Research Shows- 5

My research into the academic work shows-

That teaching-learning is effective only when it has a marketing orientation- not that students are customers.

I mean methods followed need to be appropriate for the students on hand. Tough projects for school kids are essentially done by parents or others, for example.

In-class work is as important as home work.. maybe more, as it can be directly supervised. 

Collaboration needs to be taught through examples, like group assignments.

Evaluation should be multi-modal, with a viva of some sort, or presentations, included.

Feedback should be honest, and if possible, constructive. 

Clear goals written in a course outline help.

Many teachers fail on some of the above.

 

Not Just Presentations -Pedagogy

 Learning Methods are many, and a professor can invent or modify some existing ones too. Assignments that include a presentation are a good tool to build communication skills, but other objectives can be served by using other methods. A few I have used-

Blogging

Role Plays based on short cases

Just role plays to learn about Qualitative Research Techniques such as Focus Groups or Depth Interviews. Each of these requires a different skill-set. 

Questionnaire-building or modification to suit changing times. Can be a group exercise done in class.

Bidding to simulate auctions of different kinds, in Negotiations, or in Digital (Paid) Marketing 

Shooting a small video/reel to advertise a product/service

Captioning a post with attractive copy.

In addition, you can use exams as a learning tool by being creative in designing questions that test thinking ability or application orientation.

Jorhat Teachers' Meet

Our partners from NDRL School, Ms. Surabhi and Ms. Rani Khound, above. They speak to the press, below. 

 We did a unique program for school teachers of Jorhat, Assam. Around 50 teachers of various subjects participated enthusiastically. Our Dean Dr. Bhattacharyya and I were the resource-persons, and talked about how pedagogy needs to change with changing times. 

This was the program. Our partners from NDRL School, Ms. Surabhi and Ms. Rani Khound, below. It was held at the local Planetarium.

Above, the Dean with the participants, taking them through an exercise..

Classrooms and Learning

 My experience tells me that learning happens better when both teachers and

students get creative. A conventional classroom has limits, and combined with

traditional methods of evaluation of students, it results in short-term learning at best,

mostly meant to pass exams or excel at exams.

If learning with impact is the goal, as it should be, a lot of unconventional approaches

to learning are needed. My view is that some kind of action-based-learning works

best, and can be combined with some presentation or other means of feedback from

the facilitator/teacher.

I have experimented with role-plays involving case studies/situations, projects with

some data collection and analysis, simulation based on a computer program, and

making of video content or writing blogs and trying to get readership. Of course, a

few more types of exercises such as writing an email trying to persuade people to

buy something and competitive bidding exercises.

Teaching Can be Fun

 Learning and teaching can both be fun, if the conditions are right, and the teachers are open-minded. What methods they use to impart learning makes a lot of difference.

Recently, I had occasion to handle a couple of Research Methods sections at Prestige University. The students did a group exercise for a project, choosing a brand that they would base some consumer research on.

Pics from that session. 

What Travel Has Taught Me

 If you can afford to, travel. If you can't, still try to.. coz it's a great teacher. You learn through observation, immersion, and a lot of interactions. For instance, I was fascinated by the varied experiences in recent years at Vietnam, Ladakh, Japan, Bali, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, during international travels. Also, within India, I went to Nagaland for the first time, and had a fascinating interaction with an MLA and a Minister, and learnt a lot. Also met a businessman who drove us around, and told us about modernisation of business practices.

People in Bali including taxi drivers were very polite, punctual and well-behaved. Their architecture- temples particularly- is fascinating, and different. 

Japan is a very modern country technically, but they follow quite a few traditions too. Innovators in many ways, ahead of the West.

Vietnam- just the Ha Long Bay cruise is enough to give you goosebumps. And they have a Temple of Literature dedicated to Confucius, my hero..

Cambodia has a rich culture, partly Hindu, part Buddhist..

Sri Lanka grows a lot of tea and spices, and follows Ayurveda..

Singapore is known for good governance, and Management of govt. services. Great universities too.

Habits and Learnings

 Habits are formed unconsciously, many a time. We learn, of course, from multiple sources, starting with our parents in formative years. Moving on to friends, classmates, teachers and anyone else we may get inspired by. 

We tend to pick up habits or learnings from all these. If you tend to spend a lot of time with a few people in your immediate circle that you like, they may influence you a lot. Or role models whom you look up to.

But my theory about this goes a bit further. You may end up learning from people you dislike too. For instance, a corrupt bureaucrat may inspire you to be the opposite. Or, if you find an incapable administrator, or leader, you may start thinking about performing that kind of a role, just to prove that you can do it better.

Any examples come to mind, of either kind? I have a few, and have written about them elsewhere.

Grandmoms Are Back in Fashion

 What they used to drill into us- 

Eat healthy, home-made food.

Be frugal.

Recycle, don't waste- cloth bags instead of plastic, just an example.

Be nice to people.

And tell stories, keep it interesting!

That last one is the advice most Digital/Branding experts now dish out.

Learning from grandma is the best learning!

Quality of the Learning Experience

 There needs to be a lot more flexibility in teaching-learning methods across higher ed. and perhaps other levels too. We need to give teachers the autonomy to innovate and experiment. Of course, subject to the recruitment of teachers being conscious of quality.

Right now, at school level, the battle seems to have been won by coaching classes. Entrance exams galore make that possible, in a way. Medical, Law, Engineering are the prime culprits. But more entrance exams are coming up each year or two.

Anyway, back to the classroom. Exploration, and exercises/projects are some under-utilised methods in my view. I am not talking of teaching coding for computers, but social sciences such as management, where dealing with people is the major skill that has to be a part of the learning goals. Too much emphasis on the 'knowing' part and not enough on the 'doing' or 'being' parts may make Jack a dull boy (and Jill a dull girl)..diversity in the class is a also a desirable goal, to help peer learning thrive.

If entrepreneurship can also be a small part of the curriculum, the job-hunting mentality among many grads may give way to a more exciting and satisfying journey for many. Of course, selecting students with a risk-taking ability may need a re-look at admission processes. Maybe we can talk about this another time.

People as Case Studies

 Why should organisations have all the fun? We could, I propose, write case studies about humans who have made a difference. One might argue that there are biographies -auto or otherwise- that do this. But it's not the same as writing a dispassionate (relatively) account of someone's life, in my view. Also, like a case study, one could stop and ask a question about some dilemma or decision point in the person's life, and try and learn from it, through some debate.

Humans of.... is a series that does some basic things right. I am suggesting taking it a step further. Any takers/

Digital marketing- In class Exercises

While teaching Digital Marketing at IIM Indore, for both executives and regular MBA students, I tried many new things. I was also teaching the course for the first time, so I had kept it to 10 sessions, half the usual.

I like to experiment with assignments rather than just use cases- so I tried an assignment on blogging about Digital Marketing topics, a Bidding game that simulated Keyword-based bidding that happens in real life for each platform, and writing of emails addressed to a specific target segment or Persona (to me, sometimes) as some exercises, besides a website design exercise  only the broad structure) in my digital marketing course. Live exercises and projects are good for learning, in my experience. Particularly when accompanied by presentations with Q and A. I can literally "see" the learning in many cases.

When blogs were given as an exercise, the students were also required to promote the blog on their social media pages. A free blogging platform was to be used, such as Blogger or Wordpress. Quite a few interesting presentations resulted, including viewership statistics at the end of 5-6 weeks.

Youtube ads also were simulated through making a small video to advertise a given product or service, as a classroom exercise or assignment.

Of course, we discussed a couple of cases too, but the hands-on exercises were far more useful as learning tools. 

Teaching Tips

 My experience tells me that some of these work. Of course, you need to discover what works for your students, based on many factors. I have tried some of these (successfully, I think) in my classes over the years, mostly in higher education in management.

Instead of making a statement, ask a question. Wait for an answer. You can ask someone specific what he or she thinks about it, if there's no answer in a few seconds. Or, make a joke about why everyone is asleep, was the food good (if after lunch), or are they hungry (if before).

A joke always works, because if students have an overdose of dull classes one after the other in a day, they are looking for release. It gets their attention, almost always.

An activity promotes discussion, better than a moderated discussion or a general case discussion. You can always close with a moderated presentation or discussion after the activity, or a written submission and a discussion of a few of those. 

Feedback also helps. Immediate feedback for a presentation, or written comments in the class immediately after an assignment is the most useful.

Sharu Rangnekar-A Tribute

 One of India's early management conultants, Sharu passed away recently (late 2020/Jan. 2021). I first saw him and heard him in 1982 when he came down for a session during orientation for us doing MBA, at IIM Bangalore. Many years later, we invited him to speak at IMT Nagpur where I was Director at the time.

He was older, but had not lost his sense of humour and emphasis on the essentials. What he reiterated, and has said in his books (In the Wonderland of Indian Managers and others), is two things-

In teaching/learning, video or visuals work better than text or PPTs. Second, humour always works. He was the epitome of both. His lectures included screening some excerpts from his videos, which he had made many moons ago (ahead of his time there), and his humour was classy.

He also came to Pune in 2012, to release my autobiography at Crossword, courtesy Smita Dabholkar Singh, my colleague who organised the event. He was his usual self, and did not pull any punches. The event was a success, mainly due to him.

One of a kind! 

Why Teaching Videos Don't Work

Well, theoretically, they could. Even before AI came along, teachers should have been replaced by videos shot with similar content. So why has that not happened?

For one, they are (usually) boring. The are like canned food. Cooking live is so much more than the content, right? It's the process..or freshness, if you like.

The video remains the same, whenever you play it. But no two classes on the same subject by the same teacher are the same. There is spontaneity, new things happen either because of the teacher, or because of the students.

Peer learning is missing, and so is the social nature of a real classroom. These are not trivial, they add value to learning. We are not computers, who can be fed "learning". We also have to enjoy what happens while we learn.

Crowdsourcing in Digital Marketing

Some class exercises to understand how crowdsourcing might happen. Experiential Learning!

Growing Out or Outgrowing

You grow out of many things, or outgrow many things- like your clothes.

Your tastes change- in food, for instance. I never liked pumpkin when I was young. Now I enjoy the vegetable- yeah, I know, I am giving away secrets. Eggplant Moussaka, I grew into, when I had it in Greece-it is yummy, if you haven't tried it.

In music, they haven't changed a lot. No, that's not right. In (Hindi) film music they haven't changed. Kishore Kumar is there still, right at the top. In non-film music, they have. Jagjit Singh, Ghulam Ali, Mehdi Hasan, Pankaj Udhas, they all came later in life and became life-long friends. The radio remains a favourite medium to listen to music, though the karaoke mike helps for self-expression at times.

Writing by hand is almost forgotten, and typing it is, for now, until thought-readers come in.

Photography is still a hobby, but with a know-all camera where I rarely set anything (aperture, focal length), except the zoom, maybe. The selfie, I am still trying to learn (Shraddha, you have to be patient!).

Taste in people has remained more or less the same- genuine people, of any age. They have all enriched me in various ways. And yes, people who smile more than scowl.

I have outgrown, largely, the lecture method of teaching..never liked it much, with rare exceptions of one or two teachers who had my attention during college/school years.

Writing, I may never outgrow- I am a complete addict. So watch out, readers..

Mangalore and Nitte

Visited Mangalore after a very long time. The occasion was a conference on Learning and Teaching at Nitte's Justice KS Hegde Institute of Management. A bonus was meeting Lionel, an old friend from my IIMK days. An IIMB senior, Sankaran, happens to be the director of the Nitte Institute which hosted the conference. Mangalore is a quaint town, and reminded me of Calicut with its narrow bylanes and steep ups and downs everywhere. I presented a paper on Blogging as a learning tool in my classes on Digital Marketing.

Teaching New Courses

Teaching new courses for the first time is an experience. You don't want to do it too often, but you want to try it once in a while.

I mostly taught Marketing Research since I started teaching in Indian Business Schools-and still do. But at times I have taught Business Communication (YES!), Advertising, B to B Marketing, and a Seminar on Thought Leadership. At Indore, I started teaching two or three new courses- Digital Marketing (for several different programs), and for the Ph. D. program, Retailing and Tourism Marketing.

I learnt a lot from these, and that learning continues each time I teach the course. I like to experiment with assignments rather than just use cases- so I have tried Blogging, a Bidding game, and writing of emails as some exercises, besides a website design exercise in my digital marketing course. Live exercises and projects are good for learning, in my experience. Particularly when accompanied by presentations with Q and A. I can literally "see" the learning in many cases.

Staying Loyal

This is not about relationships-go look for an agony aunt-but about loyalty to organisations/jobs.

What makes people want to continue to work for an organisation, say after 2-3 years?

Learning
Inertia
Good pay/perks-golden handcuffs, as they are known sometimes
Challenge
New responsibilities/promise of promotion
Emotional attachment to people in the organisation
A bond signed in return for something like training given, study leave granted,..

In my case, there were any or many of these whenever I stayed back for more than two years. I have stayed more than two years at Kirloskar Institute (18 hole Golf course), IMT Nagpur (great people), and at IIM Indore (Poha, kachori and jalebi being the Sev-ing grace)-close to my fifth birthday here now. At Vignana Jyoti, too, which was a startup B-school in Hyderabad, and the biryani was irresistible. Yes, Biryani can be a reason too.

Golf Academy at IIM Indore

Well, this is an attempt to teach Golf (only what I know) to the IIM Indore community, starting at the top- with faculty. This has got an enthusiastic response, with around 10 percent of the faculty becoming Golf Beginners, to start with. We recently had a session in Thailand as a part of our extension abroad!! Here's proof. We even imported a coach, Dhanapal, from Coimbatore. Here in the first pic, he is seen with his trainee, Prof. Amitabh Kodwani.

 Prof. Jayasimha (above), and me try out our swing.