Some Unique Learning Methods

At IIM Bangalore during my MBA (then called PGDM), I was exposed to learning methods like Take-home exams, presentations, book reviews etc. for the first time. I have preserved a few handouts from that era, and here are a couple from Prof. S.K. Roy's Organisational Behaviour course. But this is a writeup by the group of students who were aksed to do a Book Review- all of us had to review and present a book. We did one on Intelligence Testing, I remember. But these are from two other groups. These were really good learning experiences, both for the process, and content. 

 

Trip to an MBA Class

 I mean my MBA class, as a student. That would be late 1982. The subject was Organizational Behaviour. I recently found some notes-cyclostyled (you may not know what that is, but it was a primitive form of copying or Xeroxing. They involved some readings, an exam description, a definition, and an analysis of my personality. Here they are. Most are self-explanatory-

This set of courses- 3 of them, including one elective, were some of the best I had at IIMB and the others were not bad either! Only a couple I slept through. But O.B. really opened my eyes, helped me understand myself and others a lot better, and I think may have contributed to whatever little success I have had at managing people in various positions of academic leadership I have held in my 40 years since! That's a lot of contribution, but of course it was the foundation for other learning over the years. This is probably the most important subject in an MBA program, if taught by experts.

Best Presentations

What were your best presentations, according to you?

I can remember two or three from my student days-

1. During my MBA days, we made a presentation for Prof. SK Roy's OB course. It was the review of a book called The Tyranny of Testing-a book about why IQ type multiple Choice Tests may not be the best way to test many good things. We worked hard (it was a group presentation), and I remember we did get a lot of applause.

2. The second was a solo by me, for another course, Effective Communication during MBA at IIM Bangalore. I chose Romantic Poets as my theme, and with the aid of Keats, Shelley, Byron and so forth, made a very interesting presentation, I was told by some of the audience.

3. A third that I remember was during a Project Management assignment in a Ph.D. course at Clemson. We decided to present CPM and PERT through a project that James Bond had-On Her Majesty's Secret Service. We watched the film's video and made a PERT chart out of it.

Presentations can be an interesting learning tool, that you may remember long after the lectures have been forgotten.