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Mobile First Platform Means More Flexibility and Efficiency for Busy Berkeley Executive MBA Students
Berkeley, CA — EmpoweredU and the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley today announced the roll-out of a new mobile learning platform for the Berkeley MBA for Executives program.
EmpoweredU’s mobile learning platform provides the tools, mobility, and ease of the iPad for a mobile learning experience. The partnership is the result of a recently completed pilot program that allowed students in the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program to test out the mobile education technology.
The platform features built-in functionalities and tools for streaming content via the Internet, course site creation, on-line lectures, assignment, test administering, grading, user publishing, live chat, peer-to-peer interaction, discussion forum, development of student portfolios, messaging, and news and web-content access. Initially, these will be applied to the following courses: Finance; Leading People; Marketing; and Building Trust based on Relationship; plus an additional four courses per semester to be added later.
The platform greatly enhances student-to-student communication and student-to-instructor communication. Haas students will be able to access the platform’s mobile discussion boards and social learning tools. The mobile platform allows for audio, video, and essay creation. It also integrates key iPad features like Notifications and Facetime.
“We are so proud to have gone from demo to pilot to deployment in just a few months and we are now helping Haas students get an online mobile experience unlike anywhere else,” said EmpoweredU CEO Steve Poizner. “This partnership merges the best innovation of Silicon Valley with one of the premier executive MBA programs in the world.”
The Berkeley MBA for Executives offers a general management program much like the Full-time and Evening & Weekend Berkeley MBA programs. However, the program is specifically tailored to seasoned executives who have an average of 12 years professional experience. Classes meet every three weeks on Thursdays through Saturdays over the course of 19 months to allow students to continue working while getting their graduate degrees. The new mobile learning platform allows students to stay in touch with classmates in between class sessions and facilitates juggling coursework with career and family commitments.
“Our executive MBA program will be the first degree program to experience the benefits of this mobile learning experience,” said Adam Berman, who heads the Haas School’s initiatives in learning technologies. “For senior professionals on the go, having this kind of technology means getting the most out of their MBA experience, using their time most efficiently, and deepening their ties to their classmates.”
“EmpoweredU’s mobile first technology breaks students away from being tethered to a desktop with full-time internet access. We provide a mobile platform that students can use both in and out of WiFi zones,” said Poizner. “This kind of flexibility enhances productivity, allowing students to complete coursework anywhere, anytime, whether that be at lunch, at the beach, waiting in a parking lot, or picking up kids from soccer practice.”
About EmpoweredU
EmpoweredU enables universities to deliver their highest quality academic or training courseware through our next-generation mobile learning environment. Thanks to low-cost and feature-rich mobile devices, broadband, and recently developed interactive and engaging learning platforms, today’s online education is vastly different than the self-paced videos and instructor-disconnected online education of the past.
Learn more at www.empoweredu.com
About Berkeley-Haas
The Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, is one of the leading producers of new ideas and knowledge in all areas of business — which includes the distinction of having two of its faculty members receive the Nobel Prize in Economics over the past 20 years. The school offers outstanding management education to about 2,200 undergraduate and graduate students each year who come from around the world to study in one of its six degree-granting programs. One of the first business schools to teach entrepreneurship, starting in 1970, the Haas School later established the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship to foster academic programs, community outreach and campus-wide collaboration in new venture creation, entrepreneurship, and venture capital. The school has nearly 40,000 alumni. The school's mission is "to develop leaders who redefine how we do business." The school's distinctive culture is defined by four defining principles: Question the Status Quo, Confidence without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself. Visit https://haas.berkeley.edu/