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Technology How Effective Are Tech Tools for Learning? versity of Pennsylvania in Philadel- phia surveyed 290 '04 and '05 MBA students. When asked whether com- puter- andWeb-based tools en- hanced their learning, only 14 per- cent found that they didn't. Sixty-five percent reported that their learning experience was enhanced, while 21 percent reported that it was significantly enhanced. Students also noted that the tech- The majority of business schools are using software and online learning tools to enhance their traditional delivery methods. Now, many educators are wondering how effective they are in facilitating student learning and how satisfied students are with a tech- driven approach. According to a re- cent survey of Wharton MBA stu- dents, most students wouldn't trade in technology for traditional teaching methods. The Wharton School at the Uni- buzz about experiential learning right now, and I think simulations fit very well into that role," says DeirdreWoods, chief information officer and associate dean at the Wharton School. "Students seem to retain the material better and be more engaged."Woods notes that students can also repeat the experi- ence with a simulation, through playback, to revisit choices they may have made in certain situations. While technology may help in- retained the materials better. "In education, there's a lot of based learning tools effectively cap- tured their attention and kept them engaged in the material. Eighty-three percent surveyed said that computer- andWeb-based tools were effective or very effective in enhancing their levels of attention and engagement in class, while 64 percent said that such tools were effective or very effective in enhancing their retention of the material afterward. The most telling findings of the survey dealt with how students compared their experiences in tech- enhanced courses with those in more traditional courses. Sixty-two percent of students surveyed reported that their attention and engagement were better in tech-based courses than in traditional lecture- or case-based courses, while 46 percent said they 48 BizEd SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2004 crease student attention, however, the traditional case study still fares well when it comes to the depth of learning provided. Forty-two percent of students surveyed said that case- based courses were as effective as tech-based courses when it comes to how well they learned the material. And while 46 percent noted that they retained their knowledge of the ma- terial more effectively in a tech-based course, 39 percent noted that they found case-based courses equally ef- fective in this area. Only 15 percent said that case-based courses were less effective in helping them retain the material than a tech-enhanced course. XLab Targets Social Sciences The University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business recently opened XLab, a new research facility designed to conduct controlled labo- ratory experiments that will test social science theories. Partially funded by a seed grant from the National Science Foundation, XLab is housed in two large rooms at the Haas School and can accommodate up to 40 partici- pants as experimental subjects. It uses 50 battery-powered wireless laptop by researchers from a number of disciplines, including economics, political science, anthropology, and sociology. Their findings could be applied to a number of real-world business problems, says John Mor- gan, an economist and associate professor at Haas who is also serv- ing as XLab's director. For example, Morgan recently conducted an experiment to find out what produces greater revenue for sellers when a company is put up for sale—asking for payment in stock shares or cash. In the experiment, students took on the roles of corpo- rate executives bidding against one another to purchase a firm. The stu- dents used laptops outfitted with custom-designed software that pro- vided real-time information on bids to all participants and helped them calculate the consequences of various decisions. Students whose strategies proved successful would each earn $50, providing incentive to play competitively. The test supported the theory computers, which will allow lab tests to be completely portable. The new lab is now being used that shares bring more revenue for the seller in a bidding contest. "This idea comes from the economics liter-