IE Business School boosts the technological immersion of students to transform the learning experience

Madrid, 5 October 2018. IE Business School unveiled its commitment to the technological immersion of its students, which will revolutionize the learning experience. During the presentation, Martin Boehm, Dean of IE Business School, outlined IE Business School’s strategic road map for the next five years. IE Business School was a pioneer in Europe in 2001 when it opted to develop online training. Since then, more than 10,000 students have graduated using blended methodology. In 2016, IE launched the WOW Room, the first of its kind in Europe. In this latest stage, IE Business School’s objective is for all its students to transform their learning experience through technology immersion projects.

Over the last 15 years, IE Business School has invested more than €25 million in innovative projects applied to education. Martin Boehm stressed that IE Business School plans to double that figure and invest a further €50 million over the next five years to strengthen its commitment to technology. Boehm also announced that in 2023 all students of the business school will use the WOW Room and will be trained in areas such as artificial intelligence applied to businesses, blockchain, coding, fintech and cryptocurrencies like #IEToken.

Martin Boehm added that over the next five years, IE "will step on the gas", allowing its students "to use new teaching methods, team-based and experiential learning, along with immersion in new work scenarios designed using virtual reality and augmented reality, using new tools that we have rigorously tested and that take the educational experience to a new level". "We are innovators and again, we want to change the rules of the game in business education", said Martin Boehm.

Martin Boehm explained that all IE Business School students undergo practical experiences, are immersed in the business world from the first day, participate in consulting projects with large companies and also develop business plans they can present to investors. The Dean has stressed the importance of developing students’ cognitive flexibility and critical thinking, allowing them to "adapt to an uncertain and demanding future with new challenges and new professions in which technology will play a leading role".

The IE Learning Innovation team has prototyped an interactive and collaborative platform, a space designed with VR technology where students and professors could meet and work together. “We are actively experimenting with VR technology as we believe it holds a big potential for the future: it is immersive, emotional, helps to keep the student attention and can offer a valuable space for practice. In the future, we believe it will help empower conceptual learning at scale” explains Jolanta Golanowska, Director of IE Learning Innovation.

Martín Rodríguez, Director of IE Publishing, presented a demo designed "for students to learn immersively how clients’perceptions and sensations affect marketing & commercial decisions and consumer behavior”. Since 2001, IE has set the European agenda in the development of interactive resources, multimedia cases, tutorials and simulations for its training programs.

About IE Business School 

IE Business School offers a technology-based learning ecosystem for leaders making a difference in the world through innovation, global vision, an entrepreneurial mind-set and a unique approach to the Humanities. IE Business School has a faculty composed of more than 500 professors who currently teach courses to students from 131 countries, offering university degrees, master programs, doctoral programs and training for executives. IE Business School’s more than 60,000 alumni platform is present in 165 countries.