Climate change, gender equality, education for all, international, blended learning, new campus: Grenoble Ecole de Management (GEM) unveils 7 key developments for the 2020 intake.
1/ Blended learning classrooms and the GEM Learning Model
Like its Paris Campus, GEM plans to invest in the creation of 10 classrooms on its Grenoble campus, each equipped with ‘GEM Learning Model’ facilities, by the end of 2020. This new blended classroom enables a class to be given to students attending both face-to-face and remotely. It has been designed exclusively by GEM at GEM Labs with the GEM Learning Design Unit. The benefits range from more flexibility to cost reduction and greater technological compatibility, than the existing systems. These rooms will be equipped with a variety of screens and cameras to:
- Deliver lessons in all possible configurations and with all possible tools and software: the teacher can be in a classroom or connected to his or her computer elsewhere, and can give the lesson to a group of students both onsite and offsite at the same time, either in different rooms on campus or in their homes.
- Overcome the health constraints imposed by the Covid-19 context
- Improve the conditions of distance learning: the students will get more of a classroom feeling, even if they are attending the class remotely. An attention tracking system will also be tested, to monitor students’ attention wherever they are. This will help teachers to keep students’ attention for longer.
- Guarantee the best possible individual follow-up thanks to a system of direct exchanges, which will also in particular allow students in difficultly to be helped
2/ Committed to Climate change: the 2020 Back to School Challenge
At the start of the 2020 academic year, students will be invited to participate in the “Goals to Tranform the World” challenge. The challenge involves putting in place a real and tangible initiative in response to one of the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals to Transform our World. Students will have to imagine how to share and deploy their initiative, both among fellow students at GEM, and among people outside of GEM. This challenge aims to encourage students to take action on these ecological, economic and societal issues that are also among the 5 key engagements at Grenoble Ecole de Management. Beyond this challenge, students will be invited to sign GEM’s new CSR charter and to participate in a “Sulitest” session, the initiative for raising awareness and measuring knowledge of major sustainability issues.
3/ Working for Gender Equality: a new Serious Game
“Harass me” is a virtual card game that aims to raise awareness among students and teachers by inviting them to put themselves “in the shoes” of both a harassed person and a harasser. It was initiated by a group of GEM students who then developed it in collaboration with the FERE (Women and Economic Renewal) Chair and with the GEM gender equality association “Réagir”. The idea is to allow “players” to understand the mechanisms that lead a person to be a harasser and to reflect on how a victim may feel immediately and more importantly in the medium to long term. The game will be previewed by GEM students from GEM associations at the start of the new school year.
4/ Responsible manager: a new certificate from January 2021
This new certificate called ‘Responsible leadership and followership” aims to develop critical thinking to make students more responsible in their roles as future leaders and followers. For three years, in parallel to their training program, GEM students enrolled in this certificate will question the conventional understanding of the roles of leaders and their supporters in contemporary times…Its most original feature: an Aikido course as part of the program!
5/ New International “Asia Social Innovation by Design” course (Singapore)
Students of the Grande Ecole Program will now have the opportunity to follow a “specialization” called “Asia Social Innovation by Design” in Singapore at Strate School of Design. In addition to this specialization, 6 other specializations are also offered for the transcontinental track of this program:
- Specialization in Business in Asia, at Beihang University (Beijing, China)
- Specialization in International Management, at Homerton College / Clare Hall (Cambridge, GB)
- Specialization in Finance, at Pace University (New-York, United States)
- Specialization in Geopolitics, at George Washington University (Washington DC, USA)
- Specialization in International Management, at McGill University, School of Continuing Education (Montréal, Canada)
- Specialization in Sustainable Entrepreneurship, at Sasin School of Management, Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok, Thailand).
6/ The opening of the new GEM Paris Campus
Grenoble Ecole de Management has been established in Paris since 2014. A conclusive experience during this time has made it possible to invest in the new more ambitious campus located on 96 Rue Didot (in the 14th ‘arrondissement’). This new campus has the capacity to welcome up to 1,000 students per year.
7/ A Welcome Forum and new student services for the start of the new school year
GEM has created its Welcome Forum in new digital format to allow its new students, wherever they are located, to discover its services, student associations, business partners and initiatives for climate change. The program includes a virtual fair with virtual tours of the campus and interactive 3D virtual stands. Students will be able to make individual appointments or to chat live with school teams. A portfolio of services will be presented ranging from financial aid, disability support, medical teleconsultation, psychological assistance, prevention of sexual and gender-based harassment, career coaching and development. GEM’s Career Service is also further developing its services to provide even more career opportunities and business meetings for its students. These new services include job webinars, coaching sessions, weekly Q & A sessions, career chats, CV flash workshops, thematic weeks for different sectors, speed recruitment and more.
