On HBX and online education

I have written this blog post as a reflection on what has occupied me a lot in the past 3 months. After finishing my Postgraduate Certificate in Technology Management with the Open University I was looking at what to do next in continuing my education - being a life long learner! I was looking at different online platforms for interesting courses. 


I was looking at sites like Coursera and Future Learn, when I came across a new extension to Harvard Business School and a course they run called HBX CORe. This one paragraph pitch they provide sums it up pretty well:

HBX CORe (Credential of Readiness) is a 120-150 hour certificate program on the fundamentals of business from Harvard Business School. CORe is comprised of three courses - Business Analytics, Economics for Managers, and Financial Accounting – developed by leading Harvard Business School faculty and delivered in an active learning environment based on the HBS signature case-based learning model.
Since the courses I had done with the Open University had been targeted to the environment of software development and how to manage the processes involved in that I was interested in broadening my horizons and more general "business" education so I signed up.

The course is delivered entirely online with no materials needed outside the platform provided. There are videos segments on each of the topics that are mainly presented by HBS professors or executives of the firms involved in mini-case studies. This is similar to some of the Future Learn courses that I have looked at, but generally a higher level of study and harder quizzes at the end of each topic. The pace was a bit tough for the first couple of weeks until I worked out a cadence that worked. Soon the study sessions were regular and flowed. Of course, my timing wasn't too hot in that our customer conference fell in the last week of Financial Accounting!

On the whole, the content was a lot less "academic" than my OU postgraduate studies in that you don't have learned the names of papers and their authors or write in an "academic style". Given the mix of nationalities of the participants in each cohort, the writing was still clear and the ideas conveyed well. Previously in an OU course forum, I had been attacked for using humour to make a point about innovation that had dampened my participation. Here, the HBX provided Facebook group had plenty of off-topic but yet relevant informal conversation that really helped my learning. The reflection exercises and comments from peers was a great way of reinforcing the lesson, but also of getting that challenge to those assumptions it's easy to make when studying alone. It's not quite like being on campus but it is close.

The courses themselves were also practical in nature. I could take a lot of the techniques and then either use them in my day job or help understand the point of view of my colleagues. For example, I may not need to worry about free cash flow but I have a better understanding of the variables and the timing when dealing with those that do. Also, I had last studied linear regression about 20 years ago and it didn't have much use for me, so I promptly forgot it. Here it clicked. Not quite instantly but readily enough.

I don't think this course is for everyone, but I enjoyed it and for where I was in terms of business education it helped me and I'm sure the experience will prove valuable.


Further reading

A few blogs and posts written by fellow students as they took the course, in no particular order:

Comments

  1. HBX CORe Dumps helps you to pass your CORe because this study material is designed and verified by the experts. All the information has been filled by being to-the-point in this compact Dumps material. By memorizing all the questions and answers you can simply ace your certification by solving all the questions in the final test. We are also providing passing guarantee if you work hard and study accordingly. It means, in case of your failure, you money will be returned back to you. Dumpsforsure is also providing of cost demo questions for your satisfaction and surety.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I could not pass my certification by the first attempt because I was not having such a reliable material as CORe. The concepts were complex for me so it was also difficult to study for long hours. Then I downloaded this dumps material from DumpsFactory which helped me to understand every concept just by a single reading. All the topics have been well explained in CORe Dumps so you didn’t need to go anywhere else for any extra information.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I had an amazing experience with Exam4Lead which brought me great success in my IT exam. CORe dumps was really helpful for covering all the syllabus contents in very short period of time. It was because of the handy format of this material which saved me time for practice on online practice test. The experts were very cooperative and showed a good disposition so I will suggest CORe dumps for everyone.

    ReplyDelete

  4. I don’t think there is any better study material than CORe Dumps PDF which could have helped me. I am thankful to Examforsure for being there throughout my preparation and the experts guided me with their useful suggestions and advices. CORe Dumps material made my work many times easier and I aced my certification by the first attempt. It was not easy for me to think of CORe Exam so I downloaded this expertly written guide. It was an amazing experience so I will suggest all IT candidates of this certification to use CORe Dumps.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Prepare4Test the best and reliable platform where you can get accurate H12-821_V1.0 question dumps which will assist you in passing your HCIP-Datacom-Core Technology V1.0 Exam fast.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CONFERENCE: TTI Summer Forum 2017 – Getting to Grips with GDPR

On performance and environment