{"id":20565,"date":"2016-11-18T17:55:03","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T22:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/100-paper-cases-2-online-challenges-hbs-in-the-digital-age\/"},"modified":"2016-11-18T21:48:54","modified_gmt":"2016-11-19T02:48:54","slug":"100-paper-cases-2-online-challenges-hbs-in-the-digital-age","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/100-paper-cases-2-online-challenges-hbs-in-the-digital-age\/","title":{"rendered":"100 Paper Cases \u2026 2 Online Challenges: HBS in the Digital Age?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Education in the Digital Age: SPOCs, and MOOCs, and VLEs! Oh, my!<\/u><\/p>\n

Led by the demands of the rapidly evolving digital consumer (read: millennial students), the digital revolution has reached classrooms across America, from kindergarten through university. Students commonly rely on Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) like Blackboard to manage their courses, and instructors have broadened their teaching approach to include social technologies with things like blogging and video assignments.<\/p>\n

At most colleges and business schools, teaching has reached the Internet with MOOCs (massive online open courses), which allow professors to reach millions of virtual students worldwide (and free of charge) through engaging, multimedia platforms like edX and Coursera. UNC even offers a fully online MBA program and Cornell opened a campus in NYC offering a 1-year technology-focused MBA \u2026 but where does that leave HBS? With a stronghold on the #1 ranking for top business school, a brand legacy dating back 100 years, and a pedagogical approach that is the antithesis of \u201conline\u201d, it\u2019s hard to imagine why the school would invest in digital. Yet, though many of us may not experience it currently, we have, in our own unique HBS way, begun to broach the space in recent years. Let\u2019s understand how first, and later, why.<\/p>\n

HBX: the HBS pedagogy goes digital<\/u><\/p>\n

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In June 2014 HBS launched CORe, \u201ca digital reimagining of 性视界 Business School faculty\u2019s thinking, philosophy of learning, and approach to business education.\u201d Rather than going for the industry-standard MOOC or online MBA program, HBX, as the new digital HBS department is called, pioneered SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses), delivered on its internally-developed, proprietary MOOC-like digital platform. CORe offers rigorous online courses offered to a brand-new market: a pre-MBA audience, eager to learn the fundamentals of management. Like the physical HBS classroom, teaching is case-based and participant-centered, enabled by online technology developed to promote discussion, questioning\/commenting, interactive exercises, peer-to-peer information sharing, and even cold calling. HBS offers CORe throughout the year to individual and company cohorts, and as a requirement for incoming MBA students, for a tuition of $1,800 with 50,000+ now having completed the program.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, HBX has also been developing a synchronous digital classroom called HBX Live. In the HBX Live classroom (example video here<\/a>), ~60 students sign in using videoconferencing technology and are projected onto life-size screens in front of an HBS faculty member, with whom they interact as they would if in-person. The classroom is enabled by a full production crew, including mobile camera operators able to track the movement of the professor, and a quasi-television-studio-team who manage feeds and the online platform on the backend. This groundbreaking initiative, though still young and not monetized, offers huge untapped potential for creating new opportunities for enhancing the learning experience across educational programs at HBS and beyond.<\/p>\n

Next Steps: Advice for Dean Nitin Nohria<\/u><\/p>\n

It is no surprise to me that HBS has built a digital model that is disconnected from what goes on in the traditional classroom. For those of us in the business of digital transformation, it is commonly known to keep your core business intact while inspiring innovation within the edges of your company. By looking at peripheral projects for innovation, you identify net-new products\/services or customer segments that align with, rather than combat with, disruptive trends in your industry. Instead of compromising their traditional MBA and Executive Education revenue streams, they\u2019ve built a competitive advantage by being fundamentally different in the online education space, and therefore captured new revenue. Great! But given the rapid advancements technology will make in the next decades, this should just be the beginning for HBS. By responding to a few Dean Nohria quotes, I\u2019ll offer my opinion on what HBX might want to do next.<\/p>\n

Dean Nohria quote:<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t \u2013 and won\u2019t \u2013 predict what HBX might look like in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not believe our M.B.A. program is at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, Professor Clayton Christensen (Disruptive Innovation Expert) expects half of the United States\u2019 universities could face bankruptcy within 15 years due to digital innovation\u2026 As fellow incumbent MBA programs lead disruption in the space, HBS needs to continue to diversify its large legacy business models and identify new streams of revenue to stay viable long-term:<\/p>\n