Thammasat Business School (TBS) is now preparing to implement hybrid learning for next year’s courses.
During the spreading of COVID-19 and the lock-down policy, TBS had successfully delivered lessons despite all the hardships. The faculty is now is thinking about crafting hybrid learning for 2021, in order to stay prepared for a similar situation in the future.
Assoc.Prof.Dr.Ruth Banomyong, Dean of TBS, said, “TBS is trying to alter the environment of the faculty to match the dynamic of the technological changes and the fast-paced business world. In this day and age, students need more than knowledge from the conventional classroom. They need to have first-hand experiences in business by learning from real entrepreneurs. These experiences will allow them to develop soft skills, know their stuff, and become a successful entrepreneur in the future.”
He added, “TBS has altered every curriculum in response to the business with so much disruption going on. The students will have to be flexible and respond very quickly to changes. Our students will not rely solely on academic knowledge. The faculty are merging the knowledge with the business and making sure students are learning from both sides while walking down the road. Every curriculum has to include at least 30% of the business section.”
The dean also said that currently there are around 650 undergraduate students and 1,400 graduate students, in the Thai and English curriculum. The most popular majors are finance and marketing.
“I started working as a dean in November 2019. Only a few months after that COVID-19 outbreak started and that posed many challenges to both business and education. In March 2019, we had to stop teaching at the faculty and transfer every course online. There were many problems with online classes, sometimes the teachers and students were not ready, sometimes the internet seemed to be the issue but we managed to complete that semester,” he said.
Assoc.Prof.Dr.Ruth Banomyong concludes, “Everyone is new to online classes, but I think it is something that we can adapt and use in the future. I am thinking about “hybrid learning” where some part of classes will be online and the other will be on campus. Before implementing, the faculty’s digital committee will be researching to make sure that the result and the quality of teaching will remain the same.”
“If the results are good, in 2021, we will officially transfer to the hybrid learning method by some basic courses online.”