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From Bricks to Clicks: The Evolution of Business Education

The pandemic is not only about masks and home office, but it is all about digitalization and quality leadership.

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses have had their strengths and weaknesses revealed in a blink of an eye. Well-established digital concepts led to a rise in sales, while other businesses struggled to keep up with the digital demands. There is no turning back: post-corona will be shaped by new digital formats, which will diversify business models. However, with empty offices and no regular face-to-face meetings, leadership skills are being tested just as much as the technological infrastructure of companies. Poor leadership skills can affect the workforce and consequently, harm the business. In order to make leaders fit for the upcoming challenges, education must break new ground, which requires updated training content and innovative training formats. This is where Educational Technology (EdTech) comes into play.

EdTech meets today’s requirements like no other educational setup.

Why EdTech

Educational Technology (EdTech) is defined as any form of teaching and learning that makes use of technological processes or resources. Digital learning is on the rise, this is not new news. Knowledge transfer has become easier and partly on remote, via blended, hybrid and online teaching. EdTech´s undisputable advantage is that it can provide educational services independent of place and time: educational content on demand, available worldwide. It meets today’s requirements like no other educational setup.

How Edtech Develops Leadership Skills – Two Examples

To equip leaders with the necessary skills, we at TUM School of Management Executive and Professional Education offer various programs using EdTech and are pioneers in this field. The emphasis lies not only on teaching the importance of digitalization, but also on the use of digital methods and tools.

The first digital tool that was implemented in our Executive and Professional Education programs is the Digital Coaching App EMMA. The coaching app is designed to facilitate goal setting, to foster behavioral routines, and to prompt leaders’ self-reflection. It supports leaders in obtaining quality skills in four key areas: theory transfer, self-reflection, feedback, and tools and techniques for implementation. EMMA successfully increases the engagement of leaders in proactive learning behaviors, prevents relapses in transfer of training, and develops leadership skills beyond the classroom.

EdTech also creates a valuable learning experience by experimenting with Virtual Reality (VR). Virtual and augmented technologies are used in a playful way at the TUM Extended Reality Lab located in Heilbronn and in pop-up labs in Munich. TheTUM Center for Digital Leadership Development has developed a 360° VR Leadership Video Application, with which digital learning is being showcased in a safe environment for leadership training and management education. VR allows different scenarios to be imitated and gives the managers the possibility to put into practice the acquired knowledge. The virtual interaction is analyzed and evaluated with experts afterwards.

Our Executive MBA students already benefit from both EdTech tools, as they are an integral part of the Executive MBA programs. Furthermore, the digital coaching app EMMA can be implemented in our customized programs, where we offer a variety of individual solutions for organizations who plan to train employees, as well as international universities who would like to send a group of delegates to Munich for trainings. The curriculum is carefully developed based on the needs of the group and in close cooperation with our program management, academic experts, and the customer.

EdTech at the TUM School of Management

With our Executive and Professional Education programs, we at TUM School of Management are bringing together existing expertise in the fields of leadership research, digitalization, scientific training, media, and didactics. This immense know-how enables future-oriented leadership development based on digital technologies. In order to make managers fit for the complex challenges of a constantly changing working world, lifelong learning with the latest scientific content and new technological tools is crucial. Our unique ecosystem is at the interface of management and technology is embracing the needs of science, business, and wider international society with a particular focus on management and leadership. The quality of leadership determines how a company navigates through a crisis and in the end, defines the very future of a business.

 

The post From Bricks to Clicks: The Evolution of Business Education appeared first on Technical University of Munich – School of Management.

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