Dr. Kirti Khanzode is an Affiliate Dean and educational chief with greater than 20 years of expertise in post-secondary training throughout three international locations. Her work spans program management, curriculum design, school growth, and the launch of latest educational initiatives. On the newly established College of Niagara Falls Canada, she leads the Honours Bachelor of Enterprise Administration program, the place her focus is on innovation in educating, learner-centred pedagogy, and constructing educational packages aligned with up to date enterprise wants. Her background contains in depth work in administration training, educational administration, and growing studying fashions that reply to evolving pupil expectations and business realities.
Founding a tutorial program at a newly launched college gives a uncommon management alternative to rethink pedagogy by ranging from the basics. Whereas regulatory necessities form program design, the absence of entrenched expectations and reputational pressures in additional mature establishments permits leaders to query long-standing assumptions about how studying is structured and delivered. By fundamentals, I imply returning to important questions: what do we wish college students to have the ability to do, how they interact with studying, and the way restricted classroom time can assist deeper understanding somewhat than content material protection.
These had been exactly the questions that guided my pondering after I was appointed founding Affiliate Dean and tasked with launching the Honours Bachelor of Enterprise Administration (HBBA) program on the newly opened College of Niagara Falls Canada. Relatively than defaulting to lecture-centric approaches or inherited conventions, I selected to design a pedagogical mannequin that aligned with how in the present day’s learners interact, apply data, and develop enterprise judgment. As soon as that call was made, the subsequent problem was to construction weekly classroom time deliberately to assist these studying outcomes whereas additionally responding to the quickly evolving enterprise panorama.
Submit-pandemic, distant and hybrid work have develop into outstanding options of the enterprise surroundings, requiring graduates to function successfully throughout bodily and digital settings. This shift shapes not solely the abilities college students want, but in addition how they study. As I mirrored on these calls for, three realities of in the present day’s learners grew to become inconceivable to disregard:
First, the accessibility of data has essentially altered college students’ relationship with content material. Sources as soon as requiring library entry or school mediation are actually obtainable immediately. This prompted a reimagining of classroom time, mixing guided instruction with energetic studying and selective parts of the flipped classroom, the place pre-class engagement with content material frees class time for dialogue and software, whereas recognizing {that a} totally flipped mannequin could also be too formidable for undergraduates.
Second, generative AI has reshaped studying. College students can analysis, draft, and analyze work virtually immediately, intensifying questions on how studying happens throughout tutorial time. School can now not depend on rationalization alone; educating strategies should actively interact college students in sense-making, vital pondering, and software, cultivating understanding that can not be automated.
Third, the broader digital ecosystem competes for college students’ consideration. Notifications, social media, and short-form content material resembling TikTok and Reels have shortened focus spans, influencing how classroom time must be structured to maintain engagement and handle cognitive load.
Taken collectively, these realities, the ubiquity of data, AI, and digital stimulation show that in the present day’s learners interact with data otherwise than earlier generations. Responding requires not solely curricular updates however deliberate rethinking of how studying time is designed to seize consideration, maintain engagement, and assist significant software.
To handle these intertwined learner realities and enterprise calls for, we developed what we informally name the 1+2+1 pedagogical mannequin, a structured method to utilizing 4 weekly tutorial hours per course extra deliberately. Every section of the mannequin is designed to align with the learner realities recognized above.
The primary hour is dedicated to self-paced engagement with course supplies on the training administration system, permitting college students to work independently with foundational content material previous to class. Not like the standard follow of assigning textbook chapters as pre-readings, these supplies are deliberately curated by school as subject-matter consultants and developed in collaboration with tutorial designers to align with Common Design for Studying (UDL) rules. The main target is on accessibility, engagement, and interactivity, making certain the content material is acceptable for self-directed studying and prepares college students meaningfully for in-class engagement. Embedded data checks allow college students to evaluate their understanding of key ideas, whereas additionally permitting school to observe engagement and completion by means of the training administration system. This method was designed to scale back the cognitive burden of prolonged textbook readings and exchange it with focused, accessible preparation that immediately helps deeper dialogue, software, and sense-making throughout the subsequent two hours of classroom instruction.
The following two hours of in-class time are deliberately structured to construct on college students’ prior preparation somewhat than repeat it. School use this time for focused instruction that addresses misconceptions, deepens understanding of complicated concepts, and connects concept to follow, adopted by structured actions resembling case-based dialogue, problem-solving duties, and guided evaluation. Drawing on a modified flipped classroom method, the emphasis shifts from content material supply to sense-making, with classroom time reserved for interpretation, software, and higher-order reasoning somewhat than easy transmission of data.
The ultimate hour is devoted to utilized tutorials that perform as a definite studying section somewhat than an extension of the lecture. Working in small groups, college students apply ideas to sensible enterprise situations, make selections beneath constraints, and replicate on outcomes with structured suggestions from instructors. This section prioritizes follow, switch of studying, and reflection, reinforcing conceptual understanding whereas simulating the collaborative and judgment-driven environments college students are more likely to encounter in skilled enterprise contexts.
Importantly, the 1+2+1 method just isn’t a group of educating methods or a rebranding of acquainted active-learning practices. It’s a program-level pedagogical system by which every tutorial hour is deliberately sequenced and structurally differentiated to serve a definite studying function. The mannequin shifts pedagogy from being instructor-dependent to institutionally designed, making certain coherence throughout programs whereas permitting disciplinary flexibility. Studying is deliberately scaffolded somewhat than fragmented, with tutorial time allotted to assist how college students interact with ideas, train judgment, and show understanding. The result’s a coherent development from unbiased preparation to collaborative sense-making and utilized follow, one which minimizes passive content material consumption and reinforces studying by means of deliberate use of time.
For establishments keen to rethink not simply what they train however how studying is designed and supported, pedagogical innovation gives a strong lever for getting ready graduates for an more and more complicated and unsure enterprise world.
Turning pedagogical innovation into tangible affect requires greater than particular person imaginative and prescient; it calls for early engagement with stakeholders, openness to problem, and alignment round a shared function. Rethinking pedagogy required collective possession somewhat than top-down path.
Early conversations with key stakeholders, notably the Heart for Instructing Excellence, ensured school acquired assist aligned with the college’s imaginative and prescient and requirements. Educational designers translated pedagogical intent into sensible course design, notably for the self-paced studying parts. School involvement from the ideation stage fostered buy-in and constructive problem, strengthening the method by means of various views and disciplinary insights. Innovation was framed not as a set blueprint however as dialogue, iteration, and shared problem-solving.
Institutional tradition proved vital: readiness for change depended much less on assets than on creating area for experimentation, aligning assist items with educational priorities, and anchoring change in a transparent academic function. The 1+2+1 mannequin continues to be refined by means of ongoing suggestions with school, college students, and the Heart for Instructing Excellence, assessing alignment with studying outcomes and adapting to rising wants.
This expertise bolstered a core lesson: significant change relies upon much less on good options and extra on readability of imaginative and prescient, willingness to pay attention, and the flexibility to put aside preconceived notions in service of shared objectives. Early engagement, openness to problem, and iterative refinement can produce improvements which might be sensible, enduring, and scalable.
