Q&A with Ankit Khandelwal: 18th to 22nd January

[Ankit Khandelwal]

Hi Ankit,
Soft skills play a very important part in becoming a successful manager and should be very much part of any MBA program. The problem is, how can you actually demonstrate these skills to a potential employer?

Hi Susan,
This is a very tricky question. It can vary completely from person to person. Let me think about it for a day and I will come up with an answer tomorrow. Thanks for the question and patience.

Regards,
Ankit

 

[Sky]

Hi Sky,
Thanks for your question. My entire project was based on "Learning by doing" pedagogy. I have used online course projects/self-designed projects/solving social problems/volunteering assignments/ freelance consulting/essay competitions etc to put the best usage of my gained knowledge into practice. It is not possible to list every single project or new methodologies developed to practice knowledge, but you can at least glimpse of it through the following bullet points:

1. General projects: I have shared some of them in this article at LinkedIn.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2014...y-personal-experiences-iii?trk=mp-author-card

2. Learning business strategy: I have written a 3 part series at Saylor.org website telling more about learning Business Strategy using simple tools. It can be read here:
http://www.saylor.org/2014/07/blog-maximizing-your-learning-through-online-tools-strategic-planning/

3. More different projects: I am copying a portion of entire article published at the University Post at your reference. This information can also be read at http://ankitkhandelwal.in/implementation-phase/

Practicing knowledge in real life ​

I was living in my home town to reduce my expenses and trying to finish this entire project without extra financial burden. I did not have luxury to do internships, buying cases to read to practice my knowledge. In such situation, I turned to my surrounding environment. And I make the best use of available online/offline situations to practice my knowledge.


1. Course project/essays/other competitions:Many of the online courses have projects as requirement of getting course completion certificate.My course projects included strategic analysis on an African Bank, comparative economic analysis between 2 Latin American countries, globalization project on Kazakhstan, solving a dispute in context of EU Legislation, checking environment law violation disputes at a farm in USA and also modifying traffic plan of my own city. I have also written essays covering cultural aspects of Iran, China, Latin America and Middle-East. Using the knowledge from courses, I have participated in several competitions. Important of them were ‘Improving competitiveness of Eastern Europe’ and ‘Improving cultural cooperation between India-Russia’.


2. Side studies/helping others/volunteering projects: Using my knowledge of finance, I helped in planning debt reduction plan of a street vendor. I have planned plan of increasing income for another street vendor. I have helped an NGO in Sierra Leone in improving their agricultural activities. Later, I have helped a Mexican firm to improve their packaging efficiency. Some of the side studies that I have taken to practice my knowledge were, ‘Investment potential of green technologies in India’, ‘How to maintain discipline in lines in crowded temples of India to reduce Stampede ’, ‘Marketing in megacities in 2020’ etc.


3. Social Media/Other readings:Living in my hometown offered me very little possibility to have face to face interactions with other people on topics of my interest. So, I turned to virtual world and became more active at different groups of LinkedIn/Facebook. There, I have exchanged information and put my thoughts on issues of public policy, culture, project management, leadership, international trade etc. I have read easily available resources like company annual reports, published reports of international institutions (world bank, IMF, EU etc) to gain necessary depth in different economic sectors.

(Maximizing your learning through professional networking platform LinkedIn, my experiences)


4. Newspapers/Public libraries:To understand more about global trends, by late May 2012, I started to read news (mostly business) from 8-10 different major countries of the world. Through such readings, I have put many of economic, finance, strategic theories in practice to understand their relevance in day to day real events. I have also created a knowledge database of different economic sectors with associated trends.Using the card borrowed from my friend, I have extensively used private libraries to study areas not covered through newspaper readings.


There were some more approaches in learning language, developing intercultural competence as part of my entire project. It will only make my answer very lengthy. You can explore more through those links.

Thanks for the question.

Regards,
Ankit

Thank you so much Ankit for your detailed reply. The things you have achieved are truely inspirational and show such commitment to your cause. I congratulate you and thank you for sharing your expertise with us.

 

[Muvaffak GOZAYDIN]

Thanks Ankit

All you say " online courses are as good as even better than f2f courses "
I agree with you 100 % provided delivering online school is a high performing school .
So go to www.digital-university.blogspot.com
Get online courses from Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Yale, Princeton, Duke, Cornell, Columbia, University of Illinois, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, PennState, University of Pennsylvania, New York University, Peking University, Tokio University, + many more .
It is all free. If you take 40 courses successfully you get a BA degree . No time limit .

 

[Susan]

Hi Susan,
This is a very tricky question. It can vary completely from person to person. Let me think about it for a day and I will come up with an answer tomorrow. Thanks for the question and patience.

Regards,
Ankit

Thanks Ankit. I look forward to reading your answer.

 

[Sonia]

Hi Ankit,
Could you share what your best and worst experience was while studying MOOCs?

 

[Ankit Khandelwal]

Hi, Ankit! We at CourseTalk would like to know what would have made your experience with the Zero-Cost MBA better.

Hello Course Talk team,

It is nice to meet you again.Sorry for the delay in answering your question. There were plenty of things, though they can be summarized in the following points:


Peace of mind: I was not under pressure to be top of my class/batch and I totally focused on my learning. I put lot of efforts in making it more enjoyable by taking extra readings, self-designed project, and engaging in discussion forums outside the course. This made my learning more concrete and more valuable.



Flexibility: I was able to choose the kind of course, I should study to develop the skill-set I needed. This flexibility allowed me to expand my knowledge base in coherence with my interests and market requirements.


Experimentation: I experimented a lot while following "learning by doing" pedagogy. For a course, I have done project on a bank in Africa. I have also prepared strategic plan for agricultural NGO in Sierra Leone. Participating in competition in Eastern Europe allowed me to use my knowledge in Economics, Business Strategy and Market Research Simultaneously. I have also done projects on Central Asia, Latin America, China, Japan, Russian, and India. Such projects enhanced my capability towards becoming a global thinker. There were many more experimentation being attempted and I definitely feel good about this experience.

Depth: With flexible time frame provided by online courses, I gained lot of depth in some of the areas of my interest. I like to especially quote 'Economics'. I have spent lot of time outside the courses in following market trends and analyzing the information on my own. I can easily say that I have spent 4-5 times more time in many subjects than prescribed by a course. The depth achieved in a particular subject could not be achieved easily.


Discipline: I had to made my own plans, time schedule, and learning activity. This was very difficult initially but proper utilization of Project Management methodology helped to finish multiple courses and gaining satisfaction with my learning curve.


Networking: I met people from many different countries in the classroom. I have also interacted many people on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other forums while practicing my knowledge. Working with people (or interacting) with people from different time zones also helped to optimize the time and improved my intercultural competence. I have also expanded my network in more than 100 countries and recently put it to the test in my 'Global Translation Project'.


Being debt free: It is very personal but unable to fund a conventional MBA was the reason behind my 'Zero Cost MBA' project. Today, I am debt free and the feeling of being able to take risks and able to pursue new paths is very fascinating.

I took a huge risk by going through this project and I do not regret it today


Hopefully, I satisfactorily answered your questions.


Regards,

Ankit​

 

[Ankit Khandelwal]

What suggestions do you have for the online learning industry?

Hello CourseTalk Team,
Well, the industry is already doing very good. It is continuously innovating to meet the needs of learners. There are few things, which needs to be addressed. Such issues many not be directly addressed by the online industry, though they are necessary to improve the offerings.

Apart from increase in the internet penetration, localization of courses(non-English), and partnering with companies, certain more things can be done. [This question is very similar to one asked by Nico, so I am copying the response given to him ]

- Recent positive development in MOOCs: MOOCs were very new to everyone. For Professors, Learners, and Universities. In past 3 years, a lot has been learn. I also helped many researchers in understanding this new format of learning. Lot of shortcomings were addressed and the following developments will definitely allow more people to understand benefits of MOOCs.

Some new developments that are in progress:
> Capstone project: Started by Coursera in partnering with companies for real life projects.
> Nanodegrees: A lot has been said about this already, I do not have to add more into this
> Prevention of cheating: A lot of work has been done in this area as highlighted by Anant Agarwal in his 2nd interview.
> Transfer of credits: edX is working to give credits on passing courses on online platform. Iversity has also tried something similar in past. Overall, this is a good step.
> Hybrid classroom: On the line of blended learning (online+classroom), this new concept is there to transform both online and offline learning.
> Verified certificates: It's improving the course completion rate.


- Role of Government: Many Governments are taking MOOCs learning as a best way of educating population in future. In recent months, I have read news from USA, India, France , Jordan and other countries. Institutions such as World Bank, IMF(International Monetary Fun), WEF(World Economic Forum) and recently European Commission are using this format of learning to import knowledge to wider audiences.

As these developments happen across in future, things will turn in favor of online learning industry.

Regards,
Ankit

 

[Ankit Khandelwal]

Hi Ankit,
Could you share what your best and worst experience was while studying MOOCs?

Well, I prefer to use the word interesting experiences than worst/best. Give me sometime to collect my memories and post them here.

Thanks for your patience.

Regards,
Ankit

 

[BMint]

Some new developments that are in progress:
> Capstone project: Started by Coursera in partnering with companies for real life projects.
> Nanodegrees: A lot has been said about this already, I do not have to add more into this
> Prevention of cheating: A lot of work has been done in this area as highlighted by Anant Agarwal in his 2nd interview.
> Transfer of credits: edX is working to give credits on passing courses on online platform. Iversity has also tried something similar in past. Overall, this is a good step.
> Hybrid classroom: On the line of blended learning (online+classroom), this new concept is there to transform both online and offline learning.
> Verified certificates: It's improving the course completion rate.

Hi Ankit,
You make some great points in your answers.
I'd like to know which of the new developments you listed is in your view the most disruptive in terms of helping the MOOC concept progress in the future.
Thanks for all your great input so far in this Q&A.

 

[Ankit Khandelwal]

Hi Ankit,
You make some great points in your answers.
I'd like to know which of the new developments you listed is in your view the most disruptive in terms of helping the MOOC concept progress in the future.
Thanks for all your great input so far in this Q&A.

Well, all of them are related to each other. In my view,
Verified certificates in a course with much focus on project based learning with necessary check points to prevent cheating and option of transfer credits is the future of MOOC concepts.

 

[Ankit Khandelwal]

Hi Ankit,
Could you share what your best and worst experience was while studying MOOCs?

The most exciting was the day, when I got to know about Coursera. That was the time, when I was not even aware of the term MOOCs. It was back in 2012. You can also view the tweet from my Romanian friend, which led me to this entire discovery and project.

- I have checked majority of discussions after the course completion for my first course, ‘An Introduction to Operations Management’. Not just reading discussion posts, I approached approximately 2000 course participants using their listed contact details (Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter/Blog/E-mail)and thanked them for their wonderful opinions.

I have done something similar with the course 'Design Thinking' by Stanford University at NovoEd platform.


-In September 2013, I have lost fast broadband connection, when I moved to a new house. It was on outskirts of the city, with no internet provider offering services those days. I was taking 3 courses at that time. Studying courses were my full time work, so losing few weeks was not an option. With no solution in sight, I started to visit a nearby internet cafe every morning. This cafe was located approximately5-6 km away with no direct public transportation link. Many times, I had to walk if unable to find public transportation. Even though, this was the fastest Internet cafe I have found, the speed was very slow. I sat at least 3 hours regularly to download only 4-5 lecture videos. On my return trip, I had to face afternoon sun as well as rely on some luck to find public transportation. Many times, I walked entire distance. Coming back at home, studying those lectures and repeating this entire process next day became a routine activity for me for couple of weeks. Fortunately, I have passed all those courses and i just smile while remembering those difficult days.


-My internet problem did not end so soon. By October 2013, I bought a USB modem to get slow speed internet access at home. Still, I had to go to Internet cafe to download videos. Sitting with patience on this slow speed internet, it was possible to submit assignments and finish quizzes. Soon, I faced one of the most exciting night of my life.

This internet stopped working hours before the deadline of first peer evaluation assignment in Designing Cities. I was thinking to submit it in around midnight (Indian time), which is afternoon(Pacific time). I went up from my house in 5th floor to 9th floor, assuming that weak signal could be a reason for this error. It did not work. Then, I came out of my building, walked around the entire housing complex just to get internet working at least for 5 minutes. Nothing happened!! It was already 1 AM and I was losing patience. Finally, I took my laptop and came out of housing complex and started walking towards the telephone tower. I was walking on national highway which is the only route to tower. I was completely unaware of the fact that this road is generally patrolled by the Police during night. Soon one of the patrolling van spotted me, stopped me for identification and asked why I am walking at 2 AM on highway that too alone?? Initially I was clueless, but later explained them my problem and even shown them my assignment as a justification . Well, they did not allow me to go further from that point and even warned me for not doing this again.

I returned back home and tried every possible method to get it work all night. It worked only at 6 Am after making me sleepless entire night. I will never forget this experience


- In November 2013, I have moved to another city to stay with my younger brother and finishing my final phase of this study program. Internet connectivity is still an issue here. With low signal strength at my current residence, many times I sat outside in doing important work. Be it sitting outside in cold nights or eventually working under street lamps, I was able to submit assignments and take part in discussion forums smoothly in some of the last courses of my entire project.

- Although, I was very confident in managing my time and especially time zone difference, I missed submitting some assignments on time. It was either my miscalculation or lack of proper internet speed in submitting my work on time. The courses such as 'Latin American Culture', 'Understanding Russians: In the context of intercultural communications' and few more were just missed. Well, this may be the worst experience of all. Assignments were ready but I just could not complete the required criterion of meeting course completion.


There has been many such experiences but these were the most memorable of all
​

 

[Ankit Khandelwal]

Thank you so much Ankit for your detailed reply. The things you have achieved are truely inspirational and show such commitment to your cause. I congratulate you and thank you for sharing your expertise with us.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity and share my work with all of you.

 

[Nico Marzian]

Hello Ankit,

thank you again for the additional answers, not only to my questions but also the many other highly interesting ones asked in this forum.

Best regards,
Nico

 

[Ankit Khandelwal]

Hello Ankit,

thank you again for the additional answers, not only to my questions but also the many other highly interesting ones asked in this forum.

Best regards,
Nico

You are welcome. It is always nice to hear from you Nico. MOOCs is all about 'collaborative learning' and I too learn a lot from your experiences.

 

[Kajal Sengupta]

Kajal
I have been employer for 40 years now after getting degrees from Stanford and doing research at Caltech and having the honor of working with Mr Hewlett and Mr Packard for 5 years in Palo Alto California . I do hire people with ONLINE degree. ONLINE or f2f is not important . Important thing is " where did you get your degree ? From MIT, Harvard, PennState, University of Illinois, University of Michigan ? "
If you get your degree f2f from a Dakota University I do not hire you at all. But if you get an online from University of Michigan or Harvard or Stanford I hire you immediately . I hire only from the best 200 universities and colleges of the USA. You can find that list at US News .
In summary
Important matter is from where you get your degree, is it from a reputable brick and mortar university ? See list at US News .

Thanks for your reply. I presume acceptability of online degrees vary from region to region. In US online education has been thriving for quite some time. Others are still not awake.

 

[Ankit Khandelwal]

Hi, Ankit! We at CourseTalk would like to know what would have made your experience with the Zero-Cost MBA better.

I did not think this while designing or executing my project, but this looks relevant today. As the technologies and working environment changing more rapidly than ever, it is better to be adaptable to meet new requirements. It is like learning, un-earning and re-learning to suit the market needs. Traditional system cannot do this with a fast pace (or in terms of scale), and my Zero Cost MBA is the best example of changing according to needs. Just that, in my project, needs were also driven by personal interest.

 

[Ankit Khandelwal]

Thanks Ankit. I look forward to reading your answer.

Hi Susan,
Sorry for the delay. I spent some time in coming up with an answer. It is always difficult to judge soft skills on paper. Face to face conversation is the best possible way. But that cannot happen, as CV is the first step in getting any kind of job. Before I go further in my answer; let me share an interesting experience of mine regarding 'perception'.

I remember an incidence from an HR personal. He hired someone simply because both of them were members of same charity organization at some point in their life. HR could easily relate the skills demonstrated in his CV(also during the interview) as he himself experienced those things. Other candidates were simply failed to make this kind of impression of soft skills they might had acquired through other activities. It's not just any HR, it also applies to us. It's more like how we as an individual judge another person? How we relate to each other? How we try to build the trust?
This is puzzle, which also comes with hidden biases. Many HR have pre-determined criterion to only consider person from X university as talented one and rejecting others. Wheres others who are more interested in 'What you can do? With what you have? rather than 'How and from where you got the knowledge' will be able to read other applications with greater interest.

Sorry, I got distracted a bit but this is very difficult to answer. Arrival of technology only made it more complicated for everyone, especially in the job search [Key Word Search] This was highlighted by the Nobel Laureate Dale T. Mortensen in his lecture at Copenhagen. http://ankitkhandelwal.in/2011/06/14/lecture-by-nobel-laureate-prof-dale-t-mortensen/

Anyway, let me answer your question properly. Soft skills are indeed major part of not just MBA, but part of our own daily life. It is like how we express, communicate, and convey our message to the others. I have seen many people lacking it because they do not try to practice 'expressing themselves'. If one can express himself/herself very well than rest of the things can be learned easily. Also, it is necessary to understand that certain soft skills cannot be learn in a classroom or via the theoretical concepts. They can only be acquired while doing things(let's working under the pressure, quick decision making, handling conflicts, consensus building). Even, fluency in a language does not mean 'communication skills', but then again, we do not have any parameter to measure person's communication skills. So, this can be taken as a good replacement.

Coming back to convince the employer about your soft skills. If I do not get chance to meet someone in person; then for the first glance, I will list out my qualities through my activities. It is possible to raise certain level of projection by listing your extra-curricular activities, social work, and social media presence. If you have done public speaking related work, then list it as well. Relating some skills with work undertaken can be the best way of showcasing your soft skills. Of course, if you are able to meet than you can always talk about it.

Hopefully, my answer has made some sense. As I have said before, this is a tricky question and I may not have the best answer.

Thanks for asking!

Regards,
Ankit

 

[Ankit Khandelwal]

Thank you everyone once again for interesting questions. It has brought my entire 2 year journey in front of my eyes once again. I do hope that my answers will help you in your quest.

Regards,
Ankit Khandelwal
www.ankitkhandelwal.in

 

[Carolyn]

A huge thank you to Ankit for taking the time to share with us some very insightful answers from which we can all benefit