Coursera launches global MBA aimed at APAC learners
FUTURE OF WORK The new programme hopes to bridge the skill deficiency gap in the labour market currently by shifting the focus of learning on problem solving and soft skills
NEW DELHI: Coursera recently launched a full-time global MBA programme on its platform in collaboration with Australia’s Macquarie University. The programme is aimed at the workforce in the APAC region and is the first such collaboration with a university in this region.
“This is an innovative, forward-looking programme which borrows from the trends of the future of work and blends the best practices of the future of learning,” said Leonie Tickle, associate dean, learning and teaching, Macquarie University, who was recently visiting Delhi and Mumbai, as part of a delegation, to run seminars about this programme.
The global MBA will be offered through 24 courses across six specializations, namely, strategizing, leading, analyzing, adapting, influencing and the capstone project which is a final project integrating the learning of the other five specializations.
“The value proposition of this programme is flexibility and stackability – students can pick and choose courses as per their interest and convenience while finishing at their pace,” said Giovanni Dubois, director, university partnerships, Coursera. He added that given the average age on the platform globally is 32 years, this course is mindful of the time commitment of a busy professional – generally mid-career.
The 24 courses cost 1000 USD each taking the cumulative cost of the programme to 24,000 USD as against the on-campus programme’s cost of 80,000 USD.
The fastest one can complete the entire programme, i.e. the 24 units across the six specializations stacked as a degree, is one year though learners can take individual course units as per their pace and needs. There is a teaching schedule of six terms and each course runs for six weeks and learners can club courses or take breaks as they
The global MBA WILL Be offered Through 24 Courses across six specialisations
The launch of the programme comes in the wake of the changing nature of the labour market. According to Lan Snell, academic programme director, global MBA, there was an urgent need to develop an innovative curriculum that anticipates the changing needs of the future workplace where employers were looking for a different set of capabilities than what was currently available.
“Traditional MBA programmes have focused on technical skills like financial management and while those are important, soft skills will become more important in the future and the ability to communicate, to negotiate, to train others, to persuade and to solve problems creatively will be nec- essary to survive in the market,” added Juliet Bourke, partner, human capital consulting, Deloitte Australia, representing an industry partner of Macquarie University.
However, not all elements of a traditional MBA have been discarded completely.
“The strength of an MBA programme is networking and that’s an element that has been retained in this programme,” explains Tickle.
“The online interaction allows a virtual blooming of relationships that can eventually translate into local meetups or global industry partnerships.”
According to faculty members at Macquarie, launching the programme on a platform like Coursera allows them to deliver high-quality content at a certain scale of delivery given that India has the second highest number of learners on Coursera.
“The disaggregation of a degree programme into bytelike. sized chunks allows learners not only flexibility but also eases access for those who may not have the time or money or other resources to access midcareer learning,” says Yvonne Breyer, programme director, design and experience, global MBA.
The disaggregation is also in sync with the changes in the future of learning as currently, most of our education is frontloaded which means it happens at a young age and the learning drops as one moves to the middle management stage but the professionals’ market has become more competitive so one needs to be able to consistently re-adapt and reskill for this market, elaborates Snell.
“Hosting the programme on Coursera also generates data and feedback on how students interact with the curriculum thereby allowing the faculty to update courses instantly instead of having to wait a semester to incorporate changes,” concludes Dubois.