learning experiences

New technologies at the service of education

Always focussed on learning innovation, IE Business School and IE University make extensive use of new technologies in its degree and postgraduate programs. The latest technological innovation has been implemented in the Master in Architectural Management and Design. This is a postgraduate, blended program of IE University, incorporating on-site classes in different parts of the world and online classes based on the comprehensive use of forums and videoconferences.

A new kind of projector, recently acquired, allows the professor to move freely and express himself while teaching through videoconferences. A wireless headset with built-in microphone sets him free from being seated in order to give the class. It gives him the option of standing-up, writing or drawing on plans on a large digital whiteboard, similar to those in traditional classrooms. Consequently, his way of giving classes is much more natural and dynamic. Students have commented that they feel closer to the professor and become more engaged in the course.

The launch of IE Campus Mobile

This new semester has brought with it some big changes to IE Campus. We took advantage of the summer break to roll out a completely new version – incorporating for the first time a dedicated mobile site – IE Campus Mobile.
When accessing IE Campus from a smartphone, you will now be taken to our mobile optimized site giving you access to all the information you need, allowing you to get the most out of your program, wherever you are.
IE Campus Mobile provides access to schedules, announcements and contents, as well as various other useful tools, and works on any smartphone. The video below shows you a few of these new features in action.

The team behind Campus Online were responsible for implementing the new IE Campus Mobile. Esteban Luque, Mobile Engineer at Learning Innovation at IE commented:
“The development is focused on the needs of our students. It offers these new services in order to make our courses more accessible than ever. Currently, we are working on enhancing the IE Mobile Campus tool with more and new features.”

Finance Masters’ student field trip to Ghana in order to help IE´s microfinance NGO
The microfinance initiative “Financieros Sin Fronteras” (FSF) created by an IE fellow in collaboration with IE provides consultancy services to microfinance institutions internationally.
Eight students from the Master in Finance and the Executive Master in Financial Management, together with Maria Luque from IE, visited Ghana in order to team up with two microfinance institutions, Kraban Support Foundation and Calvary Enterprise Development Foundation, assessing them over their future plans. During the 4 day field trip, different managers of microfinance organizations and clients were interviewed by students in order to get a better picture of the microfinance sector in Ghana.
As one student puts it: “We helped the organizations to analyze the state of the sector and to set up a list of challenges which will be tackled by the organizations with the help of IE’s students.”
A real life learning experience, created by students for students.

Professor David Bach teaches in a new learning environment

Last July, Professor David Bach, Professor of Strategy and Economic Environment and Dean of Programs, taught an optional Business Government and Society class under a new learning environment.

The “Open Space” room, at Maria de Molina 4, has been set up as you can observe in the photo. Students sit in two half circles around the professor. Four flat screens (two on each wall) show slides, with the professor able to manipulate these from a tablet PC. Under this method the class is more dynamic and communicative and less unidirectional. As one participant puts it: “This new layout fosters participation and interaction and could be superior in an array of class situations.”
The professor is able to walk through the middle of the class, or to sit in one of the half cycles to form part of the group.Professor Bach describes this new teaching experience in the following way: “This situation is much more collaborative, the class is coming closer and students are not obliged to look in one single direction, as there are 2 flatscreens on each row. The professor can write on the tablet PC from anywhere and the message is visible from all angles. ”
It is possible that this experimental setting will be integrated in new learning experiences at IE Business School in the future.

IE multimedia cases featured in the Spanish economic newspaper “Expansión”

The Spanish newspaper Expansión is now publishing IE Business School’s best business cases every Tuesday. In the last two editions readers discussed the cases Iberia and Novartis with IE professors Dr.Rosario Silva and Claire Bastien respectively. In this virtual digital meet-ups the newspaper readers are able to ask questions to the professors directly.

Other cases which will be published and discussed are Cortefiel, R Happiness at Work, Telefonica, Bodaclick, Ikea, BBVA, Nertus and Televisa.
These business cases can be accessed on the newspaper’s website http://www.expansion.com/promociones/ie by participating in the promotion.
As a reader commented in one of the digital meet-ups: “Congratulations to the IE team for the very detailed cases!”

Students of the Higher Education Program in Digital Marketing show us their learning experience

Maldita Nerea is one of the most successful pop bands in Spain in recent years. IE Professor Manuel Alonso Coto invited their singer and mastermind, Jorge Ruiz, to a class with a special surprise – the Students of the Higher Education Program in Digital Marketing had prepared for the session a digital marketing plan for the launch of the bands new LP “Fácil”.

Jorge thanked the class for their in-depth presentation and said that they gave him a lot of food for thought. Jorge, who is well known as someone who thinks out of the box in the music industry, also told the students: “The absence of fear is one of the clues in marketing”. The students were very enthusiastic about presenting their ideas and receiving feedback from him immediately. And for sure for one of the student´s kids it was a special class: Jorge signed a shirt for her!

IMBA Students participating in social projects in a 6-week fellowship program in Africa

In the summer of 2010, nine IMBA students from IE Business School travelled to South Africa to take part in a 6-week, life-changing experience. As fellows of the Leadership Development Program of the Emzingo group they worked on consulting projects for local NGOs.
This Fellowship Program provides student participants the opportunity to engage in a 6-week immersion experience in an emerging economy, giving them the opportunity to work in the space where business meets the social sector. Pairs of students were partnered with citizen sector organizations to collaborate on strategic projects supporting the organizations’ missions and goals. Students acted as additional resources and provided business expertise by leveraging their academic and professional skills and experience.
Some of their experiences are summarized in the following video:

In January 2011 the next group of students of the International MBA headed to South Africa. Fellow Hesham Elbosaty told us just the day before departing to Africa:
” I am really excited about participating in a social project on consulting a coffee company which uses only fair trade coffee. “
We hope to have some more statements from Hesham about his experience in one of the coming editions of our blog.

The hybridization of the real and the virtual

Whereas only a small group of the 2010 IMBA had the honor of chatting with BBVA´s President and CEO Francisco Gonzalez, now all IE students and indeed anyone interested, has the possibility of enjoying a similar, one to one learning experience, virtually. The multimedia case study and the 30 minute interview by Dean Santiago Iñíguez, who paid a visit to the BBVA Innovation Center in Madrid to talk to President Francisco González, discuss the bank´s unique business approach to the uncertainty brought by the financial crisis. The written case also includes an innovative way to view the interview on mobile phones:

Just scan the QR code on the right to be redirected to the interview.

As Alba Funosa, IMBA alumni 2010, explains: “ Talking with the CEO of one of the biggest banks in the world one to one, about the bank´s future strategy and its internationalization, was really exciting!”
Real or virtual: an amazing learning experience.

How IMBA students learn from psychology

Experimental findings and methods in the behavioral sciences are becoming increasingly important in fields like economics and finance which until the last few decades relied heavily on models of rationality that often failed to predict real world behavior. As Professor Lee Newman comments, “We can study how people should behave and how people actually behave. Historically, these two approaches have been pursued independently. If we want to design better market mechanisms, craft more effective policies, and create more productive organizations we have to study and teach both perspectives, ideally at the same time.”

The IExperiments is designed to allow professors throughout IE to conduct behavioral experiments in the classroom, with students playing the role of experimental participants. The tool automates the process of running the experiment, collecting the data, displaying the results, and walking through the core lessons. Engineers & Lawyers is the first experiment and it is based on work in psychology and behavioral economics carried out by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and colleagues.

As Professor Newman notes, “It’s one thing to read and learn about the results of seminal behavioral experiments. It’s quite another thing for students to participate in classroom replications of these experiments. The former leads to knowledge about behavior, the latter to behavioral change with lasting impact.”

The experiment was recently performed by IMBA students in the elective Behavioral Judgment & Decision Making. As one student commented “Despite the results, that were surprising, the tool was great, giving the right “suspense” for the results and keeping them in a graphic and useful way”. Another student noted “it´s interesting and funny to start a new topic with an application – testing yourself”.

Freshmen beginning their IE learning experience

At the start of the 2010 academic year, new students participated in a weeklong event of activities. The object was to help orientate them to their new lifes, living and studying at IE University. These activities included tours of the campus and the city of Segovia, and introductory workshops to the various services and courses. A highlight was an outdoor activity park where students had fun completing four different circuits, one of which featured was an enormous wire gliding course, with glides up to 160 meters, trapezes, rope bridges, nets and tree ropes. In the words of a new student: “It was really helpful. Most of the activities were challenging and helped us to start getting to know one another.”
All of their activities are aimed at helping new students form friendships with other students, alumni and faculty, and to become more comfortable in their new home.
As Ana Martin Lopez, director of the student office underlines: ”They had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the activities. A true learning experience.”