Executive Learning Workgroup
|
|
-
Executive Learning Workgroup: Purpose Statement
The Executive Learning Workgroup exists to collaborate in studying the
use, impact and implications of new technologies for pedagogy and
administration in executive education.
History
The group was established, as explained at Annecy in May 2004, because:-
“Oracle wishes to work with Business Schools to explore how future
pedagogies may develop and the way technology can facilitate
improvements in the learning process. The best way to carry this out is
through an interactive process that involves teaching and learning
professionals.It is acknowledged that the pedagogy for graduate
learning differs from the pedagogy of executive learning.
Given the economic significance of executive programmes to business
schools, the focus of the workshop will be on Executive Education. The
express purpose of the workshop will therefore be to explore the
options available for creating new models of executive learning by
leveraging the latest ICT (Information Communications Technology).”
This was set in the context that:-
“Research and teaching form the twin foundations of Business Schools.
New technologies, including the Internet, have altered the form of both
research and teaching. Continued evolution of the technology together
with an analysis of the research and teaching outcomes will highlight
future aspects of their interaction. The Internet has created a rich
research resource that has had a fundamental impact on information
availability. It has also created new forms of interaction whereby
learning communities can be more widely dispersed geographically.
Information based resources have been utilised for many years, from the
first introduction of CBT through to the more recent eLearning
platforms. In essence these systems have mirrored the traditional
pedagogies of the institutions that have adopted them. However, there
is the potential to develop new pedagogies that allow new modes of
learning to occur, with these being facilitated by technology. It is
likely that Business Schools will play the leading role in establishing
these new pedagogies, given their diverse constituencies.”
The Key features of the initial 2 day workshop were to:
• Evaluate the executive learning model.
• Start the process of shaping new models for learning with ICT.
• Share best practice from leading experts and practitioners.
• Understand the scope and capability of Oracle's software.
In subsequent calls the group began to develop a comprehensive map of
the terrain they wished to explore. A series of calls refined the work
area which was elaborated at face-to-face meeting at London Business
School (August 2004) and INSEAD, Paris (December 2005). After August
the group opened an wiki as an online contribution space where the work
was coordinated. A series of monthly project conference calls and
“themed” conference calls helped to strengthen the work schedule
outlined by the group at INSEAD.The group identified some major strands
to be investigated.
The Voice of the Practitioner
Each individual group member is the holder of vast amounts of
information about how their schools operate, what they have found to be
successful or unsuccessful, what clients are finding useful or saying
are not worthwhile, the needs that clients are outlining in
discussions, the bounds or limitations of current thinking within their
institution and the directions being favoured by those working with
clients.Listening to the practical experience of individuals, about
what works and does not work, unlocks a vast store of anecdotal
experience, and sharing a conversation between practitioners allows
everyone to move their thinking ahead. Each individual, of course,
takes something different from the conversation depending on their
personal situation, working practices and priorities but the overall
effect is the provision of an opportunity for advancement through
sharing of experience.
The Voice of the Client
Listening to clients has always been important but is even more so in a
climate of quickly evolving technological change. The group decided
that to provide unique opportunities for client discussions around
technology, executive education and business value was an important
function. Creating a sounding board where clients’ views on current
practices, business needs and technological innovation are integrated
into a forum focused on forward thinking is of paramount importance for
the group.
New technologies
With business operating at the cutting edge of technology, to maximize
their profit and minimize operating costs, the group recognizes that
the cutting edge of learning technology is where we must look for the
next advances in learning and teaching. The group has set up a
programme to explore new technologies and their impact on teaching and
learning in executive education
What members say about the Executive Learning Workgroup.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed being here (the IESE workshop). There is
nowhere else in the world where these conversations are happening and I
cannot imagine anyone not wanting to be part of it. Sign me up for
research question 2.”
Avery Duff -Rolls Royce,May 2005
“On the whole, we evaluate highly our experience in Oracle’s executive
learning workgroup. Although the outcomes of this experience differ
slightly with our original expectations, they have represented real
value to our institution and our participants. Let me quickly review
our perceptions of the group’s ideas, people and opportunities.
The groups’ major contribution has been in the introduction and
analysis of ideas on improving the impact of ICT in management
education. We have had several opportunities to listen to the issues
and the challenges of leveraging ICT in a variety of business schools
and more recently corporate learning centres. The group has introduced
concepts like Thompson’s 2x2 matrix and Ruston’s ICT matrix that have
proven useful in understanding the broader picture of improving the
value propositions of corporate education. The different workshops have
provided a forum in which to analyze examples of best practice and to
examine how such practices might be applied to our own
programmes. On a personal note, the ELW has provided me the
opportunity to clarify my own ideas in this area.
The Executive Learning Workshops have also helped reinforce an
identifiable community of practionners and researchers from many of
Europe’s top business schools. The workshops themselves have provided a
less academic setting to discuss the business issues of management
education independent of the cultural and hierarchical considerations
of individual schools. The development of our social networks in the
area of management education is a clearly valuable deliverable,
especially in the « corporate world ». The ideas and suggestions of
several exceptional members of the ELW have and will continue to
influence our thoughts on management education.
ELW has not to date produced the business opportunities we expected for
the community as a whole. In our opinion, this result is due more to
the nature of the group than from any lack of effort from the group’s
sponsors. The group’s participants seem more at ease in « reflecting »
on the issues and challenges of management education than actually «
producing » responses to customer challenges. The group’s operating
mode, based on facilitation, has not resulted in a common vision of how
to more forward. This result is perhaps indicative of the absence, both
for individual schools and for the group as a whole, of a viable and
clearly defined business model for corporate education.On the whole,
the project has produced a certain number of concrete deliverables that
we feel justified our active participation in the group. The « off
white » paper provided us with an opportunity to clearly formulate our
ideas on corporate education and to solicit feedback and suggestions
from the group. The current research paper on « work based pedagogy »
with the IESE and MIT has provided a forum for both active discussion
and concrete propositions. Our analysis of the schools’ current
operations has permitted us to identify elements of a viable business
model for future projects in corporate education. Finally, the
ideas, the network and the experience proposed by the ELW provide a
platform that will help shape our corporate education offer in the
foreseeable future.”
Professor Lee Schlenker EM Lyon - August 1st 2005
“As we were discussing at the airport, and as I’ve subsequently told
people here at Cranfield; I found the discussions and general tenor of
the IESE meeting extraordinarily relevant, interesting and critical to
what I’m attempting to achieve here at Cranfield School of Management.
A very big ‘thank you’ to IESE, Oracle & Ultralab (and our fellow
colleagues) for hosting and contributing to such a useful event.The
discussion of the group – both at this event and over the past year –
have helped me refine my strategy for networked learning and hence our
value proposition to our clients. The consequences of the group’s
activities have spread further than perhaps we can all imagine; I was
just checking to make sure you all realised that.”
Toby Thompson Cranfield University-May 27th 2005
“Thank you for soliciting feedback on the ELW experience. I would
like to complement you and Martin for convening us, inspiring us, and
keeping us on track and focused.
As educational institutions, we all have our own view of the demand for
executive/graduate education in management and how best to fulfil it.
One of the great benefits of having Oracle as the convening
organization is that you have provided us with an external focus to
which we can all contribute without getting overly protective of our
own space. We all seem to have come to a common ground of realizing
that collaboration platforms provide and will continue to provide an
important aspect of executive education, and we all share a frustration
that the software/platforms are not where we need them to be. At
the same time, as we have discussions keeping a strong eye to the
technological ramifications of the emerging needs, we have:
Discovered new ways of thinking about what we can offer industry
Confirmed what we are all hearing from the market for our services
Fed back to you, hopefully, useful end user requirements for software that would serve the education market
Generally created a network of colleagues that will serve us all well.
It is safe to say that it is very unlikely that such a group could have
formed and generated such a constructive, committed community without
Oracle's and your leadership. I can say that I am still hopeful of
looking at Oracle's collaborative software, when it is ready.
Martin's work on the Wikki has been exceptionally useful as a locus
around which our efforts revolve. I am sure the Oracle software
will be even better.
I hope that this collaboration will continue. It has been useful
from our point of view and, hopefully, has fed back to Oracle in a way
that serves your purposes as well.”
Toby Woll – MIT -27th July 2005
“I have used so much of my experiences with the Executive Learning Workgroup to help my thinking in terms of how we move forward. It’s a high quality, focused group delivering informed debate, and it’s the mixture of Business Schools, technology and other thought processes, which makes it particularly powerful. I want to stay a part of it.”
Avery Duff, Head of International Human Resources, Rolls Royce International, 2nd March 2006.
Would you like to know more?
Contact the Project Director: Martin Doherty martin@ultralab.net
Phone (mobile) +44 7968 251939
|
|
