PCW's Learning Solutions a "revolution"

"No power out there that will prevent this from being a success," says Ram Badrinathan

Ram Badrinathan, the newly-appointed vice president of PhoCusWright's new division, Learning Solutions, wanted to be sure its initial product line, MasterClass, would work as well in real life as it sounded on paper.

And so last weekend, he arranged for a test drive of the inaugural workshop, The Digital Travel Revolution, at a local Mumbai school, the Arzoo Travel Training Institute. "We wanted to do a test run before we got to paid workshops," he said.

On paper, PhoCusWright says the MasterClass programme "leverages a unique pedagogy that harnesses the power of media, and technology that enables organizations to overcome the high costs of hiring subject matter experts, traveling off-site and taking employees away from their daily tasks".

In the press release, Badrinathan is quoted as saying, "What's so exciting about Learning Solutions and MasterClass is our ability to bring the experts to the audience on a scale that has never been practical or financially feasible before.

"Now, literally thousands of travel industry professionals-from the front desk to the corner office-can tap directly into the knowledge and experience of some of the industry's leading minds."

Badrinathan told WIT, "We had been convinced of the theoretical and logical framework to MasterClass, the pedagogy - learning from expert, trained facilitator, group collaborative learning etc. But this was in a sense the moment of truth. Within me, I and am sure all of us had that little niggling feeling - will this work?"

The verdict? Despite two glitches - audio and "terrible projector", he said, the workshop was a "blowout success".

"The target profile of the students was 19-21 year-old second rate students. I don't want to transform the super bright studying in elite institutes, I want to uncover the potential of students who don't have the opportunity for various reasons.

"This was the audience. By the end of the workshop, which our trained facilitator handled with aplomb, we had students engaged through activities, quizzes etc and individual assessment. It was 7.30 hours ( got extended due to various reasons - discussions as well as breaks) but they were charged. This was also an audience, many for whom English knowledge is quite rudimentary and communication skills is a challenge

"Now there is not a shred of doubt within me that we have something that is revolutionary and no power out there that will prevent this from being a success."

Badrinathan said what was unique about the Learning Solutions' method was "we are driving blended learning and empowering the classroom".

"We believe the classroom is critical to the learning process. The instruction design of our approach honours all the elements of effective learning - learning directly from the subject matter expert, learning in class room experience or Group Collaborative; learning with intragroup collaboration and intergroup competition; clarification with the experts; and assessment."

The traditional model however faced the following challenges - lack of experts" time for training particularly line managers; cost of training: time, travel and other expenses; and employee turnover which increases repeat training costs.

Said Badrinathan, "The above model hasn't scaled till now and that is clear by experts having to fly down to conduct workshops everywhere and it also increases the cost significantly.

"Online education can support the classroom experience but cannot replace it. Using the blending learning model which we are leveraging, this whole challenge can be addressed. Our solution focuses on this problem of scaling subject matter expertise in group collaborative learning setting."

Badrinathan stressed that his approach was very different from e-learning. "E-learning as defined today is purely online and is great for self paced, post classroom learning experience. We are using online learning to supplement classroom but most e-learning players have tried to replace the classroom.

"We are scaling the classroom by bring the expert directly in a synchronous mode with a facilitator who drives the classroom experience in group collaborative learning mode. How to empower the classroom and Group learning experience is important for us and differentiates us from other e-learning providers who focus on online e-learning

"We also use rich media intensively. Our content is extremely rich in audio visual, animation, graphics etc in addition to classroom activities that are very engaging with students."

He said PhoCusWright's mission is to build a global learning solutions company that leverages media and technology to scale learning without diluting quality in the travel tourism and hospitality domain by offering both products and services.

The inaugural MasterClass workshop, The Digital Travel Revolution, traces the dramatic transformation of the travel industry since the advent of the global Internet and provides participants with a foundation for working more effectively in this rapidly-shifting business landscape.

The workshop will be available throughout the Asia Pacific region, where professionals entering the travel, tourism and hospitality space will have an opportunity to learn directly from PhoCusWright president and CEO Philip Wolf, Badrinathan and other prominent industry representatives.