The strategic goal of GSOM SPbU is to become the No. 1 Business School in Russia by 2025 with a unique educational environment and a continuously improving team. One of the important steps towards strategy implementation is the launch of TEL. Introduction of new approaches and methods in the educational process, as well as faculty training at GSOM SPbU, is ongoing, and TEL will help to systematize and solve these tasks more effectively.

Olga Alkanova, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Marketing, Chairman of The Assurance of Learning Committee and author of TEL concept, speaks about the plans.

When and how did the idea of ​​creating The Teaching Excellence Lab appear?

The idea appeared a year ago as part of a discussion with the Director of the Business School Olga Dergunova on the implementation of the GSOM SPbU strategy. We aim to be the leader in the development of cutting-edge educational content. This task falls into two important parts: ‘how to teach’ and ‘what to teach’. ‘What to teach’ is the responsibility of Program Academic Directors, the Business School Management, and the GSOM SPbU Academic Council. ‘How to teach’ is a question that we have not systematically dealt with until now. 

Advanced methods and technical innovations have always been introduced at GSOM SPbU, the pandemic especially accelerated the process, but mostly it happened reactively. An interesting tool or a need appears, and we gather our faculty for a seminar, discuss it, prepare methodological recommendations, and learn how to apply it. For example, in the process of gaining AACSB accreditation, it was necessary to create The Assurance of Learning Committee (AoL Committee) to monitor the achievement of student learning outcomes. Also, the pandemic accelerated the mastering of Microsoft Teams. And many other cases. We would like to have an action plan, a logical program of training, retraining and support, a knowledge base, and manuals. TEL will bring together and institutionalize the work that has been going on for a long time.

What is the strategic objective of TEL?

We see our mission in developing faculty as the main asset of the Business School, and the final KPI of this work should be improvement of student learning outcomes. The main activities of TEL include development of methodological and technical innovations, faculty support (such as training programs for young scholars, new faculty onboarding, faculty consultation), as well as organizational and analytical assistance to the AoL Сommittee. The field of education is constantly changing. New tools and techniques are emerging, there are a lot of discussions on how to teach students effectively, all covered by serious studies, the Gartner analytics, and reports that are issued by various organizations and associations. One of our major tasks is to start understanding and monitoring what is happening and where, in order to make decisions about the development and implementation of new approaches more deliberately.

What innovations in software and technologies in relation to the Business School can we talk about?

There are new tools for conducting surveys, organizing interactive activities in the classroom, and group work. Many practices are being adopted from the corporate sector — we, as a Business School, must acquaint students with everything that is used in business practice. For example, today's alumni should understand how online whiteboards (such as Miro or Jamboard) work, why they are needed, and have the skills of remote collaboration (for example, using Microsoft Teams). Basically, we are talking about programs, but it is also possible to introduce fundamentally new technologies into the educational process, including virtual and augmented reality systems. Thus, research into the possibilities of VR is the work of the Research and Education Center “Digital Technologies in Education” at GSOM SPbU, but adapting their findings to the educational process will be our future task. 

Hybrid format is the most advanced form of education at the moment, and it is now being actively implemented at GSOM SPbU. What will be the role of TEL in this process?

In this matter, we are at the frontier along with everyone involved in hybrid format implementation. There are foreign universities where it existed even before the pandemic, but there was practically no system analysis of its pros and cons, especially in case of mass implementation. Over the past two years, many educational institutions have been experimenting with a hybrid format and have encountered certain problems: there are a lot of methodological questions how everything should work and how to regulate the interaction between different participants. There are tasks for which this method of teaching and learning is effective, e.g., bringing together different cohorts of students without the need for geographical relocation. Where and how hybrid format can be applied, whether there are any restrictions, and what technological solutions are possible — all these are a big topic for discussion. Now GSOM SPbU and the Moscow City University (MCU) are working on a joint project to investigate how hybrid format in education is implemented. We are talking about a serious analysis of the experience of Russian and foreign business schools, and not only business schools. Based on the results of this work, we plan to launch a discussion in the form of a series of public events that may be of interest for universities, schools, and corporate universities.

How will the work of TEL and the AoL Committee be structured? Will their functions not overlap?

The Assurance of Learning Committee needs to be supported organizationally and methodically — to fix and document all procedures, establish the procedure for the interaction of the AoL Committee with the GSOM SPbU Academic Council and educational programs, prepare meeting minutes and maintain a database. In the future, we also plan to set up an analytical system. One thing is to measure the achievement of learning outcomes and develop recommendations for improving educational programs, and the other one is to systematize, process and store all this information.

What training programs does TEL plan to offer to the faculty?

First of all, we will continue to implement initiatives that have emerged over the past few years. For example, since 2020, before the start of each semester, there are traditionally held “Back-to-school” seminars, where we review all updates and changes in the main digital tools used in the educational process, and we plan to keep this format. A separate training program devoted to hybrid teaching is planned for those who intend to use it: videos with instructions on the technical and instrumental parts have already been shot, we plan to digitize the seminar on teaching methods — to make it pre-recorded so that the faculty has the opportunity to watch it at a convenient time in advance, and then during the meeting directly in a hybrid classroom to ask questions and practice. In the near future, we also plan to create programs for new and visiting lecturers and young scholars at GSOM SPbU in a hybrid format.

Will there be different programs for new and visiting lecturers and young scholars? 

An onboarding program is planned for new lecturers covering adaptation, instruction, and support on all issues. TEL will participate in this work, Program Academic Directors, the personnel department, and other departments of St. Petersburg University will also contribute. Our mission is to help the faculty understand GSOM SPbU expectations on how to organize interaction with students, what digital platforms to use. In the programs for visiting faculty, the emphasis will be on the Business School requirements, and for the young scholars we will focus more on teaching methods and techniques. Creating a program for young scholars will be our priority for the next six months.

What should the faculty learn and what do they think about that?

It is important for us to make the TEL activities not prescriptive but on demand and relevant to the context in which people work. If we try to impose something, nothing will work. First, it is necessary to deal with requests, needs, and "blind spots". Sometimes you mention a well-known approach, e.g., a flipped classroom (when students study the theoretical content independently according to the professor's recommendations, and then they discuss and practice it at seminars), and some faculty members ask what it is with surprise. It is not only the question of dealing with different teaching formats, but also understanding in what contexts they are used. For this reason, at the beginning of March, we held the first methodological seminar to find out expectations, needs, and engage colleagues in dialogue. The results of the seminar demonstrated that the training program for the young scholars should be prioritized.

Why should work with young scholars be prioritized?

We have a lot of young scholars and Doctoral students who need support. There is a problem in both Russian and international practice — it is believed that if a person does research, has a doctoral degree, and is able to create knowledge, then he or she can effectively share it by default. However, it does not work like that. Young scholars often do not know how to teach a course, how to adapt it, how to write their own course program, what effects the grading system announced to students has, and how to use it to increase motivation and engagement, what motivation and engagement actually are, and what methods of interaction with audience exist — no one has taught them how to deal with all these issues. Many of them do not know the psychological and behavioral features of people of different generations and different cultures. There is a lot of research on this topic, and it is important that they are available to the faculty. The same educational practices with students from different countries will work differently, as educational models and the learning habits they form are different.

Young scholars have always faced difficulties. Why is it important for GSOM SPbU to solve this problem now?

Faculty of all universities face this problem. As a result of the global availability of information, the role of the lecturer is changing: students no longer need to attend classes to get information on any topic. Accordingly, the lecturer transforms from a “knowledge transmitter” into a conversationalist and an active participant in the educational process. His or her task is now to help understand and teach how to apply knowledge, and these are completely different practices. The difference between lectures and seminars is less obvious, and the lecture is no longer a lecture in the classical sense. Someone comes to new approaches through experience, but this takes time and involves trial and error search almost in real time. Why have young scholars to deal with it themselves if we can share the tools and explain to them how things work? It is important that the first experience in a classroom does not form their negative attitude towards teaching, because in fact it is an amazing and energizing work.

GSOM SPbU has run the Knowledge Café project for a long time, where GSOM faculty share their best practices and pedagogical ideas with each other. Will it continue?

We plan to continue the Knowledge Café meetings as part TEL activities and help Dr. Tatyana Klemina with organization of regular meetings, systematization, and preparation of final materials. Unfortunately, one of the unrealized ideas around the Knowledge Café is the preparation of a small but informative publication with conclusions and insights, not to force the faculty to rewatch the meeting recording. As a rule, the Knowledge Café speakers are those who have dealt with a certain issue and are ready to share their experience, whereas for the methodological seminars we have chosen a focus group format, where we elaborate on a particular issue, collect information and feedback. Both formats are appropriate. I think that we will alternate methodological seminars with the Knowledge Café meetings and hold one event every 1-2 months.