Abstract

Universities are learning more about applications of emerging technologies that can be used to expand programs and generate revenues using an alternate business model in education. For successful integration and implementation, faculty and students need to be prepared to interact in a environment that is different from a 'traditional' classroom.

This article reports on tools such as portals, multimedia, course management systems, and videoconferencing that can be used to provide value-added instruction in an interactive environment.

Using Emerging Technologies for Effective Pedagogy in Management Education  

Sunil Hazari, Ed.D
 

Keywords

Distance education, eLearning, Management education, faculty training,  videoconferencing, portals.

Introduction

The past decade has brought immense changes to higher education. Technology components that supplement teaching and learning are being integrated into programs and courses in most universities. Technologies such as course management systems, portals, PDAs, wireless technology and web services are being used to create virtual communities that provide an interactive platform for learning. Past research has shown that technology based instruction results in positive learning outcomes. Colleges and universities must understand this phenomenon of digital education and restructure themselves to take advantage of emerging technologies so students can be prepared to be leaders students to be leaders who not only realize the benefits of using collaborative tools in virtual space but also have competencies in using these tools effectively. In addition, new markets could bring additional revenues and expand access to programs.

Management education with its use of problem based learning and case study approach has been a leading candidate for integrating technology tools for scholarship and research. A strong community of practice is critical for building collaboration between faculty in universities that may be separated by space, but connected using networks that can be leveraged to extend programs, and provide faculty partnerships and foster student scholarship. As an example, students in a supply chain course can discuss implications of global partnerships between suppliers and manufacturers, review best practices in Supply Chain Management, and learn from case studies of international corporations. Lectures and discussions using streaming video and tools such as whiteboards, chat forums, interactive audio can be used to explore cultural diversity and international business culture. To make this happen costs associated with providing resources should be realized and budgeted.

The Smith School is committed to research, student learning, and effective teaching by developing a strategic plan that underscores significant investments in IT infrastructure, software development (such as portal technology, course management tools, and web services). The technology infrastructure and services that are being deployed in the Smith School are intended to provide a strong base for teaching, research, and community outreach and to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration between units.

Portals

'EduPortals' are being developed by universities to provide easy access to academic and administrative resources. The main goal of EduPortals is to connect an institution’s internal and external constituents to campus resources using a personalized interface. Some of the challenges in building such portals have been the integration of university directory services, single sign-on procedures, aggregation, organization, and delivery of information from multiple sources. Overcoming these myriad of challenges, the RHSmith portal has been made available to School faculty, staff, and students.

The goal of RHSmith portal is to provide an attractive, easy to use gateway to navigate through the network of both public and private information, services, and business functions of the school and the University. It provides a secure infrastructure to present Web-based applications and information to the Smith community. The RHSmith portal is focused on tools for collaboration, research, and personal productivity. The goal in building the portal was to build a reference model to employ as the ultimate education portal available in the market today that takes into account scalability, integration of legacy systems and future enterprise wide system compatibility.    

Some features and benefits of the portal to RHSmith faculty and students are as follows: Domino Web e-mail / application single-sign on, file browser for accessing networked files from remote locations,  Netmeeting collaboration that provides the ability to do audio/video, text chat, whiteboard, file transfer, and application sharing, profile messaging (faculty, staff, student, or a combination) to receive department, course, or club messages. 

The R. H. Smith portal is available on the web at https://portal.rhsmith.umd.edu

The portal also integrates a Course Management tool (Blackboard) that includes features such as automatic registration of students within the course environment, web input of course materials, calendaring, online quizzes, gradebook, course statistics, digital dropbox, discussion groups, chat etc. The user interface is web-based, easy to use and benefits students and instructors by offering course development and delivery, content management and learning information capabilities as well as administrative environment in an easy-to-navigate seamless environment.  

Faculty can use the RHSmith portal as a gateway to services provided by the Smith School. The single sign on provides convenient access to course materials along with the ability to set personal bookmarks and browse web resources.

Videoconferencing

Leveraging the power of Internet, Business schools are looking to expand their programs nationally and internationally. Course delivery and interaction can be offered in a rich interactive environment that goes beyond a purely text based approach of previous general distance education tools. One of the tools that has been increasingly popular in industry as well as in higher education is the use of Videoconferencing for distance learning. In general, Distance Education integrates various communication technologies to bring together students, faculty, and guest speakers by using communication that is mediated by technology. Multiple sites can be connected using videoconferencing. This offers an opportunity for students and faculty to interact in real time with participants at different sites by using audio and video data. Ancillary material such as videotapes, whiteboards, and slides can be shared over videoconferencing links. The use of videoconferencing follows defined standards for video compression and audio coding to allow systems from different vendors to communicate with each other using global standards.

In the Smith School most conference rooms are ISDN and IP videoconferencing ready and the sessions can be recorded to provide an archive for future use. Some examples of RHSmith videoconferencing sessions that have been in the past are the Dean’s Global Technology Management Consortium in which senior administrators from universities in France, Korea, Netherlands, discussed the possibility of launching a global MBA program.

Also, sessions of the Poland eMBA program were broadcast using videoconferencing technology to participants who were enrolled in certificate courses in management. This project was funded by USAid. 

The Office of Executive Education broadcast Accounting lecture delivered by faculty in the Smith School to State Farm employees who in real-time were able to interact with other students at virtual sites as well as the instructor. 

In MBA and the Quest Program classes, instructors have invited guest speakers from companies such as Microsoft to discuss technology applications and TQM concepts thereby providing an interactive environment for students to engage in a dialog with industry personnel.

Effective Pedagogy

A mixed-model approach that combines traditional teaching with use of technology tools can offer faculty-moderated active learning environment and prepare RHSmith students to seamlessly integrate information technology in their work environment. To achieve this, faculty must be trained to teach with technology. Traditional approaches to teaching must be reengineered to repurpose existing courses and related pedagogies. Effective diffusion of technology into practice of teaching is a critical requirement for management education. Team teaching within the School or by establishing external partnerships with global universities can provide value added instruction to students that goes beyond the constraints of a local geographic area. Forming communities of practice can also provide students and faculty a vision that encourages collaboration, experimentation, and broader learning. Selected faculty need to be identified and given incentives to demonstrate best practices in each area so the value of using the existing state-of-the-art infrastructure can be demonstrated to other faculty. With the right strategy that emphasizes technology as an integral part of teaching, learning, and research, as well as partnerships with industry, RHSmith faculty can be recognized as leaders in management education for having successfully addressed and integrated issues that pertain to delivery of education in the digital economy.

Sunil Hazari, Ed.D is Associate Professor in the Richards College of Business, University of West Georgia.

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© 2003 Sunil Hazari