Customer Experience | MBA Remote Learning Facilitation

"The case method, foundational to the HBS experience, rests upon an active dialogue between and among faculty and students, rapid questions and answers, and deep intellectual and social engagement. When COVID-19 forced the closure of the classroom, it was 'like a direct hit to the case method.'" - Business Administration Professor, Harvard Business School (HBS)

Change. And then, change again.

With classrooms indefinitely shuttered, change was the only constant at Harvard Business School (HBS). Business faculty and MBA students changed their classroom setting from 100% in-class/in-person to around-the-globe online; to hybrid, then quickly back to 100% remote.

While a team of HBS colleagues innovated and iterated with Zoom product developers on the task of creating longer-term Hybrid Classrooms, my client and I focused on the shorter-term Remote Learning Experiences in his classroom. Excited to connect the dots from varied experiences (design thinking + organizational behavior + faculty partnerships), I embraced the opportunity to be my client's Online Learning Facilitator and incorporate never used-before Zoom into course delivery.

Always open to new technologies and intent on prioritizing engagement and customer experience (CX), I played around with Zoom's functionality, landing on its Spotlight feature. Spotlighting immediately elevated engagement. Globally-dispersed students returned to active dialogue, the cornerstone of the case method. Students' back-and-forth conversations with UK-US based guest speakers amplified.

Extending dialogue beyond the virtual classroom, my client and I created an advanced Slack Workspace. Quality of participation was used in final grade computations. For build-out, I partnered with Student Communications and IT Learning Design departments.

ABOUT THE MBA COURSE: Second-year, MBA elective course Macro Risk, Economics and Markets was created and taught by Huw Pill, former Chief European Economist/Goldman Sachs. His remote colleague-speakers represented institutions such as Central Bank, Goldman Sachs International, Eisler Asset Management, Wellington Asset Management, PIMCO, and LightSky Asset Management. Guests' speakers included:

• Chief Economists
• Chief Equity Strategists
• Currency Portfolio Manager
• Sell-side Analyst
• Hedge Fund Firm Owner, and
• Co-head FX Strategy and EM Portfolios

It was a fun semester.. It was a successful semester.

In addition to the day-to-day and semester-long projects, I initiated processes and took on special projects to lessen the impact of our globally remote situation:

• WFH Communication: Working from home (WFH), proposed daily stand-up meetings with my three clients (business faculty/professors).
• Project Management/Covid Initiative: As project manager for a niche industry alumni newsletter, my client and I repurposed the newsletter as a CTA to course alums, urging the hiring of current course students for special projects and internships. Was in response to the quickly changing internship landscape. Stewarded resources, utilized listservs, and partnered with Alumni Relations and Marketing + Communications departments. Benchmarked user interactions.
• Customer Experience (CX): Storyboarded a Zoom conference for my client, his panel of colleagues, and UK-based HBS alumni.
• RTO Covid Initiative Benchmarking: Benchmarked top 10 business schools' return-to-campus (RTO) policies. Daily data collection was shared in weekly synopses to Harvard Business School's Curriculum Chair. Included communication excerpts from schools to their MBA students.
• Design Thinking Sessions: At the conclusion of the first fully-remote semester at HBS, I proposed Design Thinking sessions to my director as a way to capture and iterate on the remote classroom/office hours experiences. From the p-o-v of faculty administrative assistants.

HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL ARTICLE Creating the HBS Hybrid Classrooms: Collaboration, Experimentation, Equity, and Innovation offers a rich and insightful look into how HBS innovated to build out Hybrid Classrooms, seamlessly bringing together remote and in-person learners.