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| Carey's “Gizmo”, one of three Segway robots at the business school Photo: BusinessBecause |
Albert Einstein once claimed that you can be in two places at once. The boffin was right—and you don’t need to be a quantum physicist to do it; merely a business school student. MBAs are attending campus classes using robots, controlled from halfway across the planet.
Online learning has existed for decades, but schools are turning to newer forms of technology as the demand for digital degrees rockets and technology becomes increasingly prevalent in the workplace.
At Arizona’s W.P. Carey School of Business, MBA and Executive MBA students are able to attend classes virtually using “Gizmo”, one of three Segway robots with wheels that display a student’s face via an iPad strapped to the machine. A microphone and speaker enable conversations in real-time, while the wheels let students roam campus, interacting with anyone who crosses their path.
Lisa Bienstock says that she would not be able to get her Carey EMBA if it were not for technology such as Gizmo. “I’m a parent,” she says. “I also work full-time and I’m getting my Executive MBA all at the same time. I wouldn’t be able to do it if I didn’t have the support of ASU and technology like Gizmo to be in two places at once.”
She cites, as an example of how the robot has helped her, an instance in which she was attending a conference in Las Vegas but had to attend EMBA classes simultaneously in Arizona. “I was able to attend class through Gizmo, which was phenomenal as I didn’t miss anything,” says Lisa.
She controlled the Arizona-based bot from her Vegas hotel room using her laptop keyboard. “It’s great for parents or people who have sick children or disabilities — if you can’t get to class, you’re able to be there to participate [virtually],” Lisa says.
The robots may seem unusual but are now regularly roaming some campuses, with remote students routinely rolling into lecture theatres on wheeled machines, as well as meeting recruiters virtually using the devices.
MIT Sloan School of Management in Massachusetts, for instance, has been using robots designed by Double Robotics and Avaya Robotics since 2015, mostly in the executive education space where distance learning is more common than in MBAs.
Schools hope the robots mimic the feel of being on a buzzy campus, though nothing has truly replicated that experience yet.
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| Photo: BusinessBecause |
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Source: BusinessBecause
