Odyssey track experiment conclusions. A life-size educational innovation lab founded in GEM's Grande Ecole Program
Educational innovation is one of Grenoble Ecole de Management's credos through the GEM Learning Model (its pedagogical model), its GEM Labs campus and the Odyssey (ex-Ulysses) track. This year, the 25 Odyssey track students have once again experimented. The idea: to find out how to teach the emerging skill of co-construction to allow students to better apprehend an object in transition in an ever-changing world. Explanation below.
Developing mutual aid and 'the collective' rather than competition
In recent months, students have tested three educational schemes outside GEM and under the watchful eye of their professors: the Disrupt campus 2nd edition of the hackathon; a live business case with the CEA Grenoble and an experiential 'volleyball' training method to learn management and marketing. The goal: to immerse students in a collective project for them to learn how to co-construct. "Co-construction requires both interpersonal and know-how skills. In order to have optimum discussions over different perceptions, we must express our point of view, speak up, commit, know how to negotiate to convince others and know how to take a step back to better question our own representations.
The co-construction process involves trusting the group to which we belong to because decision-making is collaborative. All points of view and interventions must be considered on an equal footing: participants must know how to be considerate and objective. Co-construction is a fully-fledged skill that encompasses many others. Essential in the professional environment, it is complex and the question of its inclusion in training programs is critical," explains Emmanuelle Villiot-Leclercq, Head of the Odyssey Track and Educational Innovation at GEM.
The evolutions of the Odyssey Track in 2020-2021: towards transition
The faculty team brought changes to the track for the year 2020–2021, going a step further to break down remaining barriers. The program includes a new 48-hour Corporate Integration Project module impacted by 5 other course modules. This means a total of 100 hours dedicated to a specific project tackled from different angles: methodology, project management, design thinking, corporate drama workshops, information design, e-portfolio... The project will feed into the remaining 400 hours of core courses (marketing, finance, law, etc.).
"Students will be equipped to face objects and a world in transition. We need to equip them with the right tools to make a change in the world. The Odyssey track offers our teams an exceptional testing ground to develop their teaching methods. It allows us to co-construct, with partner companies, sustainable and new considerations on how to best approach the current transitions in our world," concludes Emmanuelle Villiot-Leclercq.
