If you are passionate about innovating business education and would like to share your theoretical or applied research in one of the world’s most innovative cities, Dubai, UAE, please consider submitting your paper for a special, flipped track at the Innovation Arabia 8 conference being held February 16-18, 2015.

 

Track: Quality and Business Management

Flipped Session Topic: Innovation in Business and Quality Education

 

http://www.innovationarabia.ae/call-papers/flipped-session-guidelines

 

In a globalized economy increasingly driven by advances in technology and knowledge, innovation has become a critical focus for the business world, and hence is a natural platform for the Innovation Arabia 8. Increasingly, business schools are recognizing that the education gained by both undergraduate and graduate students must be aligned with workforce requirements (Bedwell, Fiore, and Salas, 2014) and must culminate in students being able to demonstrate the implementation of practical knowledge (Forrest and Peterson, 2006). Such calls from industry have resulted in re-examinations of how we teach, how students learn, and the applicability of educational theories to business and management education. The growing and developing discipline of management learning and education (Currie and Pandher, 2013) reflects the increasing importance being placed on the scholarship of teaching and learning in business schools. Indeed, even AACSB (2008) has stated that:

 

[E]ffective education . . . relies heavily on learning and pedagogical research. Cases, simulations, textbooks, and the like provide essential learning objects and tools to support education, and the design of such products is increasingly complex and demanding of innovation based on levels of increasingly sophisticated scholarly inquiry (p. 16).

 

The New York Times (April 8, 2014) recently highlighted innovative teaching in different courses in the article “10 Courses With a Twist” and discussed how even research-driven universities are putting more emphasis on teaching. However, of the 10 courses that were featured in the article, none were delivered by business faculty. Therefore, the purpose of this special session is twofold:

 

1.       Provide a forum in which innovative, andragogy-based teaching practices and research into the same may be presented; and

2.       Provide a forum in which to experience an innovative teaching method, the “flipped classroom”, through a re-design of a conference session.

 

Suggested topics for papers include, but are not limited to:

 

·         Innovation in design and/or delivery, either at course or program level (e.g. “flipped classroom’, online teaching of subjects normally not considered “teachable” online)

·         Tried and tested innovative class material (e.g., experiential learning activities; active learning)

·         Assessment, either at course or program level

·         The role and use of technology in business education courses and programs; and

·         Other topics related to innovations in business and quality education.

 

Full papers only must be submitted as per the Innovation Arabia 8 guidelines by October 15, 2014. Authors will be notified of paper acceptance by November 15, 2014. If your paper is accepted, you will be provided details as to how the “flipped” structure will work. The essential structure is as follows:

 

Presenters will be asked to pre-record their paper presentation and will be provided a non-public YouTube link through which to view all presenters before the conference session. At the conference session, each presenter will re-read their abstract, and then instead of presenting again, instead a full discussion, led by the presenter, will ensue, with other presenters prepared for discussion, debate, and implications on the presented topic.

 

All paper abstracts will be published in the Innovation Arabia 8 Conference proceedings. In addition, selected papers will be invited to submit for possible inclusion in a special issue of International Journal of Excellence in Education to be published in 2015.

 

If you have any questions, please contact the session lead, Dr. Adrienne A. Isakovic, Assistant Professor - Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University at [log in to unmask]

 

References

AACSB. (2008). Final report of the AACSB International impact of research task force. Tampa, FL: AACSB International.

Bedwell, W.L., Fiore, S.M. and Salas, E. (2014). Developing the future workforce: An approach for integrating interpersonal skills into the MBA classroom. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 13(2), 171-186.

Currie, R.R. and Pandher, G. (2013). Management education journals’ rank and tier by active scholars. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 12(2), 194-218.

Forrest III, S.P. and Peterson, T.O. (2006). It’s called andragogy. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 5(1), 113-122.

Pappano, L. (April 8, 2014). 10 Courses With a Twist. The New York Times. Accessed June 30, 2014 from http://nyti.ms/1lugoTr.