Don't stay in your comfort zone, go beyond your research area
Ksenia Boyko, having completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the HSE, not only continued her studies in graduate school, but is also actively involved in teaching. In the material, she talked about her experience and impressions of teaching.
Ksenia Boyko is a graduate of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (St. Petersburg). She completed a bachelor's degree in Economics and a master's degree in Finance. She is currently a senior lecturer at the Department of Management and a graduate student at the School of Economics and Management at the National Research University Higher School of Economics.
Why did you decide to build your career in an academic environment?
When I studied at HSE, I had a very good supervisor. She was not just a professor, but a truly remarkable person because she could inspire and motivate students to do research. During my studies, I also participated in her research projects, and it was very interesting to me, so after finishing my master's degree, I decided to go to graduate school and continue my research.
In the program "International Business in the Asia Pacific" you teach the course "Innovations in the organization management". How do you introduce agile and scrum methodology into teaching business and innovation management?
Now I'm trying to separate project management from innovation management because they are completely different courses. This is why in our innovation management course we do not use agile and scrum methods, because this is only part of the course and my colleagues are responsible for this part. But of course I have a theme when I explain how to manage innovation. When I explain this topic, we use some techniques from agile and scrum just to explain that they are worth using if you want to become a good innovation manager.
Can you share any specific examples of successful programs, projects, or case studies that you have used in teaching?
We have several successful cases from our Russian companies, for example, Sberbank, Tinkoff and other companies that have become truly innovative over the past five years. We successfully use these case studies as examples of how companies can be innovative.
What do you think are the key factors contributing to successful international business in the Asia Pacific region?
My area of interest primarily includes Russian companies. But I can make some guesses. I think that cooperation between companies and countries can be considered a key factor contributing to successful international business. If countries or international companies accumulate knowledge, they will be able to create a larger knowledge base and will be able to take international business to a higher level.
How do you support and encourage student engagement and critical thinking in your lectures and discussions?
To be honest, I was very surprised when I started teaching for the International Business in Asia Pacific program because this is my first year teaching master's students. All students in the group are very motivated. This means I don't even have to encourage them to participate in lectures or discussions. This is a big surprise for me. Indeed, we have a lot of discussions, so in every lesson I try to ask some questions without the correct answer. Innovation management is always a discussion on one topic or another, a lot of debate about innovation and so on.
This year you won a prize from the Educational Innovation Foundation (EFI) and your project was dedicated to the use of “gamification” in the educational process. Could you please explain the main idea behind such an innovation?
I was really inspired by a colleague who showed me how to use some useful tools in Smart LMS. She shared with me the idea that we could organize something like a game with the students. I thought that all people, not just students, like to play different games. I like to play games, I'm sure you do too, right? I decided that "gamification" could help, especially in my course, to engage students in learning materials such as lecture materials or other additional information. As you know, students do not want or do not have time to read additional materials because they are considered optional. However, due to time constraints, I cannot explain everything during the lecture, which is why I encourage students to read additional materials and complete additional assignments. Gamification is a good tool for this. For example, for one course I have a story about a guy who travels around an island and meets pirates. He needs to find some treasure chest and to find this treasure chest students have to do some exercises. Just like in a computer game, you need to find some hiding place, increase your experience level, and so on.
Has your engagement level increased?
I was surprised here too. I thought that only some students would play the game, but from my experience, more than 70% of students are trying to find a cache or some hidden artifacts. And to answer your question, yes, I am sure that “gamification” has increased the level of engagement in the educational process.
What inspired you for this innovation?
I had a desire to do something creative, because at university, when you teach students, there are always some strict rules: what needs to be done and how it needs to be done. Because of this lack of creativity, I realized what I needed was to increase my own creativity. “Gamification” is a kind of stimulus for the creativity of the mind, so that I can realize my crazy ideas with some useful purpose for students, try to create a game, try to make the learning process more fun. You know, usually students are very busy, they are not entertained at all when they are studying something, but when you play and learn something at the same time, it becomes much more interesting for you. This is the idea and it is inspiring.
What impressions do you have after working with students of the MA Programme “International Business in Asia-Pacific Region”?
This was my first experience teaching master's students, and I really enjoyed working with them because they are very motivated, want to develop their creativity and be involved in the learning process. In the future, I would like to continue teaching students and expand the boundaries of my knowledge. And I also hope that when I finish this course with these students, I will have a new experience. I like that the program has students from different countries. When we discuss something, students share their experience, how it works in their country, what are the specifics. By exchanging experiences in the field of innovation or company management, we gain new knowledge. It is very important.
What advice would you like to give to our students?
Just try to get new information. Don't stay in your comfort zone, go beyond your research area and try to learn something new and do something new.