ISB experiments with new teaching tech to improve student participation in classroom

MUMBAI: Faculty at the Indian School of Business are experimenting with new teaching technology to help in increased student engagement in the classroom.

The innovation, called, ‘The Engaged Classroom’, is in the testing stage at the premier business school. It has been co-created by Arun Pereira, executive director at ISB’s Centre for Teaching, Learning and Case Development along with technology company Creatist founded by ISB alumni Shouvik Dhar and his colleague Subhash Chanda. 

‘The Engaged Classroom’ embeds questions in reading material that are given to students in class. Students cannot turn the leaf of the articles or progress from one topic to another unless they answer the embedded questions. This way, no student can come to class not having read the study material; besides, the teacher has the responses from the students.

The technology can be also used in class to ask questions to which students have to respond in real time simultaneously within a time limit. This way the teacher ensures continuous participation and engagement of the entire class. 

The technology, which is an active learning method, attempts to address some of the key challenges faced by Bschool professors both within and outside the class. These include pre-class issue of students coming to class unprepared, in-class issues such as students arriving late to class or not involving with in-class work/calculations and post-class difficulty in grading student participation. 

“The new technology will enable faculty to pick the relevant and more effective responses during discussion and have a productive discussion,” says Pereira. In a week’s time, he will be teaching the new technology to PHD students from top Indian business schools at ISB’s doctoral consortium and about 30 faculty from top business schools at a master-teacher programme at the B-school. 

The technology itself is not new per say and has been in use in many schools in India: Educomp and HCL Learning are two companies that have been equipping schools with such technology. However this might be the first time a B-School in India is embracing tech toys to create a new breed of managers.

Adapted from the Economic Times