many students welcome the
role that technology can play in allowing them to continue
learning around their work and family commitments. Much of
this learning is expected to be delivered through podcasts,
video, apps and other digital technologies.
• Just under
three-quarters of all prospective students agree that ‘I
would prefer to learn in an environment where I could fit
study around my lifestyle and/or combine with
work’.
• More than 70% of all current students agree
that ‘I would continue learning if I could fit study
around my lifestyle and/or combine with work’.
However, while ‘lifestyle learning’ is a growing trend technology usage varies greatly across business schools. Crisp elaborates, “Many students believe academics are playing catch up, with few going beyond PowerPoint slides in their lectures. This is the web generation of digital natives so it’s hard to try and teach some of these things when you’re a 50 year-old professor”.
This sentiment is echoed closer to home. Dr Arun Elias, MBA Director at the Victoria Business School sates, “The use of technology is well received by our students and helps us provide flexibility and quality learning. However, there is a big disparity in the way technology is used by lecturers. Some have embraced it, using a variety of digital tools including blogs, YouTube, podcasts and video recordings while others stick to traditional methods they know to be effective.”
Online MBAs are an area AMBA sees as being increasingly important in also providing flexible learning options for business courses. At the recent 2014 Asia Pacific AMBA Conference, AMBA CEO Andrew Main Wilson, announced the organisation will be running a pilot group for business schools wishing to set up and gain accreditation for online courses. He recommended a blended approach to such courses saying, “The key is that the number of face-to-face hours offered needs to be replicated by synchronous online learning”.
In New Zealand the University of Auckland Business School, Canterbury University College of Business and Economics, Massey College of Business and Victoria University Faculty of Commerce and Administration currently offer online learning options for MBAs, with Victoria Business School planning to implement the blended learning option in coming years.
Dr Elias says, ‘New Zealand MBAs look forward to further embracing technology. While there is definitely room for improvement in how it is currently used within the field of academic learning we are moving in the right direction.”
About AMBA
Association
of MBAs (AMBA) is the only global MBA-specific accreditation
and membership organisation. Every generation, one million
MBAs graduate from the 222 AMBA accredited schools around
the world.
There is no other community, of current and future organisation leaders, which has the potential to exert such a huge and positive influence globally, shaping businesses, government policies, environmental issues and countries’ future wealth creation.
2014 AMBA Asia Pacific Conference recently took place in Auckland on the 12th – 14th November 2014. It was attended by hundreds of MBA deans and directors from New Zealand and around the world.
For further information on AMBA please go to www.mbaworld.com
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