With the Indian School of Business’ first massive open online course (MOOC) becoming a smashing success, the B-school will consider introducing more courses on Coursera, the online learning site, says Dean Ajit Rangnekar.
The course, based on an award-winning class on happiness, offered both at ISB and at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas, Austin, is developed by Prof Raj Raghunathan. It draws content from a variety of fields, including psychology, neuroscience, and behavioural decision theory to “offer a tested and practical recipe for leading a life of happiness and fulfilment.” (Read Raj Raghunathan’s view on the course here .)
The six-week online course has already seen 80,147 visitors on the website and 57,019 enrolments. Prof Raghunathan expects 10 per cent of those enrolled to finish the course every week.
Funding, faculty
“We will introduce more courses, but a lot will depend on funding and faculty interest as well. We want to drive more innovations with greater involvement of students. Technology and the way we deliver education will change dramatically. Everyone is trying to figure it out (online courses), but nobody has understood the business model. It puts pressure on the faculty to keep changing; you can’t put something online and have that stick around for many years,” says Rangnekar.
Even though course content is expensive to create, the ISB board is keen that “We should be up there with our tech and reach out to a large number of people,” he adds. (Watch the dean speak about ISB’s foray into online courses here .)
Start-ups: The in thing
Rangnekar says the flavour of the season for students is start-ups.
“With all the excitement around start-ups and the huge funding, it is very difficult to tell students not to lose focus. Today, we can distinguish which company is a start-up and which is an e-commerce giant. Three years ago, we had students joining Ola, Flipkart, SnapDeal and today, they are big players. So students are looking to join newer and younger start-ups. In just three years, the world has changed. If you ask students whether they would like to join a company in the old space or a start-up, they will choose a start-up any day,” elaborates Rangnekar.
ISB is in the midst of a major exercise to track the career movements of its alumni — where the people came from and where they landed a job. The exercise is to provide information to applicants on the success paths of former students.
“But there is a risk too; you can’t say this kind of success is typical, or that it is an accident of time and place. Success is subjective too,” adds the Dean.
Industry needs
Rangnekar says ISB has been rolling out new courses to meet industry needs. In the past few years, it has launched courses in business analytics, digital marketing, and new media, and stepped up its input on operations and supply chain.
“We’ve been doing a lot of work in operations because, ultimately, whoever you are, whether Snapdeal or Flipkart, you need to run the company. Today, one in three or four students specialises in operations, a far cry from five years ago, when it was just three to four per cent. But new courses shouldn’t be a fad, like finance courses were big a while ago. We have to ensure a balance and that the base learning stays,” he explains. ISB has also introduced courses in healthcare, manufacturing, infrastructure and public policy.
ISB engages closely with recruiters on what the industry needs.
“We have changed our courses — from giving them a broad base and narrow specialisation, we have moved to greater specialisation. For example, to specialise in marketing, we re-jigged the curriculum, where students have to specialise in market research and pricing. We’ve increased specialisations versus core courses. We do these things in response to industry needs,” says Rangnekar. But, he adds, “What companies should first answer is what they are taking a person for: a job or a career? If it’s for a career, it should be prepared to invest time and money on them.”