Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/55680
those that are tying tools together, managing scalability issues, antici- pating the continued evolution of platforms, and using the preferred tools of their stakeholders." Tech's Effects on Text This year, seniors at Suffolk University's Sawyer School of Management in Boston, Massachusetts, will be studying a phenomenon of great concern to many book publish- ers: How will digital technology change textbooks? As part of their capstone course, students will con- duct research on the effects of this disruptive technology and then share their findings with textbook publishing companies. The students have divided into teams, each representing different Grinder of Eastern Washington University's College of Business and Public Administration in Spo- kane. The researchers compared the performance of students who used online quizzing to the performance of those who did not. While online quizzing allows professors to better manage large classes and evaluate student effort, the researchers found no significant difference between the two groups. Their study, "The use(lessness) of online quizzes for achieving student learning," was published in the January 2010 issue of the International Journal of Information and Operations Man- agement Education. n E-BOOK ON SUSTAINABILITY Mark Esposito, management profes- sor at Grenoble Ecole de Manage- ment in France, wanted to create a stakeholders in the issue, including students, publishers, e-reader manu- facturers such as Amazon and Sony, and entrepreneurs who may think of ideas that have not yet been realized. Each team will conduct research and make strategic recommenda- tions to help publishers succeed in the face of technology disruption. Students will draw on their accu- mulated knowledge of marketing, accounting, management, finance, personnel, and production, says Mitchell Weisberg, who designed and is teaching the course. "For centuries we have seen technologies change industry, from the steam engine to Napster," says book on sustainability that adopted the discipline's own practice, so he has published Strategies in Sus- tainable Travel and Tourism as an e-book. A review of the trends, opportunities, and responsibilities related to eco-tourism, the e-book is a way to disseminate knowledge in a more agile way, says Esposito. "It is environmentally friendly, has low production cost, and can be sold at a lower price," he notes. The Kindle edition of the e-book can be purchased and downloaded for $10 on Amazon.com. Pro- ceeds will support the Slovenian Institute for the Development of Social Responsibility. n ONLINE EXEC ED CERTIFICATE Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona, will offer an Executive Certificate Weisberg. "These disruptions challenge existing strategies and create opportunities for estab- lished and emerging businesses to pursue new strategies." The teams will be equipped with different resources, including tradi- tional printed textbooks; e-readers such as the digital Sony Reader Touch and Amazon's Kindle DX; and CourseSmart, which allows stu- dents to access textbooks online to read, download, or print. Weisberg expects to publish the study upon completion, and he is incorporating a topical blog and a wiki into the project. Students are asked to contribute to the wiki, which also is open to Amazon, Sony, the publisher that owns the current textbook content, and other publishers. in Global Negotiations, the first online instructor-facilitated certifi- cate program in its executive cer- tificate portfolio. The course has three eight-week modules, which include cross-cultural communica- tion, essentials of global negotia- tions, and managing conflict with a global mindset. n BLOG ON PRICING The University of Rochester's Simon Graduate School of Business in New York is adding a blog called "The Pricing Connection" to its online offerings. Located at www. pricingconnection.com, the blog is presented by the Simon School Cen- ter for Pricing and will be written by current Simon MBAs under the direction of Greg Shaffer, professor of economics and management, as well as marketing. n z BizEd MAY/JUNE 2010 71 DANIEL ACKER/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES