Elizabeth, Conor, Dan, Michael, and Sam share their favorite locations to work on CORe and explain a little about they've chosen that spot as their "classroom." 

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I have found that so far I have an ebbing and flowing relationship with the CORe material.  There are times where I feel confident and like I am making good headway, and at those times I like to go study at my favourite local bookshop that doubles as a café, Trident (for anyone in the Boston area Trident is a gem that should be used for all studying, working or thinking activities). Weeknights and weekends at Trident tend to look something like this:

There are also times where I find myself using the peer help tool repeatedly as I connect with my fellow CORe members around the world to try to unearth some of the more complex and detailed learning points in the different modules.  

During these times, I tend to study from a more quiet and secluded location, i.e. my living room table, so that I can not lose an ounce of my focus to anything other than CORe – this also allows for more creative study breaks, think dance party of one to, “I’m Walking on Sunshine”. Days and nights at home tend to look a little more like this:

 

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This is the interior of a French bakery in the city center of Vilnius, Lithuania.  Every Tuesday and Thursday morning from 8:30 to 10:00 I teach at a public relations company nearby.  

I usually duck in here right after to work on CORe for about an hour or so.  I grab a coffee and croissant and get to it.  At this mid morning time there aren't a lot of people so I'm able to concentrate.  While I do most of my work at home I find this place to be my favorite location to work on CORe.

 

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Sunday 12:26 AM.

Here is the view from my apartment. What you see is probably the last tramway for tonight. I have just finished the module 3 called "Suppliers and Cost" in Economics for Managers, and in the morning I will take the quiz for this Econ module.  

I have learned many things throughout this module: fixed versus variable costs, relative costs analysis, supply curves, and scale economies. Unfortunately, at 2:00 AM, it will be 3:00 AM. Tonight we switch to daylight saving time. Time to go to bed.

 

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Typically you can find me working on coursework from my desk at home, but my personal favorite place to work on CORe is at Starbucks, just down the street from my place.

Starbucks, with its familiar aroma of coffee and warm atmosphere, allows me to get a cup of coffee to enjoy while studying, to get out of the distractions of the house, to take a walk to clear my mind of anything else going on, and then plug in my headphones and go to work!

 

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I do some sections of CORe work from coffee shops, but I primarily work on modules in my basement. It's a quiet part of the house with a nice view out the window, and I feel more productive when I have one spot where I focus on learning.  

My study buddy is Marley the cat.  

 

This week Conor, Michael, Dan, and Elizabeth share the ways in which they've already applied CORe concepts to their daily lives. 

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As an ESL teacher, I encounter a wide variety of students and therefore a wide variety of student needs.  One area that has often been a challenge to teach is business English.

My students are typically adults who have vast real world experience in business-related fields. They completely understand concepts but lack the language skills to express them in English. It is sometimes difficult because although I can help them with their vocabulary, my limited knowledge on the subject minimizes just how much help I can provide.

Last week, one of my students, an accountant, came to me with questions directly related to her work.  I had just finished the second module of the financial accounting course.

I realized mid-lesson that because my understanding of the material has increased, I can better articulate how the material is expressed in the English language to a non-native speaker.   I walked out thinking that, had I not just been exposed to and engaged in these ideas, I would not have been as helpful to my student.

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Learning these accounting concepts directly relates to my goal of starting my own business one day. This exact scenario was depicted in one of the videos: investing money in a new business, which starts with no assets, no liabilities, and no owners’ equity. That investment raises the company’s assets, as well as its equity, thus signifying the beginning of every company.

Fast forward to our current lesson, financial statements. The Balance Sheet is something my company works with on a daily basis. Currency risk comes to the surface for a breath of fresh air on every international company’s Balance Sheet. In fact, foreign exchange fluctuations can sometimes mean the difference between a company having a profitable and unprofitable quarter. When I was an undergraduate, without the context of real world business examples, I couldn’t see the connection.

When companies transact in multiple currencies, they have risks in translation, transaction, and economic exposure. Previously, I was unable to decipher where companies recorded this exposure on the Balance Sheet.

After progressing through the module, I can now pinpoint where exactly companies show their currency exposure (usually under “other assets” and “other liabilities”). This will help tremendously going forward in quickly being able to comprehend and analyze a company’s foreign exchange picture, and will pay huge dividends in the future of my professional life, and my company.

Dan Grünstein

Elizabeth Malkin

I believe that the basic problem with online education is that of constantly capturing a student’s attention. Care is crucial if the learner is to become involved in the task he has set himself: learning.

Normally the student’s incentive and the attention he brings to the courses, which strike his 15-inch screen so monotonously in the form of not engaging videos, tend to decrease exponentially.

The form of the online education platform is, therefore, a vital factor in the transmission of the teaching material. Here, I must say that Harvard’s made-to-measure HBX method presses all the buttons of successful distance learning.

The courses themselves, alternating between carefully explained videos, interactive 

schemes, stressful cold calls, and other exercises are the good recipe for virtual teaching, which becomes real and attractive.

Each of the subjects – Financial Accounting, Economics for Managers, and Business Analytics – is taught purposefully, as the teaching method allows me to engage effortlessly. The concepts I am learning follow naturally from each other, based on the way the brain learns, making me constantly experiment with what I have just learned.

For example - a typical lesson flow:

1.        We are shown a video describing a concept called “Willingness to Pay”,
2.        are next asked to complete an exercise testing our knowledge,
3.        then posed a difficult open-ended question,
4.        finally, are shown another video explaining the correct way of thinking about the question.

This learning structure transverses the three different subjects (Financial Accounting, Economics for Managers, and Business Analytics). I, therefore, make natural connections between the statistical tools in Business Analytics and the conjoint analysis that in Economics for Managers.

I believe that as a participant in the HBX CORe, I am taking part in a revolutionary and extremely rewarding learning experiment.

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My experience of the CORe platform has been influenced by my undergraduate college experience, and I find myself drawing comparisons between “live” and “virtual” classrooms.  My alma mater is a small liberal arts college governed by an honor code, which allowed the school to cultivate an intentionally respectful intellectual community. 

As a proponent of liberal arts education, I was dubious that CORe could replicate the seminar classroom experience.  I’m extremely impressed with how immersive CORe is, and I like the way that the platform manages to teach standardized material and be interactive. 

The cold calls, knowledge checks, and discussion sidebar help hold my attention, and it’s fascinating to see the way my peers respond to the material I’m covering.  The software is slick and seamless.  When I pose a question in the discussion forum I typically get an answer within minutes, and I learn a lot by seeing how my colleagues’ responses to cold calls differ from my own. 

The fact that I engage in this online program from my basement and can interact with live classmates is a revelation to me.

I’ve taken online text-only courses with knowledge checks interspersed, but what sets CORe apart are the brief videos embedded in the modules. The graphics on screen sync up with the concepts that the professors explain and typically alternate between explanations by professors, interviews with business managers, and graphics clarifying principles of economics or accounting.

The videos make it easier to understand concepts that had previously seemed abstract, like the relationship between a frequency distribution and a demand curve.  The program is strictly linear—it’s impossible to skip over sections at will—which has led me to revisit and gain new insight into subjects that I already felt comfortable with. 

After completing a knowledge check or cold call, the program displays responses from other cohort members, allowing me to see where our answers align and how other people came up with different responses to the same prompt.  The transitions between videos and sections are smooth, which gives a sense of fluidity to the material.  

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This week Conor, Elizabeth, and Michael offer advice on how to effectively balance CORe with jobs, travel, and big life events! 

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My CORe experience so far has been overwhelmingly positive.  I won’t lie, though; it has been challenging.  That said, I feel I have already learned more about the material than I have thus far in my life.  Terminology that I had previously heard or read, but never fully understood, has now become a clear and useful part of my lexicon. 

My biggest concern in the weeks leading up to the start was this:  How will I be able balance the CORe material with my full time teaching schedule?

I owe my capacity to do so to the accessibility of the CORe platform.  That is, it is not necessary to devote 2 or 3 or even 4 hour chunks of time in a day to do the work. 

Even if you only have 45 minutes free, you can log in from anywhere (home, coffee shop, library, etc.), make some progress through a module, then get back to your daily tasks feeling like you’ve made some headway. 

A single lesson usually consists of a short video (3 or 4 minutes), some further written explanations or diagrams, followed by some ‘knowledge check’ questions or a short written reflection. The platform does not allow you to continue to the next concept until after you’ve completed the current questions or reflection, which ensures that you are actively participating as opposed to simply reading or listening passively. 

The compact nature of each lesson can really drive home a point without taking up too much time.   Logging in a couple of times a day not only allows me to pace myself, but also keeps the material fresh in my mind without feeling overworked.  This routine fits my schedule well as I teach in the evenings and am not able to designate that time for CORe.

Also, my advice is to take pen to paper notes while going through the modules.  It has helped me thus far on the quizzes which can be a little nerve racking :)

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The February 2015 cohort of CORe has started, and the race to learn the material and to complete the assignments due is most definitely on.  The HBX team is right when they let the applicants know that CORe is not for the faint hearted (especially if one has a full time job). 

It is fascinating, the technology behind the platform is breath-taking and getting to knowledge bomb your team at work is great fun, but it is a true commitment of time, energy and mind. 

So what happens when you are doing CORe and have a full time job and simultaneously your sister is getting married…?

For those of you avidly following my blog posts you will know that I have three sisters (I’m about as lucky as they come).  One is getting married this week which immediately raises the question, “How do I complete my CORe work and celebrate with my sister?”.

The CORe team does a great job of pacing the modules and assignments which helps to keep the panic levels down but also means that it is more difficult to “get ahead”.

Good news, there is room for manoeuvring for those willing to work hard. It is absolutely possible to ramp up on CORe ahead of a big event or a holiday.

You have to be willing to devote a significant portion of your time leading up to the event to working on CORe to obtain this mobility, but in my mind, if the trade-off is a couple of late nights to be able to enjoy your sister’s wedding, then the choice is clear.

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