cover story WPC
What makes some
b-schools more
resilient
than others?
The earliest days of remote learning, support networks, and talent development sets W. P. Carey apart from its competitors in good times and bad
H

ave you ever broken your arm? Or hurt a hand, wrist, or finger?

These types of injuries often serve as a kind of rude awakening. Before they happened, simple activities such as writing, typing, and scratching your head required no thought. You did them naturally. After an injury, you puzzle over movements that once came unconsciously, attempting to avoid putting weight on a bone or joint that is temporarily incapable of bearing it. Each move threatens a pang of discomfort — or, worse, reinjury.

So, you continue gradually, carefully. You figure out the shortest path between two points. You rethink the things that once came so naturally, relearning with each cautious step.

That’s how things felt for most of us in the spring.

Whether it was fumbling with Zoom, postponing your wedding, losing 70% of the business, or getting laid off from work, the start of spring probably didn’t go as planned. Since then, we’ve grasped Zoom — except for the occasional mute slipup — married online, pivoted our business, or took online summer courses to expand our skills while we had time on our hands. Despite these challenges and necessary changes, we don’t know how the fall and beyond will unfold.

But as these faculty and staff from ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business will tell you, they’ve been preparing for the coming year in an environment of uncertainty. While traditional approaches to learning were already becoming irrelevant amid the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, COVID-19 accelerated it. As their experience shows, W. P. Carey programs innovated years ago and have continued to evolve; now, the crisis is taking them to a new realm of teaching and learning.

What makes some
b-schools more
resilient
than others?
The earliest days of remote learning, support networks, and talent development sets W. P. Carey apart from its competitors in good times and bad
H

ave you ever broken your arm? Or hurt a hand, wrist, or finger?

These types of injuries often serve as a kind of rude awakening. Before they happened, simple activities such as writing, typing, and scratching your head required no thought. You did them naturally. After an injury, you puzzle over movements that once came unconsciously, attempting to avoid putting weight on a bone or joint that is temporarily incapable of bearing it. Each move threatens a pang of discomfort — or, worse, reinjury.

So, you continue gradually, carefully. You figure out the shortest path between two points. You rethink the things that once came so naturally, relearning with each cautious step.

That’s how things felt for most of us in the spring.

Whether it was fumbling with Zoom, postponing your wedding, losing 70% of the business, or getting laid off from work, the start of spring probably didn’t go as planned. Since then, we’ve grasped Zoom — except for the occasional mute slipup — married online, pivoted our business, or took online summer courses to expand our skills while we had time on our hands. Despite these challenges and necessary changes, we don’t know how the fall and beyond will unfold.

But as these faculty and staff from ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business will tell you, they’ve been preparing for the coming year in an environment of uncertainty. While traditional approaches to learning were already becoming irrelevant amid the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, COVID-19 accelerated it. As their experience shows, W. P. Carey programs innovated years ago and have continued to evolve; now, the crisis is taking them to a new realm of teaching and learning.

“It was a shock, but like everyone, we made it work this spring,” says W. P. Carey School of Business Dean Amy Hillman. “We were better able to respond quickly to the disruption because we’d already taken leaps in distance learning.” Going beyond the bounds of the traditional learning model, Hillman says, began two decades ago at W. P. Carey.

W. P. Carey now operates simultaneously in three educational environments. The traditional model of learning is “ASU immersion,” where students attend classes physically and can take advantage of all the campus assets and extracurricular activities. The asynchronous online approach W. P. Carey has invested in since 2003 is called “digital immersion,” which began serving master’s degree candidates who simply could not attend a highly ranked, accredited, rigorous, bricks-and-mortar university in person due to professional or personal constraints. This is the model most people think of as “online learning.” The third approach, known as “full immersion digitally enhanced,” has been built since COVID-19 to allow students who are not on campus to learn in real-time. (See sidebar, “The right tools at the right time.”)

“While our asynchronous degrees began at the master’s-degree level, we’ve been focused on more undergraduate degrees in recent years to solve the bachelor’s degree attainment problem in the U.S.,” says Hillman. “When more people have some college credit than those who have graduated with a bachelor’s degree, we need to help them achieve their degrees.” Now, anyone can access a full bachelor’s degree from W. P. Carey.

Image of Amy Hillman
“We were better able to respond quickly to the disruption because we’d already taken leaps in distance learning.”
Amy Hillman, dean of the W. P. Carey School of Business
Image of Amy Hillman
“We were better able to respond quickly to the disruption because we’d already taken leaps in distance learning.”
Amy Hillman, dean of the W. P. Carey School of Business
The next set of innovations came with mixed synchronous-asynchronous degrees and “hybrid” courses. W. P. Carey offered a “weekend” MBA, and now its evening MBA is “ProFlex,” so working professionals can attend in the classroom, online, or remotely. The traditional executive MBA shifted to such an approach for fall 2020. “The lucky part of all of this innovation is that during the pandemic, we already had a third of our faculty who had taught hybrid courses, degrees, or fully asynchronous courses and degrees,” Hillman says. “Our faculty was well-prepared for spring.

“Our digital infrastructure allowed us to quickly put up trainings on Zoom for faculty who hadn’t taught remotely,” Hillman adds. “We also were able to become digitally resilient much easier than some of my peers at other universities that hadn’t offered anything online and didn’t have technologies such as Slack and Yellowdig for blended programs.”

While some universities had to build their remote learning infrastructure while self-quarantining, ASU President Michael Crow announced the university’s move “forward with a reduced focus on the campus and an intense digital focus.” This meant making all of the school’s learning assets and courses available online in one week, by the time students returned from spring break in March.

“We shifted our strategy immediately to become a ‘digitally resilient business school’ because we want to be ready to turn on a dime, one day on campus, next remote,” Hillman says.

W. P. Carey moved forward with this intense digital transformation thanks to collaborative efforts between and among faculty and staff.

Tales of teaching and learning remotely

Dan Gruber knows that one of the most pressing challenges for educators is determining how to keep teaching and learning practices relevant to a diverse — and increasingly distracted — student body. As associate dean for teaching and learning and a clinical professor of management and entrepreneurship, Gruber grapples with what counts as learning, how to bridge the gap between knowledge and skills, and how to help faculty develop as teachers.

Hillman says that in 2018–19, the W. P. Carey School established a road map to improve agility in teaching and learning and appointed “teaching leads” for every academic department. Along with that road map, Gruber was hired in July 2019 to take it to the next level. “Little did we know a pandemic was headed our way,” Hillman says.

“My collaboration with the teaching leads at W. P. Carey was in overdrive as they worked to prepare faculty colleagues for remote teaching at ASU,” says Gruber, who formed the Teaching & Learning Leaders Alliance in August 2019. “At the same time, my fellow Teaching & Learning Leaders were sharing resources as they navigated the unprecedented situation.

“In the process of transforming our teaching so quickly and comprehensively, the Teaching & Learning Leaders and their teams turned to their colleagues’ network for ideas and support,” continues Gruber. “The value of our alliance has been amplified and accelerated far more than we could have imagined when we first decided to work together pre-COVID-19.”

A few of the member schools of the alliance include the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Penn State University, Johns Hopkins University, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Columbia Business School.

Before COVID-19, instructional designers partnered with ASU’s University Technology Office to hold faculty trainings on using Slack for teaching and learning. Professors from ASU’s engineering school and eight W. P. Carey departments, all with different perspectives, shared tactics they employ in their classrooms. (See sidebar, “True test of teaching.”)

With social distancing still in place, the alliance has adopted Zoom. Faculty teaching leads and instructional designers recently joined Gruber and colleagues from other universities to share their lessons from spring for a successful fall.

“The main message I communicated to faculty was to let go of comparisons,” says Melissa Samuelson, clinical associate professor of accountancy and teaching lead. “This wasn’t about making their online asynchronous course the same as a face-to-face experience. It was about looking for opportunities to make changes to improve the delivery of content given the situation, and giving professors permission to experiment.”

“The value of our alliance has been amplified and accelerated far more than we could have imagined when we first decided to work together pre-COVID-19.”
Dan Gruber, associate dean for Teaching & Learning
Image of Dan Gruber
“We should be trying things we aren’t good at, and watching people and noticing how they do it well,” says Eddie Davila, senior lecturer and undergraduate program director, who has instructed more than 25,000 students during his 20 years at W. P. Carey.

John Wisneski, teaching lead for management and entrepreneurship, says two things stood out to him on course evaluations from students who transitioned to the online format in spring. “Resoundingly, students rewarded faculty who were willing to take risks and try new things,” Wisneski says. “There were many comments on how the first Zoom meeting was a disaster; people dropped, and breakout rooms didn’t work. But those comments were followed up with how students appreciated the professor’s effort, how kinks got sorted out, that it was fun to explore new technologies, and the instructor was present and attempted to simulate the synchronous conversation that happens naturally in the classroom.”

Michael Weiland, manager of instructional and digital technology, says, “We were lucky to have many faculty members who also teach online or have experimented with flipped or hybrid classes that could lead other faculty through the spring.”

Weiland says, “We’re in a good position” for fall. There’s a site for faculty to learn about the services available from ASU and W. P. Carey, including resources on how to set up Slack channels and maintain the same depth of engagement with students on Zoom. The teaching leads and instructional designers have put together an inventory of all non-professor-specific digital assets from W. P. Carey’s asynchronous courses that other faculty can use if ASU has to self-quarantine as one example.

“[This is] about looking for opportunities to make changes to improve the delivery of content given the situation, and giving professors permission to experiment.”
Melissa Samuelson, clinical associate professor of accountancy
“I had it easy because I’d converted my entire class to an online format a few years ago,” Davila says. “But I originally developed it for ASU Online for an audience familiar with online education. I had to figure out how to get students more familiar with in-person classes interested online.”

Shrilatha Sira, an instructional designer senior, says, “What works for one professor or department doesn’t necessarily work for another, but faculty who teach similar classes can collaborate to share methods and materials.”

Davila says he can’t teach very much in an hour, so his goal is to inspire students to learn more outside of class. Using what he calls an open learning style, he often begins class by sharing a story or situation and asking students what there is to learn. After some discussion, he tells them his perspective on the key takeaways. The exchange allows him to hear their thoughts, gauge their understanding, and learn from them as well.

“The teachers I’ve learned the most from are those who care about the students and create lessons that draw them into the subject,” explains Davila. “I want to foster a lifetime of learning instead of just an hour spent in a classroom.”

One thing we know is that things are going to keep changing, Gruber says. “We’ve prepared for things we can prepare for and created a culture of flexibility for the rest.”

Image of John Wisneski
“Resoundingly, students rewarded faculty who were willing to take risks and try new things.”
John Wisneski, clinical assistant professor and teaching lead of management and entrepreneurship
Image of John Wisneski
“Resoundingly, students rewarded faculty who were willing to take risks and try new things.”
John Wisneski, clinical assistant professor and teaching lead of management and entrepreneurship
Developing — and defining — hirable skill and talent

While COVID-19 may have transformed the way we work, one thing that hasn’t changed is that “organizations are committed to talent,” says Sharon Irwin-Foulon, executive director of the W. P. Carey Career Management and Employer Engagement center.

And students and alumni whose livelihoods have been bruised by the COVID-19 crisis will find a new customized approach to develop their raw talent or upgrade their skills, so they’re market-ready for the economy’s next incarnation.

Since joining W. P. Carey in April 2019, Irwin-Foulon has focused on customizing the center’s approach to talent development to help students clearly differentiate themselves and effectively communicate their value to potential employers when they go to market. She also guides the employer relations team in reinventing employer branding and shaping opportunities for interns and hires.

“Students used to think we were a transactional center,” says Irwin-Foulon. “They’d come to us for help with résumés and cover letters.” Now Career Management and Employer Engagement offers programs that take students on a journey with mandatory programmatic elements to help them build their soft skills, professional presence, and personal brand story. These are the things that will help W. P. Carey students stand out in a crowded marketplace. New technology and career courses are launching in October to help students curate the content they need at the right time throughout their educational journey.

“We’ll show students what professional practice looks like, what the market expects of them as business school students, and, ultimately, support them in competing confidently for the roles they want to pursue.”
Sharon Irwin-Foulon, executive director of the W. P. Carey Career Management and Employer Engagement center
Image of Sharon Irwin-Foulon
Image of Sharon Irwin-Foulon
“We’ll show students what professional practice looks like, what the market expects of them as business school students, and, ultimately, support them in competing confidently for the roles they want to pursue.”
Sharon Irwin-Foulon, executive director of the W. P. Carey Career Management and Employer Engagement center
W. P. Carey is raising its expectations of students, says Irwin-Foulon, but with access to the new career resources, students will be expected to take responsibility for their personal leadership skills, leaning into all the support that’s available to them. “We’ll show students what professional practice looks like, what the market expects of them as business school students, and, ultimately, support them in competing confidently for the roles they want to pursue,” she says.

Businesses’ new experience with Career Management and Employer Engagement is now about more than posting job opportunities, reserving a table at career fairs, and crossing fingers to find the right candidate. W. P. Carey portfolio managers get to know employers to understand their talent goals.

“In this rapidly changing environment, employers are building a pipeline of young talent as they retool operations while demand is down,” Irwin-Foulon says. “We’ve shortened the investment of time on both the student and the employer side to quickly reach mutual interests.” One example is the new format for career fairs. Irwin-Foulon says organizations are looking for new ways to meet students. In response, W. P. Carey launched industry days. These will be a seamless virtual experience for industry-specific employers to engage with a targeted student audience with the specific goals to generate awareness and identify high-potential candidates for their hiring needs.

Just as the First Industrial Revolution initiated today’s education system, we can expect a different kind of educational model to emerge from COVID-19 — although in hyperspeed. The changes in education over the next 25 years may have no walls or textbooks. But faculty and staff from the W. P. Carey School have been preparing — and equipping students — for the coming year and beyond.

“Earlier than most top business schools, we made investments that now prove incredibly valuable,” Hillman says. “It’s proven to us that we do well with uncertainty.”