Why MBAs Like Hybrid Learning

This week, Harvard Business School announced plans to resume in-person meetings given the declining COVID-19 positivity rate in Massachusetts.

The B-school had hybrid in-person classes last fall, but halted the model in November after rising positive cases. For many HBS students, the hybrid experience doesn’t replace traditional, in-person learning, but many report positive experiences with hybrid instruction – despite its differences, according to The Harvard Crimson.

POSITIVES OF HYBRID INSTRUCTION

A number of HBS students highlighted the value of hybrid learning.

“The combination of lectures and exercises remotely and safely in person taught important communication skills for conducting business over both mediums,” David Chataway, a second-year HBS MBA, tells the Crimson.

For many, the in-person element of the model includes active engagement with the class, even when students are remote.

“Even when I’m not in the classroom for the hybrid classes, just the fact that the professor’s standing in a room and writing on a board and moving around in the space, that even makes the class better,” Olubukunola “Bukie” Adebo, a second-year HBS MBA, tells the Crimson.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

When B-schools decided to go hybrid last year, there were a number of hurdles that faculty and administrative staff had to overcome – from redesigning curricula to ensuring technology could keep up.

But many students have noted the improvement in how B-schools have adapted to hybrid and remote models of learning.

“A lot of professors found out what really works for them — they realized they needed to be drawing on an iPad, or standing in front of a board, or whatever they needed to do to feel a little bit more natural,” Adebo tells the Crimson. “Most professors have figured that out, and they’re more comfortable navigating the Zoom environment.”

For B-schools, hybrid learning has shown to be a strong model of learning. And something that may last well past the pandemic.

“It’s about incorporating blended learning and other sorts of innovations that will outlive the pandemic,” Mohan Sawhney, Kellogg’s associate dean of digital innovation, tells P&Q. “So we are never going back to the way that we were. That’s our journey.”

Sources: HBS, Harvard Magazine, The Harvard Crimson, P&Q

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