What brought you to the INSPIRE programme, Jessica?
Jardines was actually instrumental in putting the programme together with INSEAD to respond directly to the specific needs of our in-house group learning curriculum. INSEAD offered a really good solution in terms of being an international business school and just having the ability to partner with us to create something that was tailored to what we needed and to deliver it across the region. It’s the first time we have invested in this kind of collaboration so it was exciting from that perspective.
Personally, I’ve also recently stepped into a new leadership role, and there are obviously a range of challenges that come with that. You have to balance strategic thinking with still executing on a day to day basis, and this was something that was still new for me. And then from a functional perspective, in terms of communication with our audience who are increasingly time-poor, I was looking for new ways to keep those channels open and to really understand what they need and want.
You began the programme in 2020, when the pandemic struck. How did you adapt to the new circumstances?
We started the programme on campus in Singapore coming in for a week at a time. When Covid hit, we were forced to switch over to the INSEAD 100% virtual GO-Live platform. We had the relative benefit of already knowing each other from beforehand because of the residential experience. But the shift to virtual was actually really positive in itself. We were able to see each other and it felt as much like a classroom as it possibly could.
Was there an impact on the networking element of the programme?
I think in terms of networking, if we hadn't have had the residential course, it might have been a little bit challenging at first. But that said, the breakout rooms and the fact that we were doing the programme over a series of several sessions, meant we were able to build a rapport with our classmates. The breakouts in particular were great because we were actually able to spend a solid amount of time together in small groups. On top of that, you've got the classroom dashboard which means you're able to see everyone else and that helped.
What about the GO-Live learning experience?
Class sessions were interspersed with offline learning which I found really complemented what we did in our online time together – it helped us get more out of the time. And I think that the fact that you can see who you are learning with simultaneously – seeing everyone’s faces on the dashboard – made it feel like we were all together, even though I was sitting at home. It’s a very smooth process too. You simply dial in and out. And there’s a personalisation element that means you can switch easily between a view of the professor or the whiteboard. Really, it’s basically the same functionality as I would have if I was just sitting in a classroom.
So the GO-Live experience was a good solution to the challenge of completing your programme?
I think it’s terrific. GO-Live is a really good interactive platform and I think that we as a cohort together really benefited from the fact that we were able to continue our learning even though we were prevented from coming together in person. The platform gives you so much functionality around how you interact with the learning experience. You can choose if you want to see your classmates on the dashboard, or if I wanted to zoom into what the professor was saying, I could just focus on him, or if I wanted to have a look at the whiteboard that we were working on. And the interactive features in terms of polling and quizzes really maintain your engagement while you're learning virtually.
Without GO-Live I simply could not have continued to learn. Thanks to the platform, after 12 months – slightly delayed by Covid – I am very pleased to say that we have finished the programme and I have my certificate to prove it.
