MIT’s Sloan School of Management last week announced the global launch of a new website, MIT Sloan Teaching Innovation Resources (MSTIR), which will feature a collection of innovative teaching materials developed by MIT faculty and students. The materials, which include case studies, teaching videos and other creative instructional resources, will be available for free to anyone with Internet access.
“Our goal is to spread knowledge and make a difference in the world of business education – to have an impact on business education and where it is going in the future,” said MIT Sloan Deputy Dean JoAnne Yates in a statement announcing the website’s launch.
MSTIR’s collection of materials focuses on MIT Sloan’s most cutting-edge research and teaching, including in the areas of sustainability, industry evolution and global entrepreneurship. The school plans to add more areas as the site grows.
“We want to focus on areas where exciting things are happening and we have a unique contribution to make in management and business education,” Yates said.
Students played an important role in developing many of the materials. Several case studies are based on students’ experiences in a course called Global Entrepreneurship Lab (G-Lab), in which they help fledgling companies abroad address startup issues and challenges. Others were developed in the context of a course called Sustainability Lab (S-Lab).
An example drawn from G-Lab involves students working with a Brazilian startup as it considers entering U.S. markets. Another, drawn from S-Lab, describes the concept of materials pooling as a sustainability strategy for businesses and the challenges involved.
Over time, MIT Sloan plans to add additional areas of focus as well as management flight simulators – interactive models based on system dynamics that will be available for faculty worldwide to use with their students. The first set of management flight simulators is targeted for summer of 2009 and will include related case studies.
“Great research into the challenges of management isn’t worth much if it doesn’t lead to change in the real world,” said MIT Sloan Professor John Sterman, director of the System Dynamics Group.
Sterman expects MSTIR to create more rapid exchange between the research lab and the real world, which in turn will speed learn and benefit managers, students and researchers alike. “I expect it to be very much a two-way street,” he added.
To visit thee MSTIR website, click here.
