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Innovation in Educational Programs

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Building on a century of success means rejecting complacency in favor of accepting new challenges. "Our faculty have piloted many curricular experiments," says Dean Nohria, "from international immersion projects to new courses that engage students in novel ways. Building on these ideas, we are well prepared to launch an innovative architecture and platform for our MBA Program—in effect, to creatively reconfigure and synthesize the pieces in a relevant and compelling new way."

Advancing Hands-On Learning

At HBS, the curriculum continually evolves toward greater innovation in all of our programs, including enhancing the case method with hands-on learning experiences. Through field-based learning models that bridge the "knowing-doing gap" and are part of the entire MBA experience, HBS encourages entrepreneurship and improves crucial management skills.

Learning by Doing

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Harvard Innovation Lab

The Harvard i-lab, opening later this year, will support and enhance innovation and its practical applications by linking people and programs across the University, such as the HBS Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship and Harvard's Technology and Entrepreneurship Center.

The i-lab will initially serve as a hub for Harvard students who are exploring invention and entrepreneurship. It will offer workspace, facilities, and a like-minded community. Through a rich mix of programs, students will meet entrepreneurs and leaders from engineering, government, law, medicine, science, and business. They will benefit from direct interaction with experts who can help them develop and test their ideas.

In addition to serving the Harvard community, the i-lab will support local entrepreneurs by presenting lectures and other events, as well as by hosting community and Harvard-affiliated groups that counsel small businesses and nonprofits.

Students will benefit from direct interaction with experts who can help them develop and test their ideas.
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FIELD

The new yearlong first-year course called Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development (FIELD) consists of three modules: Leadership, Globalization, and Integration. Each builds on the others as well as on the 10 other courses in the required curriculum.

The Leadership module in the fall places students in small teams, where they participate in exercises that put their classroom learning into practice. During the January-term Globalization module, students are immersed in on-site partnerships in which they explore business ideas within the country, refine their concepts, and present a new product or service they have developed to their global partners.

The last module, Integration, in the spring term, gives students the opportunity to reflect on what they learned during their global immersions as well as to apply principles from their coursework into real-life settings. As part of this module, they work in small groups to design and launch a microbusiness, and they participate in group exercises that focus on a cycle of thinking, doing, and reflecting.

The Integration module gives students the opportunity to reflect on what they learned during their global immersions as well as to apply principles from their coursework into real-life settings.
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Technology in the Classroom:
The Cap and Trade Simulation

It's important for business managers in many industries to understand how cap and trade—a complex, market-based process—really works. A carbon-trading simulation designed by HBS professor Peter Coles gives students the opportunity to experience firsthand the pressure-packed decision-making process and the uncertainty involved in it.

"I'm a believer in interactive learning," says Coles, who has used the simulation in the elective course Managing Networked Businesses and the doctoral course Market Design. "The goal was to provide a classroom experience that would allow students to really see the impact of different design principles in the cap-and-trade mechanism."

In class, a year of trading is condensed into 21minutes, after which trading halts and students submit their permits. They are obliged to pay a fine of $40 per ton of pollution exceeding their permit holdings. "Putting the students through that decision-making process reinforces the role of uncertain prices in a cap-and-trade mechanism," Coles says.

"The goal was to provide a classroom experience that would allow students to really see the impact of different design principles in the cap-and-trade mechanism."
— Professor Peter Coles
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