With students of the Indian School of Business (ISB) no longer on campus (at Hyderabad and Mohali) due to the Covid-19 shutdown, the B-school is ensuring that students continue their programmes online. ISB is doing several things to keep the students up to speed.
The 11-month academic year for ISB gets over by March-end, so the ISB professors were racing to complete the classes when Covid-19 happened. Students had 15 more days of classes to go when they had to leave campus.
According to an ISB spokesperson, each faculty member decides how the online content should be structured and delivered. A number of faculty are splitting their online sessions between synchronous (live) and asynchronous (pre-recorded) sessions. “Concepts, theories and frameworks are mostly being covered through asynchronous sessions while case discussions are being covered through synchronous sessions,” said the spokesperson.
Some of the evaluations are being wrapped into what has already been assigned to students and a few have been moved online through ISB’s learning management system.
To execute these online sessions, videographers help record asynchronous sessions. “We are using WebEx and Zoom for synchronous sessions. We have dedicated facilities/resources for faculty to deliver their own lectures,” said the spokesperson. ISB’s programmes allow for the integration of modules through its learning management system.
The entirety of the student body left campus by March 19, other than those restricted from travelling. A Covid-19 update on the ISB web site says with the students vacating, all of the dormitories and classrooms are being sanitised as per WHO guidelines. “We have already done this with areas such as the gymnasiums and day cares. Next, we will sanitise staff areas and conference rooms. Our intent is to be proactive and to limit the potential for infestation and spread,” said the update.
For the first time in the annals of ISB, the annual graduation ceremony, that was to be held in the first week of April, has been postponed until further notice.