BENGALURU, June 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
- IIMB Becomes First Indian Management School to Partner With edX to Roll out Free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
- IIMBx to Launch Eight Courses by December 2015
The future of education is online; the vast Indian talent pool has traditionally been handicapped by physical capacity constraints of premier educational institutions. Only the very best would qualify to partake of such knowledge, while an equally deserving majority had been deprived of it. India's premier management school - the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) - now provides the opportunity to all the deserving talent through IIMBx - a platform to offer free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) through edX - a non-profit online initiative by MIT and Harvard.
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IIMB is the only Indian management school to offer free online management and business education through edX platform. The brain child of Dr. Sushil Vachani, Director, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, IIMBx aims to provide world-class education in management and related areas to every interested learner in India and across the world. IIMBx provides a chance to all the learners of the world to be affiliated with India's premier management institute.
Sharing his vision on the launch of first four MOOCs, Dr. Sushil Vachani, Director, IIM Bangalore, said, "Our first promise is that of massive reach. Associated with that promise of massive reach is an enormous opportunity for social impact. We want to reach out to the masses and make the power of technology accessible to everyone by highlighting on the quality and designing the courses carefully to make it easily delivered to all. We also plan to introduce various regional transcripts to reach learners of India."
"As IIMBx, India's leading B-school will leverage new technologies and deliver education via MOOCs. Handpicked courses taught by some of our eminent faculty will be offered free of cost as MOOCs through the edX platform. One of the many benefits of MOOC is continuous learning made convenient in every form of various gizmos we use today," he explained.
At the launch, Dr. Vachani was joined by his fellow faculty members - Shankar Venkatagiri, Rahul De, Vasanthi Srinivasan and P D Jose - who shared their experiences of teaching on a new platform and engaging with students, who, they quipped, "could mute us any time!" Dr. Shankar Venkatagiri's course on 'Statistics for Business' will be first to roll off the blocks on July 7 and has seen over 5000 registrations already. Courses on Innovation and IT Management (Prof. Rahul De) and Introduction to Operations Management (Prof. B Mahadevan) follow in the month of July and August.
"We have received an overwhelming response from participants, with about 10000 registrations within a short span of rolling out courses. IIMBx will launch eight courses by December 2015. The response to these courses will be carefully monitored and analyzed so that we not only improve the design of future MOOCs, but also use our learning from MOOCs to enhance the educational experience of our students enrolled in on-campus programs," explained Dr. Vachani.
"If we have to achieve our prime minister's vision of 'Make in India' we have to upgrade the skill of the vast majority of workers and we have to provide support to all those people who are struggling at it," he added.
With over 600 million people under the age of 25 and a struggling traditional system to support the growing world economy in the world, an analysis is that it would require over 1500 campuses and even more qualified pedagogy, to staff and up-skill. Given the challenges and the need to up-skill the talent, the HRD Ministry announced the introduction of MOOCs to offer free short term courses that provide certificates across subjects from premier institutes. IIMBx is in line with the initiative to integrate technology and provide free world-class education to anyone interested in learning.
"Today we already have about four and half million students from across the globe on our platform and over five lakh students are from India. We are honored to welcome IIM Bangalore to edX. A leading management school in India, IIMB will deliver high quality courses and new perspectives to the edX learning community and reach learners around the world," said Professor Anant Agarwal, CEO - edX, on the partnership with IIMB.
MOOCs is a powerful force in the online education that has opened doors to quality education in every corner of the world. As the potential impact of this program is very broad, IIMBx will reach a much wider and diverse spectrum of learners across India and around the world, ranging from students wanting to broaden their horizons, to teachers looking to enhance their pedagogy.
The IIMBx MOOCs embrace the "active learning" methodology by giving the learner the opportunity to employ various learning modalities - listening, watching, reading and acting on the knowledge gained. Each concept is explained using a carefully designed learning sequence that intersperses byte-sized videos with quizzes, readings and assignments. Discussion forums with thought-provoking questions add to the peer learning experience.
About IIMB
Established in 1973, the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) is widely acknowledged as one of the premier management institutes in India with an international reputation for its programs, alumni and faculty. IIMB's faculty have studied and taught at some of the best universities in India and abroad. They bring vast industry, consulting and academic experience to IIMB, making it a hub of vibrant academic activity. They are actively engaged in policy formulation, research, case writing and consulting. Their research papers and analysis are printed in leading academic and practitioner journals and create a huge impact in the business world. IIMB's research centres include the Centre for Public Policy, the Nadathur S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, the Centre for Financial Markets and Risk Management, the Centre for Corporate Governance and Citizenship, the Centre for Software and IT Management, the Centre for Supply Chain Management and the Centre for Enterprise Resource Planning. IIMB collaborates with over a hundred leading management schools in the world for various research initiatives and student and faculty exchange programs.
For more information, visit: http://www.iimb.ernet.in/
About edX
edX offers interactive online classes and MOOCs from the world's best universities, colleges and organizations. Most topics are related to subjects such as science, engineering, arts, philosophy, literature, business and economics. Through institutional partners and other leading global members, edX presents the best of higher education online, offering opportunity to anyone who wants to achieve, thrive and grow. Founded in 2012, edX is a non-profit online initiative created by its founding partners Harvard and MIT. EdX today has over 3 million users taking over 300 courses online and enjoys affiliation to institutions like Stanford University, UC Berkeley, University of Queensland, Harvard, MIT, IIT Bombay and IIM Bangalore.
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