ONLINE BIDDING AUCTION FOR MBA CLASS REGISTRATION
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA -The popular online auction site eBay has nothing on Penn State's Smeal College of Business Administration. Second-year MBA students in Smeal College can now bid online to acquire seats in popular classes and even "buy" whole blocks of courses with one bid. It is the first online bidding auction for MBA classes in the country.
Before the online system, students would get classes on a first-come, first-served basis. This process is designed to provide a fair and equitable allocation of classes. The new system replaced a "pen and paper" system that was only able to allocate seats on a class-by-class basis. The class online bidding system works much like online auctions run by such companies as eBay.
Each of the 100 students in the MBA program gets 500 "credits" to bid for classes. The system allows students to bid on bundles of classes - three to five classes in their career track -- as well as individual classes, such as electives.
The system was developed by Elena Katok, assistant professor of management information systems in Penn State's Smeal College of Business Administration, and Anthony Kwasnica, assistant professor of management science, in Penn State's Smeal College of Business Administration.
The first round of bidding takes place in a 24-hour period. The bidding process can last two or three days. Winners are those who bid the highest for a bundle of classes or individual courses. Penn State has the first online bidding auction for classes in the country: The University of Chicago MBA program has a bidding system, but it is done manually, not online. The online system, currently restricted to second-year MBA students, may expand to first-year MBA students next year.
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Editors: For more information, contact Tony Kwasnica at 814-863-0542 or via e-mail at [email protected]; Elena Katok at 814-865-1461 or [email protected]; or Rocki-Lee Dewitt, associate dean for professional masters programs in Penn State's Smeal College of Business Administration, at 814-863-0474 or via e-mail at [email protected].
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