McFam University’s academic and professional programs focus on such diverse areas as International Business, Services Marketing, Entrepreneurship Development, Strategic Management, Smart Learning, Pedagogy, Innovation in Services Sector, Development Issues in Emerging Economies (China and India, in particular), Organization Development, Islamic Banking and Finance, Leadership in Organizations, Research Methodology, Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility.

McFam expects that its certificate holders will acquire leadership positions in academia, consulting, research, and practice. They will be employed in professional organizations in all parts of the world. The programs, hopefully, would lead to the development of an intellectual community that values critical and creative thinking.

Mode of Delivery

McFam adopts a blended learning model that combines the advantages of each method into and integrated model. The three pillars of this model are presented in Figure 1.

McFam’s Delivery Strategy

a. Face to Face Learning. It refers primarily to learning that occurs in a traditional classroom setting where an instructor delivers instruction to a group of learners. This could include lectures, presentations, workshops, seminar, tutoring, and much more.

It is important to point out that this type of learning is usually faster, easier, and less expensive to design and develop than compelling e-learning since it does not require highly detailed materials (as the instructor provides the details) and no digitization is required.

Face to face learning may also use electronic delivery media such as PowerPoint slide presentations.

b. Online Collaborative Learning. It is a collaborative learning in which interaction and communication occur through the use of electronic means between the instructor and learners and between learners themselves in order to achieve a particular academic goal. This would include a wide range of activities such as the delivery of classroom instructions through virtual classrooms, formal and informal communication between instructors and learners or between learners among themselves via email or social media group of learners working on a project, etc.

Collaboration in blended learning is an important method used to achieve learner’s engagement and encourage them to learn. When learners know that they will need to be able to demonstrate what they have learned, they tend to stay more engaged. Collaboration is designed to support learning outcomes. Although all programs should offer some level of collaboration in order to keep participants engaged, you also may need to create collaborative exercises that support the actual learning goals.

Interaction in online environment may occur in a synchronous mode (real time) through the use of tools such as text, audio and video chat and virtual classrooms or through asynchronous mode which relies on tools such as emails, blogs, wikis and discussion forums.

 c. Self-paced learning. It is an instruction method in which learners work individually at their own level and move toward achieving an academic goal. It may involve situations where learners go through web-based courses, watch a recorded master or a pre-recorded session, or simply access library holdings (books, articles, etc.). 

Self-paced type of learning adds significant value to the blended learning equation. In order to get maximum value from a self-paced learning offering, it must be based on effective implementation of instructional design principles.

Training Modes

Training is delivered in several modalities as follows.

• High level Technical Presentations as the basis of the orientation process. This material is presented in English and Chinese.
• Face-to-face or physical sessions incorporate flexible delivery methods using blended learning approaches for the Technical training. Engagement, interaction through exploration, reflection and application using experiential and work based learning predominately constitute the learning environment.
• Virtual sessions for off-shore and distance Associate Faculty. Such sessions are utilized for both orientation and training and accessible to all faculty as an ongoing technical development process. Sessions are archived and can be accessed online or downloaded for offline reference as VOD & Podcasts.