Emerging Undisrupted From The Pandemic - Ft. Arpita Samanta, DMS IIT Delhi

As the pandemic hit across the globe, everything came to a standstill, and our lives have changed dramatically since then. Amidst all of this disruption, there was a lot of apprehension about starting an MBA online. Virtual MBA also comes with its own set of challenges like high screen time, poor internet connectivity, lack of physical interaction, and body movements. From virtual orientation to virtual exams, the Batch of 2020-22 has seen it all.

Efficiently overcoming the challenge of onboarding a new batch of students virtually and ensuring the same quality of peer to peer learning, the management, faculty, and students of DMS have left no stone unturned to make this experience equally valuable. This has opened up a vast pool of opportunities:-

1) Time Saving

In the virtual world, our day revolves around the study table and bed. Since we are not required to travel 1-2 km from the hostel to the classroom building every time, it saves an immense amount of time. All the time spent on grooming and getting dressed up can be wisely spent in a virtual MBA.

2) Hassle-Free

One can easily attend an 8 am class virtually, waking up just five minutes before the class. Whereas in a physical environment, one needed at least half an hour to get ready for the class. Physically, morning classes are attended mostly without breakfast, rushing to the class, and apologizing to professors for being late.

3) Better Industry Interaction

The physical availability of Business Leaders is not a constraint when organising Leadership Webinars in the online medium. At DMS, with continuous efforts from the various student-led clubs and committees, we connected to business leaders worldwide, from Australia to the UK, and many others. It has empowered us with a broader understanding of business challenges within India and globally.

4) Availability of Classroom Recordings

It is probably one of the most significant benefits of online learning. We can readily access the classroom recordings later whenever in doubt. It was even beneficial in case somebody missed the class due to any other difficulty. An advantage like this is not available in physical classrooms.

5) Advanced Collaboration Tools

With the advent of the online mode, the management at DMS has incorporated and adopted various tools like Moodle, MS Teams, MS SharePoint, and many more collaborative tools. The benefit of such online tools is that now all our class notes, assignments, and term paper submissions are appropriately organized and available anytime, anywhere for ready reference.

6) The Comfort of Home  

Who would have imagined doing an MBA and still enjoy the warm, delicious breakfast prepared by Mom every day, not to forget the warm cozy bed instead of an unfriendly hostel bed. Forget grappling with the roommate over shared storage space - MBA from home has undoubtedly brought us comfort.

While we are experiencing the benefits of the virtual medium, let us not forget the incessant efforts put by our beloved faculty members to ensure the teaching pedagogy doesn’t get hampered in the virtual medium and the students have a seamless online learning experience. With no prior exposure to the online medium, our senior professors prepared reader-friendly and visually-appealing teaching material to ensure that students face no difficulty while comprehending the subject knowledge in the online setup. Kudos to all the faculty members !!

There are definitely certain learnings that we will carry forward even when things are back to normal. There are many benefits of a virtual MBA. Despite that, physical interaction and campus life are crucial elements of an MBA journey. We hope things are back to normal soon and our batch can live the campus life before passing out.

About the Author

Arpita Samanta from the batch of 2020-22 is a first-year MBA student at DMS, IIT Delhi. Arpita is a technology and marketing strategy enthusiast whose favorite pastime is spending time with dogs and being in the midst of nature.