Recently, IIM Ahmedabad became the latest IIM to have launched a bouquet of online courses under a unified portal called Online@IIMA, which serves as a single gateway to access all the existing and new online programmes by the premier management institute.
Prof Pradyumana Khokle, dean (Programmes), IIMA, told FE that while the institute used to have online courses, it’s the first time these have been introduced in a structured bouquet.
“For our executive education programmes we have had an online component, what we call as blended/hybrid, where part of the programme is online and part of it is face-to-face (live classes). Then during Covid-19 we introduced a lot of online courses,” Prof Khokle said. “Now we have added Coursera and Swayam as platforms. So now there are three ways by which students can reach out to us or we can reach out to students: Coursera, Swayam and our own MOOCs (massive open online courses).”
In the next six months, IIMA will have many new courses on these three platforms.
What are these courses?
Prof Khokle said these include management courses to soft skills such as leadership, and the first course will begin as early as April 2, 2023. These are:
—Leadership Skills (self-paced courses of six-week duration). It’s free of cost and the course will start on April 2.
—Pre MBA Statistics (self-paced course of five-week duration). It’s also free of cost and will start on April 2.
—Accelerated General Management Programme-Blended Learning – Batch: 12 (AGMP-BL12). It’s a live course (online but live classes) of one-year duration that will start on April 5, and costs Rs 6.9 lakh plus GST.
—Senior Management Programme-Blended Learning – Batch: 11 (SMP-BL11): It’s also a live course priced Rs 8.15 lakh. It will start on April 18 and is of one-year duration.
—Executive Programme in Advanced Business Analytics (EPABA) – Blended Learning – Batch: 05 (EPABA-BL05): Priced Rs 4.63 lakh, this five-month course is live and will start on June 26.
—Behavioural Finance – Influence of Heuristics and Biases: It’s a six-week self-paced course that is free of cost, and will start on July 3.
—Strategic Human Resource Management: It’s also a six-week self-paced course that is free of cost, and will start on July 3.
—Digital Transformation: Theory and Applications: Again a six-week self-paced free course starting on July 3.
—General Management for Shipping: It’s a four-week live course priced Rs 1.2 lakh starting July 21.
—Executive Programme in Supply Chain and Logistics Management – Blended Learning – Batch 02 (EPSCLM-BL02): Priced Rs 3.25 lakh, it’s a four-month live course, and will start on August 7.
—Financial Reporting and Corporate Governance – Blended Learning – Batch: 02 (FRCG-BL02): Priced Rs 1.78 lakh, it’s a four-month course that begins on August 13.
—Executive Programme in Business Finance – Blended Learning – Batch 05 (EPBF-BL05): This live course will start on September 15 and is almost nine months long.
—Accelerated General Management Programme-Blended Learning – Batch: 13 (AGMP-BL13): Priced Rs 6.9 lakh, it’s almost a year-long live course and will start on September 26.
—Senior Management Programme-Blended Learning – Batch: 12 (SMP-BL12): Priced Rs 8.15 lakh, it’s also almost a year long and classes will start on October 27.
—Programme on Strategic Management – Batch 05 (SM-BL05): Priced Rs 2.81 lakh, it’s almost four months long and classes will start on November 2.
How industry perceives online courses
Prof Khokle said that while there is no difference in the way IIM Ahmedabad teachers teach online and inside a physical classroom, the truth is that at least the Indian industry seems to have preference for students who have completed their education in a physical classroom.
“But this isn’t the case for executive education programmes or for live online courses such as above where people who come to study already have a few years of experience and they are looking at career enhancement/advancement or career change,” he said. “Students can be assured that they will access the same quality of IIMA education from anywhere across the globe through the Online@IIMA portal.”
IIMA will also introduce a ‘Learning Path’ module in the future, which aims to give guidance to students to switch to or upskill, in a specific discipline. This ‘path’ will be designed with the help and guidance of faculty members and shall be customised for each candidate.