AMBA & BGA |Education Technology Research

AMBA & BGA Education Technology Research

Research conducted by AMBA & BGA in association with Barco has revealed that, post-COVID-19, business schools are looking forward to a new era of education technology. Having proven to be both pragmatic and agile in the face of disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, business schools are ready to enter a new chapter.

216 decision-makers at international business schools completed AMBA & BGA’s research. Each demonstrated that, while initially, they were reactive in adopting new technology in the face of social distancing, they also tackled challenges along the way – quickly addressing them with innovative strategies.

Key findings

Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic

91% of Business School leaders have been involved in more digital or online learning opportunities since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic; 85% conducted lectures using virtual teaching technology; 61% offered flexible timings for delivering programmes; and 59% increased the capacity of teaching related to emerging technology and innovation in 2020.
96% of Business School leaders said their School had increased its use of online delivery methods for programmes because of Covid-19; 71% of Business School leaders said their institution used online delivery methods pre-pandemic.
84% of courses were taught in classrooms, pre-Covid-19, and this dropped to just 24% in 2020, while online delivery shot up from 8%, pre-Covid-19, to 68% during the pandemic.
98% of Business School leaders believe their School was very successful or fairly successful in taking programmes online due to Covid-19.

Investment in education technology

74% of respondents said their business school is investing a moderate amount or more into online teaching for MBA programmes. The MBA is currently receiving the most funding compared to other programmes, for digital learning among the business schools represented by respondents.
88% of Business School leaders believe the effectiveness of digital teaching on the MBA programmes at their Schools to have been either ‘very effective’, or ‘somewhat effective’.
The most commonly cited teaching method used at business schools is live video conferencing systems from PC, which 89% of participants say is being used at their institutions. Other teaching methods used included e-learning / MOOCs (34%); live virtual classrooms from studios (33%); and live online virtual classroom software PCs (26%). However, 80% also say that their school has offered some classroom-based learning over the past year.

Perceptions of the success of digital education technology

52% of Business School leaders believe that online teaching methods are ‘the same as’, ‘somewhat better’, or ‘much better’ than traditional classroom teaching.
48% admitted online teaching methods were ‘somewhat worse’ than a traditional classroom experience.
76% of participants believe less travel for students was the biggest advantage of online teaching; 71% value the fact that they could record sessions; 71% value the reduction in travel time for staff enabled by online teaching; and 70% think the biggest advantage is international collaboration.
The major challenges faced by Business School leaders when delivering online education include connection issues from students (cited by 85% of respondents); lack of student engagement (73%); changing the design of programmes to make them suitable for students (61%); and connection issues from educators (55%).
73% of Business School leaders believe the biggest problem with online teaching is transforming courses to fit an online format. Other problems frequently cited by survey participants include gaining feedback from students on their understanding (cited by 52% of respondents).
45% believe that technology is ineffective at delivering networking opportunities; 39% think online technology is ineffective when it comes to soft skills development; and 37% believe technology had not been effective at delivering wellbeing initiatives for students in their institutions.

Looking ahead

82% of business schools plan to invest further in technology over the coming two years to enable online teaching; while 18% are not sure or are considering it. No survey participants said they did not intend to invest in online teaching methods.
Business School leaders predict that blended and hybrid models will replace the traditional classroom-based delivery of courses in the next five years. Using the MBA programme as an example, 21% of leaders think MBA programmes will be taught in a traditional classroom format in five years, while 38% believe blended delivery will be the most prevalent form of teaching; and 38% predict a hybrid approach.
Digitalisation is deemed the most important concept in running a business school over the next 10 years, with almost two-thirds of leaders (63%) believing it to be essential.
83% of leaders think it is either ‘very likely’ or ‘fairly likely’ that the fundamentals of the MBA will change in the next 10 years, compared with 77% who were of this opinion in late 2019.

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