“ET&A Live!” Highlights Babson’s Unique Virtual Learning Platforms
This September, admitted Blended Learning students joined Phil Kim, Blended Learning Faculty Director, Dennis Ceru, Faculty Co-Director of Experiential Learning, and members of Babson’s Experiential Learning office to experience ET&A Live!, a WebEx-enabled student experience where future classmates could practice working together in a simulated online class environment.
ET&A is Babson’s unique methodology, Entrepreneurial Thought & Action ®, which teaches students to balance action, experimentation, and creativity with a deep understanding of business analysis. Students at Babson value creativity and action, and therefore approach challenges as an entrepreneur would.
Through ET&A Live!, Babson’s incoming Blended Learning MBA students experienced working virtually while collaborating on a problem that requires creativity and experimentation. ET&A Live! split students into small groups to simulate the learning groups they will have as part of their MBA program. Together these students brainstormed solutions to a BHAG (a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal”) that challenged them to think creatively about major social and fiscal topics like healthcare reform. After the brainstorm, students presented their ideas to Professor Ceru through WebEx and received direct feedback on their solutions and thought-processes. In just one hour, students saw how WebEx will be used as part of their online coursework to simulate an in-person learning environment while maintaining the flexibility working professionals need.
Babson’s Blended Learning MBA is a unique blend of online learning through virtual collaboration and roughly four in-person learning sessions each semester. We were excited to showcase the virtual collaboration component of our program during ET&A Live!. While Blended Learning students complete the program in just 21 months, they maintain close networking relationships with their cohort through team-based learning in both virtual and in-person classes.
The Blended Learning MBA program launches in Miami in Fall 2018, and currently runs an October start (Wellesley & San Francisco) and March start (Wellesley).