{"id":940,"date":"2019-07-02T08:30:20","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T06:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpethzprd.ethz.ch\/letblog\/?p=940"},"modified":"2020-12-09T10:14:35","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T09:14:35","slug":"case-study-peer-review-mastering-digital-business-models","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/letblog\/2019\/07\/02\/case-study-peer-review-mastering-digital-business-models\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Study \u2013 Peer Review Mastering Digital Business Models"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As part of a series of case studies, staff\nat LET sat down to have a conversation with Prof. Elgar Fleisch, Johannes\nH\u00fcbner and Dominik Bilgeri from the Department of Management, Technology, and\nEconomics (D-MTEC) to discuss their Mastering Digital Business Model (MDBM)\ncourse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the project about?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this Mastering Digital Business Model\n(MDBM) course, Prof. Elgar Fleisch, Dominik Bilgeri, George Boateng and Johannes\nHuebner teach Master\u2019s level students a theory- and practice-based\nunderstanding of how today’s information technologies enable new digital\nbusiness models and transform existing ones. The course contains a novel examination\nmode, a video group project is introduced as a core element contributing to the\noverall course grade. In addition, students are asked to participate in a\npeer-to-peer review of the videos produced by other student groups, which is\nindependent of the grading and is geared towards giving students insights in\nhow other groups solved the challenge. The best-rated videos are then shared\nwith the entire class in the end of the semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of this newly created examination element, course participants (in teams of two to three students) explain one of the major lecture topics (theoretical lenses) in the first half of their video.Then they apply the same lens by analysing a company, aiming to better understand its underlying business model. Companies are pre-selected and allocated to students for fairness reasons. Every year, we choose a pool of interesting companies in the context of digital transformation, the Internet of Things, Blockchain, e-health, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nmotivated you to initiate the project?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The core idea was to improve students\u2019\nlearning success by using an examination format that not only requires learners\nto reiterate theoretical contents, but also apply the theory in a practical\ncontext. The students have different backgrounds, and do not necessarily have a\nstrong business focus, which means that many of the concepts taught in class\nmay be rather abstract. We used the video format and specific companies as case\nstudies, because we think this is a good way to trigger curiosity, show\nconcrete examples of modern companies in a compact form, and force students to\nreflect deeply upon theoretical frameworks compared to other examination\nformats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How\ndid you do it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from the weekly input lectures, we\nask students to form groups in the beginning of the semester. We then provide a\nlist of theoretical core topics from which each group can choose one. In\naddition, we randomly assign each group to a case company. The theoretical\ntopic then first needs to be explained in the first half of the video, and then\nbe applied to the case company in the second half. Here we thus used a prosumer\napproach, where students become part of the course because they create a small\nsection of the content. The best videos are shared with the class, and can be\nreused as additional learning materials for future cohorts. This set-up generally\nresulted in high-quality videos, perhaps also since students knew their videos\nwill be used again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students also had to review the video\nprojects of five other groups. They had to clearly describe whether and how\ntheir peers used certain perspectives (called \u201elenses\u201c in the course) which played\na role in the video and in their feedback. In this way they analysed once more how\nthe newly learned concepts were visible in other companies \u2013 a positive side\neffect being that they also honed their reflection and feedback skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did\nyou have the support you needed for the project? Is there additional support\nyou wish you had had to help you to achieve your goals?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We asked two students from previous cohorts\nto join us as tutors, and support this year\u2019s groups primarily with technical\nquestions about video-making (e.g. tools, quality considerations etc.). In\naddition, we designed one of the lecture slots as a coaching session during\nwhich we would further support student groups with their questions. In total,\nthis approach allowed us to provide the students with high-quality supervision\nwith reasonable effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please\ndescribe some of the key outcomes of the project<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To most students, the task of creating a\nvideo was new. We received feedback that while the initial effort for learning\nhow to make a video was higher compared to other examination formats, it was also\nfun and very helpful to really understand and apply the new concepts. They said\nthat they learned things more deeply and more sustainably because they had to\nconsider all details and aspects \u2013 compared to the practical exercises they are\nfamiliar with in other courses. By carefully phrasing their arguments in giving\nfeedback on peer videos, students became more aware of their own thinking and\nargumentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We observed that the questions asked by\nstudents once they start creating videos were different and went deeper, i.e. their\nreflections were based on many concrete examples of companies, and the concepts\nwere put into perspective. The same sub-concepts have a different meaning in\nanother context, and students now see the overarching principles better and can\nargue more precisely about theoretical aspects. Without these concrete\nexamples, it would have been harder to concretely grasp the theoretical\naspects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How\ndid the project impact learners or the way in which you teach?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were surprised by the high quality of the\nbest student videos. The teaching team is now really motivated to continue\ninnovating on our approaches in other courses. We saw clearly that when\nstudents are very active we get better results, deeper learning and better\nreflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nlessons learned do you want to share with your colleagues?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can really pay off to try things and to\nexperiment. We think that nowadays the classic format of passive lectures and\nfinal exams may not always be the best choice. We believe the improved outcomes\nthrough students who were actively engaged by the video assignment justified\nthe investment in developing new approaches and tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When considering videos as an examination\nformat, you should define the entire course\/project very clearly. When\ndescribing what production options students have for videos, you should be very\nprecise. Offering too many options can be counterproductive. It is better to\npresent 3-4 crystal-clear examples and stick to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, we would recommend managing students\u2019\nexpectations clearly in the beginning of the semester, and highlighting both\nthe benefits and challenges of this examination format. Of course, this becomes\neasier after the first year, when you can draw from the experience of the first\ncohort, and also provide examples of prior videos to illustrate what is\nexpected of the groups. Because the students are co-creators you get new and\nrelevant content which enriches the course and can serve to motivate both\nstudents and teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nare the future plans for this work? How do you plan to sustain what you have\ncreated through the project?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We plan to optimize some details of this\ncourse, and to go even more in the direction of a flipped classroom to use this\nteaching approach in other courses. We will create a library of the student\nvideos to provide it as additional learning materials in future editions of the\ncourse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student feedback<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By MDBM Student Cristina Mercandetti (mercandc@student.ethz.ch)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Your opinion about this course and the peer\nreview & video production process – how has it influenced your learning\nprocess?
    \n<\/strong>Cristina Mercandetti: I really enjoyed both the\ncourse and the video production process. I think they complemented each other\nvery well and we were able to directly apply the theoretical knowledge learned\nin the course to work on our project. It helped me to think more critically\nabout the course content, and really dive into some of the lenses and models\npresented. I don\u2019t think this would have been possible without the video\nproduction, so it definitely improved my learning process. <\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    • Do\nyou think this approach could be used in other courses?<\/strong>
      \nCristina Mercandetti: Yes, I think this approach could easily be used in other\nclasses. However, I think part of the fun in this class was that the video\nproduction was something very new and refreshing (a side effect was that I\nlearned how to cut a short movie). I imagine that if several classes introduced\nthis it would lose some of its novelty and could be stressful, as it took a lot\nof time.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
      • Final remarks about the course
        \n<\/strong>Cristina Mercandetti: I really enjoyed the whole\nclass, and heard a lot of good things from other students too.<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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