Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/62210
Technology Carleton Campus Goes Interactive Prospective students from around the world interested in attending Carleton University now can take advantage of a virtual, interactive, online tour of the university. Based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, the school's campus is now accessible 24 hours a day. The interactive tour allows Web site visitors to visit 20 campus destinations through 360- degree panoramic images. The tour also features "day in decide if they'll feel comfortable as part of the campus community." The Web-based tour is intended MERLOT: The Educator's Google the life" interactions with five under- graduate students from architecture, journalism, science, the arts, and business. For example, prospective business students can follow an undergraduate business major to complement Carleton's current on-campus tour program. Students can visit one of two versions of the tour, one for high-speed connections and one for dial-up connections. It was completed as a joint project among Carleton's undergraduate recruitment office, new media com- pany Digg Design, and three-dimen- sional imaging company XYZ-RGB, both based in Ottawa. The tour can be viewed online at www.admissions. carleton.ca/Tours/vtour/. TOOLS OF THE TRADE Finance, Entrepreneurial Software for the B-School Classroom named Ali as he attends a class, works on a project with other stu- dents, and goes to the gym for a workout. Or, they also can explore Carleton's academic, athletic, social, and residence facilities on their own. The tour provides an online alter- native for those who may not be able to make the visit in person, says Susan Gottheil, the school's associ- ate vice president of enrollment management. "Choosing where to spend the next four years of their lives is a significant decision for stu- dents," she says. "Seeing the univer- sity campus is key in helping them 52 BizEd SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2003 GROW software, a financial management software package, has been designed especially for stu- dents with an entrepreneurial bent. The software was developed five years ago by Clifford Schorer, entrepreneur-in-residence and a professor at Co- lumbia Business School. Since then, the software has been a mainstay in the school's finance and entrepreneurship classes to help teach future managers and entrepreneurs how to improve performance and achieve financial objectives. Students use the software to set break-even points, project cash flow, and analyze business op- portunities in their chosen markets. They also can input data to help them decide on the appropriate prices they should charge for products or consultant-based services. The software is useful not only for students who want to start their own businesses, but also for those who plan to work in business units within larger organizations, says company representative John Fox. "Companies such as Sony, Lucent, and GlaxoSmithKline have used this software to train their own financial managers," he says. An instructional video and 200-page manual accompany the software, as well as a tool kit providing ten formulas for helping students measure and predict business performance. For information on GROW, visit www.grow-software.com. In 1998, a group of educators from the California State University System realized that each time they wrote a new lesson plan, they were reinvent- ing the wheel. They knew, however, that the Internet and Google-style search engine technology could help them tap into the wide com- munity of experience in their disci- plines to improve their own teach- ing. As a result, they created the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching,