Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/63421
Technology Virtual Class Is in Session Although the phrase "virtual classroom" has become part of the business school vernacular, gathering students from different schools into a single online class is still more the excep- tion than the rule. That might soon change, however. During the next two academic years, three graduate schools of business—the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley, the Darden School at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, and the University of Michigan Business School in Ann Arbor—will bring together their MBA students in a virtual classroom. The institutions are taking advan- tage of Internet and online video technology to offer one course each in the virtual classroom. The courses will be available to MBA students at all three business schools. This fall, Darden professor Jeanne Liedtka is teaching a consulting course to approximately 20 students each from Darden, Michigan, and Haas. In the spring, Terry Odean, assistant pro- fessor at the Haas School, will teach behavioral finance. The course from the University of Michigan, which will be offered in the fall of 2003, has yet to be determined. Students at each site will work on team projects, which will be present- ed to their counterparts at the other schools via online video presentations, Professor Liedtka explains. "We also will organize teams with participants from all three locations. The teams will utilize the Web to work together and make their presentations from three separate sites," she added. TOOLS OF THE TRADE ImagePro 9058 Large Venue Projector If your classroom presenta- tions need a bit more visual punch, Dukane Corpor ation of St. Charles, Illinois, has intro- duced a new projector to the market, the ImagePro 9058. Offering 5800 lumens of light, the ImagePro is a high-bright- ness LCD projector designed specifically for large-scale applications in auditoriums, conference rooms, or other areas where a large, bright data/video image is required. It accommodates computer or video image display with multiple inputs and various control methods, and offers an image resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels and power zoom, among other features. It can display video signals such as composite, S-video, and all types of high- definition TV (HDTV). The 9058 comes with a five-year warranty and has a list price of $27,995. Visit www.dukane.com or call 630-584-2300 for more information. 52 BizEd NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2002 three business schools may soon become routine in business educa- tion, says Andrew Shogan, associate dean of instruction at the Haas School. "These joint courses may be a window into the future of man- agement education," he says, "a future in which schools regularly team or co-brand to offer their best courses to students and executives who are located at multiple sites around the world." The collaboration between these E-Marketplace Plagued with Dangerous Complacency Now that the bubble has burst on the dot- com economy, businesses have gone from e-commerce excitement to "massive complacency," according to a study from the United Kingdom's Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. Conducted by Steve New, "Understanding the E- marketspace" was commissioned by Achilles Group, a company that has offices in Europe and South America and provides online and sup- plier services to companies worldwide. In the study, D ATA B I T New analyzed existing data on e-commerce and looked at the services and strategies of more than 600 B2B marketplaces. He also sent a survey that generated 240 usable replies and conducted follow-up phone interviews with a dozen of these companies. "Understanding the E-Marketspace," a study from the Saïd Business School that surveyed 240 compa- nies, reveals that while more than 55 percent of companies expected online buying and selling to cause their suppli- ers' prices to decline, more than 65 percent believed their own prices would remain unaffected.