How Duke and Dartmouth MBAs Transitioned Online

The coronavirus pandemic has forced b-schools to quickly shift their strategies.

Back in March, as countries announced lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders, many b-schools had to quickly transition classes online.

A NEW NORMAL

For many students, Zoom became the new normal when it came to the classroom experience.

At Duke’s Fuqua School, post-spring break classes were all taken on the Zoom platform. For many, the switch was relatively smooth.

“There were of course initial hiccups as people were testing the waters, but within one week, it became a rather pleasant experience,” Sandeep Panda, a Class of 2021 Fuqua MBA, writes for Fuqua Blogs. 

MAKING A SMOOTH TRANSITION

At many b-schools, the switch online was rapid. The faculty needed to ensure that the virtual environment aligned with elements of the physical classroom.

Panda says the video component was a huge asset in making the online classroom at Fuqua come alive.

“We all kept our videos on, and we showed up as if we were in the actual classrooms,” Panda writes. “The professors were initially teaching from their offices or classrooms in Fuqua and later as the local lockdowns were initiated, they started teaching from their study rooms in their own homes.”

At Tuck School of Business, the switch online was supported by the school’s partnership with The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice on the Master of Health Care Delivery Science (MHCDS) program.

MHCDS is an intensive online degree with short residential periods and Tuck has partnered with the program since 2011. MHCDS professors advised faculty on the platforms and processes necessary to smoothly transition to remote teaching and the virtual classroom environment.

“We started by leveraging the online learning expertise across our community,” Joe Hall, senior associate dean for teaching and learning at Tuck, says in a Tuck blog post.

OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Beyond the classroom, b-schools are looking for creative ways for students to connect with one another.

At Tuck, students started putting out weekly newsletters promoting various gatherings from trivia nights to baking classes.

“The students jumped at the opportunity to be thoughtful and creative and still have this personal, connected and transformative experience, but doing it differently,” Sally Jaeger, the associate dean of the MBA Program at Tuck, says in a blog post.

For many, this is the new normal. And while students can’t physically gather, knowing that a community is out there makes it all the more worth it.

“Tuck is what you make of it,” Peter Bourgeois, a rising first-year at Tuck, says in a blog post. “Come here ready to contribute to the learning experience of your peers. The difference between in-person and online has not been as great as I thought. You are going to learn just as much, if not more.”

Sources: Duke Fuqua, Tuck School of Business