A successful Unframed Teaching Seminar for the third year running

A pedagogical revolution in the making

This 3rd edition of the Unframed Teaching Seminar opened with a speech by the Dean and Executive Director of Rennes School of Business, Adilson Borges. He underlined the urgent need to transform educational practices to better respond to contemporary challenges. He promoted a dynamic role for educators, moving from simple transmitters of knowledge to facilitators of collaborative learning. He spoke in favour of an all-round education, in which emotions play a crucial role in the acquisition of knowledge, and which would involve greater collaboration between educators to encourage continuous innovation.

Adilson Borges, Dean and Executive Director of Rennes SB

Learning is not only in the head, but also in the heart and guts.

Scott Bolland then took the floor to delve deeper into the subject of delayed gratification and warned against the pitfalls of seeking immediate rewards. He also discussed the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in education, highlighting its benefits in personalising learning but warning against over-reliance. In his view, AI should be judiciously integrated to support students’ personal effort rather than replace it.

Finally, Isabelle Fischer proposed immediate solutions for personalising education through the pragmatic use of AI. She presented concrete examples of technological tools used to improve students’ critical thinking and optimise learning. Isabelle stressed the importance of maintaining a balance between the use of AI and the development of students’ critical thinking skills.

Towards a holistic and innovative pedagogy

The seminar continued with a series of interactive workshops, which highlighted the cutting-edge approaches that the school is adopting.

• Dr. Hamid Mazloomi from Rennes School of Business led a workshop entitled ‘Generative AI in Course Design and Assessment’, demonstrating how tools such as Microsoft Copilot can revolutionise teaching by personalising courses and adapting to students’ needs. The live demonstration in a strategic management course particularly captivated the participants.
• Dr Hamid Mazloomi and Dr. Céline Azemar also presented the COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) initiative, which connects students from different cultures via a virtual classroom, encouraging intercultural collaboration. Testimonials from teachers and students demonstrated the positive impact of this approach.
• Dr. Ljupka Naumovska and Simon Ledouit led a workshop on experiential learning methods. Participants shared ideas and identified obstacles to the implementation of these methods, which will be examined by the Rennes SB Institute for Pedagogical Innovation.
• Antoine Duvauchelle from INSEAD presented the LiveCase platform, an immersive educational simulation, and Olivier Bercot from ARTEFACTO explored the use of VR and AR to enhance learning. Their demonstrations captivated the participants.
• François Pujalon from Serious Factory showed how gamification, via tools such as VTS Editor, can make learning more engaging and effective.

The ‘Unframed Teaching’ seminar highlighted the innovative approach of Rennes School of Business, integrating AI, collaborative learning, experiential methods and immersive technologies to prepare students for the challenges of tomorrow.

Teaching Excellence Awards

Rennes School of Business also took the opportunity to highlight the academic and pedagogical excellence of its teaching staff through the Teaching Excellence Awards. Akanksha Jalan, Ronald Clarke, Bakr Ali Al-Gamrh and Ljupka Naumovska were recognised for their outstanding contributions to teaching and learning, illustrating Rennes SB’s commitment to high-quality and sustainable education. Each of the professors was praised for his or her innovative and interactive approach, which draws on experiential learning, immersive pedagogical simulation and personalised teaching to enrich students’ experience and prepare them for the challenges of the modern professional world.

Co-Creation Challenge Session

The afternoon of the seminar was marked by a co-creation session where participants worked together to develop innovative pedagogical projects. Guided by Rennes SB pedagogical engineers, participants proposed concrete solutions to improve the learning experience by integrating the best practices discussed during the seminar. They worked together to develop innovative and practical solutions in response to the challenges encountered in their educational practices this year. At the end of the two-hour session, four innovative projects were presented. Each was the result of close collaboration between the participants and the educational engineers, with the aim of transforming the learning experience at Rennes SB.

This third edition of the Unframed Teaching Seminar at Rennes School of Business was an opportunity for staff and professors from the school to share their practice of educational innovation, highlighting modern and inclusive approaches to preparing students for the challenges of tomorrow.

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