At first sight, the bank of aesthetically arranged computers in the room gives the impression of a rather large cyber cafe.
A closer look bares the absence of colourful paraphernalia. In fact, the decor is pretty sober and business-like.
There are no games being played or mails being read and almost all the users are wearing headsets; some of them are even taking down notes.
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It is then that you notice a professor talking on screen, the spreadsheets and the attire of the users which suggests that they are working executives- in fact they are management students of top rung B-schools like Xavier Labour Relations Institute- Jamshedpur (XLRI) and Indian Institute of Management-Kozhikode (IIM-K).
Welcome to an online education session taking place at DirecWay Global Education.
DirecWay Global Education is a joint venture between Hughes Network Systems and One Touch Knowledge Systems Inc.
Hughes Escorts is the Indian operation of the US-based communication major, Hughes Network Systems, which is a wing of Hughes Electronics.
Hughes Escorts Communications has tied up with XLRI- Jamshedpur, IIM- Kozhikode and Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) to introduce business management education programmes through broadband satellite connection.
The courses target working and experienced professionals to provide an opportunity for them to study and earn a certificate in business management from premier institutions while working without interrupting their career.
XLRI has evolved a 14 months consolidated program in business management. It has been named as post-graduate certificate in business management.
IIM-K and MAHE offer 1year programs in General Management, designed specifically for working professionals/executives.
The XLRI course encompasses week of intensive learning at the XLRI campus wherein participants are expected to stay in the campus for 1 week in the month of April and complete about 40 hrs of the course.
During the period of their stay on campus participants need to participate in intensive classroom and group learning sessions.
The course includes project work, lecture series, case methods, group work, term papers assignments and dissertation.
The association with Direcway will take training and education programmes by the institutes beyond the geographical boundaries to various classrooms all across India.
The participants will benefit by being in their own city and still attend high quality programmes from the management institutes in a way similar to what they would have done at the campus.
HECL has a nationwide presence with classrooms spread across cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Kochi, Chandigarh and Pune.
The students can attend classes even while they travel. They can go the nearest Direcway Global Education classroom in that particular city. Hence they can keep traveling on work and not miss classes.
In addition to this, students can catch a class they have missed or revise a particular lecture by way of archive sessions.
A studio for this purpose would be set up in the campus of the respective institute. The studio would be set up by Direcway Global Education (DWGE) at a cost of approximately Rs 2 crore.
In partnership roles and responsibilities, DWGE would be looking at technology, sales & marketing along with operations while the academic institute would be handling the course content, faculty and certification.
The programs will be delivered on Hughes DirecWay Global Education interactive learning platform. The heart of the platform is a powerful user interface that enables large number of geographically distributed students to have a highly interactive