“Ethics and Responsibility,” a core course in all MBA programs at ESMT and taught by Urs Müller, affiliate program director at ESMT, introduces participants to the areas of ethical thinking and discussion and guides them to do the same in everyday business situations. The central element of the drawbridge sequence, situated in the first four of ten sessions of this course, is a video animation produced by ESMT. The video is based on an old tale and hand-drawn and inspired by German Expressionist woodcut prints from the 1920’s. It tells the story of a baroness who had a lover and a husband who forbade her to leave their castle. Yet, she left, crossed a drawbridge, and secretly met her lover. On the way back home, she met several people and faced many adventures that led eventually to her death.  

The video sequence was designed to help participants understand key ethical concepts and theories that they can apply to their personal and professional lives. Participants are asked to reflect on different aspects of the scenario as they progress through the course, such as responsibility, ethics theories, and creativity in ethical decision-making. These components were developed using different online activities as well as multimedia and external tools. For this, Jon Demiglio and Claudia Ocera, who implemented the concept, were awarded gold. 

“While I am very proud of the innovative learning design work shown by Jon and Claudia, what blew me away was the artistic creativity in the sequence. It shows that online learning can be both educational and alluring at the same time,” says Nick Barniville, director EdTech Lab at ESMT.  

The award by FOME recognizes creative and effective learning design on the Insendi platform. Submissions that best demonstrated solid learning sequences with a pedagogical balance were honored. These awards are intended to recognize intelligent, well-designed pedagogical approaches rather than technology-driven solutions. 

FOME is an alliance of business schools, including EDHEC Business School, ESMT Berlin, IE Business School, and Imperial College Business School, who share a vision that online learning should have the same transformational impact as the very best face-to-face courses. The heart of the alliance is a custom-built education platform, designed and provided by technology enterprise Insendi, a company founded by EdTech experts at Imperial College Business School. The platform can be tailored to meet the requirements for each member school, enabling them to redefine, customize, and digitize their portfolio of programs.