Alternative teaching

Today I want to talk about the “Launch program”. Why? First, because I promised you I will do it and second, because of the FT article I read yesterday. From my perspective the Launch Program is sort of an introduction program to the MBA. IE gives us classes of different contemporary cultures as Modern Japanese, Modern Chinese, Modern Spanish, as well as Teambuilding sessions, Decision Making and Case Method workshops, etc…
Some classes were really interesting, like the Modern Japanese class where the professor explained a clear picture of Japanese Culture, not only giving demographic facts but society trends and problems, and other classes were really boring, like Modern Spanish culture class where the professor explained the Spanish history of the last 3 decades (maybe I have heard about it so many times I get really bored) and not providing new substantial information.
This year IE added some innovation in the “Launch Program”. We receive classes from the ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION and the SHAKESPEARE´S GLOBE. The overall experience was great but IE has to improve some aspects of the experience.
The ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION experience was the worst of the two new modules. The design professor failed to explain the objective of the module. In fact reading the FT article I found out that the objective was:
“…to expose them [students] to design thinking and working processes associated with architecture.”
Or that:
“The idea, says Brett Steele, director of the school, is to encourage participants to work creatively and collaboratively.”
Not only the objective was not clear, the tasks we were working on change rampantly because the professors found out that it was not enough to fill the six hours of class. Some classmates where so upset with the module that commented they wanted a refund for the 6 hours experience. I don’t want to be as extreme as my fellow students. I think that we can get something from the experience, like the importance of creativity or the teamwork in business, but again the event can be improved.
The SHAKESPEARE´S GLOBE experience was definitely better than the previous. The professor knew how to engage us and challenge us. They explain correctly what was the purpose of each exercise. And we challenged them to explain us more about how to develop the soft skills they were teaching us.
Some classmates will disagree with me because they think that the whole SHAKESPEARE´S GLOBE experience was a big pile of BS (relaxation, voice modulation, acting, way to stand in front of an audience and face expression) but I would replay to them that they failed to understand what the professors were trying to teach us.
IE is suffering what all innovators experience, the lack of a reference point. I am sure IE will learn from its mistakes and make the best of its previous experience.
To conclude, I think that the experience was great seeing it from a broad perspective but you could argue with me depending of your way of thinking.