Production and Operations Management
This course features two teaching innovations: #POM4 all and FactoryVR. #POM4all is the result of fundamentally rethinking online teaching. Instead of replicating classroom lectures online, we sought inspiration from science TV shows, YouTube, MOOCs, and Hollywood: We planned, recorded, and created short 5-10 minutes lively and educational videos on specific POM topics. FactoryVR uses virtual reality (VR) to teach operations management with a high level of immersion. Students virtually visit real factories in different countries to solve realistic tasks aimed at improving productivity. For this innovation, we have cooperated with Hilti.
Implementation of the course during the time of distance learning
#POM4all innovative video lectures
#POM4all is a series of short lecture videos 100% conceptualized, developed, designed, and managed by Prof. Netland and his team. It is the result of fundamentally rethinking online teaching. Instead of replicating classroom lectures online, we sought inspiration from science TV shows, YouTube, MOOCs, and Hollywood: We planned, recorded, and created 44 short 5-10 minutes lively and educational videos on specific POM topics. #POM4all is a perfect blend of publicly accessibly learning materials, MOOCs, ETH’s TORQUEs concept, and Blockbusters.
We bought a good-quality hobby camera (Sony a7) and a green screen to set up a recording studio in the office. A professional assistant was hired to help with video editing (Katalin Tesch, subsequently hired to become part of the team). Local ownership enabled us to swiftly develop and produce lots of new content on a weekly basis. During the semester weeks, our students watched selected videos (uploaded to Moodle) and met virtually for quizzes and discussions during teaching slots.
Since the online format allows reaching students beyond our class, we decided in 2021 to share some videos openly on our YouTube channel.
Factory VR innovative teaching case using Virtual Reality
We use virtual reality (VR) to teach operations management with a high level of immersion. Students virtually visit real factories in different countries to solve realistic tasks aimed at improving productivity. The teaching innovation progressed through two phases: CaseVR (2017-2020) and FactoryVR (2020-2021). Both have won competitive internal funding from Innovedum and international teaching awards such as the Bronze Winner in the “Oscars of Education”
To our knowledge, this is the first time VR has been integrated in a business course in higher education—anywhere. Prof. Netland conceived the idea in 2017 when he was visiting the ABB factory in Baden and learned about the ABB VR app that had been developed for marketing purposes in student career fairs. Case VR was nominated to KITE 2020.
FactoryVR is a radical improvement and enhancement of CaseVR. The biggest difference is thatin FactoryVR we create our own VR material in cooperation with leading firms such as the Hilti Corporation. We implemented gamified elements in the VR app (see one example in the figure below).FactoryVR was given as the second group assignment in the POM Course.
