FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
11/23/99
CONTACT: Rod Matthews, (608) 262-8775/(608) 257-4303
WEB-BASED BUSINESS COURSE LINKS STUDENTS WORLDWIDE
MADISON -- For Rod Matthews, a senior business lecturer at the University of Wisconsin Madison, staying calm about his new web-based international business course seems as hard as driving a Dodge Viper in rush-hour traffic.
Words tumble out in a torrent as he describes the new course he's been teaching this semester in the School of Business. "We're at the beginning of a whole new era of international business education," he says, "and we're out of the paradigm of textbooks and physical classrooms. That's why it's so exciting."
Matthews pauses, takes a breath, tries to slowly sum it up: "This is a four-university, four-continent course where students work together on real-world international business projects."
Let's freeze-frame Matthews - recently named Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association Distinguished Scholar for teaching excellence - while we look at his one-credit course on Web-based International Business Team Projects.
On the UW-Madison end, the class is divided into three five-member teams, each paired with a student team at Universit"¡ Bocconi in Milan, Italy; Pontificia Universidad CatÙlica in Santiago, Chile; and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Each university also has participating faculty members.
The teams are linked through a web site that includes a live chat room where students can "talk" to each other. The language used by all teams is English.
Each team was assigned three real-life projects during the semester. They were developed in collaboration with Johnson Controls of Milwaukee, a corporate participant in the course.
The American-Italian team, for instance, reported on how the new Euro monetary unit affects pricing and financing strategies of multinational corporations such as Johnson Controls. Among other project topics were the trade advantages of locating a production facility in Chile and the minimizing of risk in Asian markets. The course finale will girdle the globe: a Dec. 3 video teleconference linking students in Madison, Milan, Santiago and Hong Kong.
"This project has made me look at things a lot differently," says junior Ben Weyenberg. "We're running into real-world challenges such as communication problems - cultural and technological - as well as totally different perspectives on issues. And it's been a great deal of fun at the same time."
Many of the students plan to spend the spring semester studying at the institution they're teamed with in the course. Can you imagine a better segue for study abroad? And can you imagine a better way to study global business problems through technology?
"No, there is no other model like this in business education," says Matthews, as animated as ever. "We're using technology to reach out and think through ideas together, which is the challenge of international business.
"Technology helps us cut through obstacles to exchanging ideas, such as inertia, tradition and travel problems. After all, students can't call Italy or Chile or Hong Kong every day, but they can send e-mail there 10 times a day if they want."
Matthews' course was created through the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), which is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the School of Business. Other course funding came from Expanding Access to Global Learning Experiences (EAGLE), part of International Academic Programs at UW-Madison.
"CIBER infuses international issues into the business curriculum and connects with area studies and foreign languages on campus," says Andrea Poehling, assistant director of international programs for the School of Business.
Everybody gets infused in Matthews' course, infused with different perspectives that together create a clearer picture of international business. And that "everybody" quality pleases Matthews pedagogically.
"Education should be ecumenical," he says, "and technology used this way helps everyone become a participant."
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-- Jeff Iseminger, (608) 262-8287, [email protected]
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