by Kirk Bangstad
The School Finder Columnist
Classrooms in today's top business schools are much bigger than they ever used to be. This doesn't mean that student/teacher ratios are growing, or that campus architectural designs have been super-sized (at least not to my knowledge). Classrooms are getting larger because they are no longer conducted only in the traditional brick-and-mortar building.
University of Phoenix Online, a true innovator in distance education, allows students to earn their degrees and advance their careers – all online.
For most of today's business school students, the laptop has enabled the student to earn a degree through their own preference - even via an online business school.
Technology Improves Business School Opportunities
Business schools across the country have embraced information technology as a tool to enhance their curriculums. According to the Library Journal (November, 2004), Vanderbilt University's business school requires all of its students to own wireless-enabled laptops.
"The wireless network is the way they do business," said library technology officer Marshall Breeding. This wireless and often paperless phenomenon has spread throughout the business school community.
"I basically run my academic life online," says Cabe Franklin, a first year graduate student at Columbia's Graduate School of Business. "Our student intranet, entitled 'MyGSB,' is a tool used daily by most of the students.
"The user interface enables everyone to customize a homepage for quickly accessing all academic information. On my homepage are links to all of my classes. By clicking on a certain link, I can go to a specific class website. On that website, I can check to see what assignments are due, what I need to read, and when class is going to meet.
"I can interact with other students and professors, post and read class notes, and submit finished assignments. I have also posted other useful links, such as local weather forecasts, and the student facebook. Compared to my undergraduate years, it is easier to stay organized because everything I need related to my coursework is in one place.
"And because our buildings are mostly equipped with wireless Internet connections, I can access information from the intranet from my laptop while in class. This can be very useful if we all need to find a piece of information quickly."
Learning Tools
Software that makes students' lives easier is just one of the many educational advances created by cutting edge computer technology. Many business schools are now implementing online educational tools to enhance a student's learning experience.
"Our curriculum incorporates a lot of technological tools," notes Franklin. "One week, I had to play a computer game that simulated a consulting project.
"The goal in the game was to persuade a number of executives within a company to adopt a new software program that would ultimately help their bottom line. I received points based on how effective I was in getting them on board.
"Because I was so engrossed by the exercise, I played the game again outside of class in order to raise my score. In my capital markets class, we played a trading game that simulated an actual financial marketplace. Everyone in the class played against each other in real-time, using the concepts we had learned in class to guide our moves."
Franklin's experience is echoed by business students across the country. For example, students at the University of Washington enjoy a mock electronic stock exchange, complete with interactive trading monitors, running stock quotes, Reuter's data feeds, and television monitors.
Other simulated electronic trading rooms can be found at Penn State, Texas A&M, MIT, Carnegie-Mellon, Vanderbilt, Bentley College, the Illinois Institute of Technology, Michigan State, Tulane, Baruch College and Saint Joseph's University.
Cutting-edge Research Made Possible with Online Libraries
Because it is imperative for business schools to keep up-to-date on industry and market trends, many have invested heavily in their libraries. According to the Association of Research Libraries, serial expenditures - expenditures having to do with library subscriptions to market research reports - industry publications, analyst reports and trade journals, etc. have increased by over 260% since 1986. This increase is more than quadruple the 66% growth in monograph (book) expenditures over the same period.
Because it often becomes obsolete in a matter of months, weeks, or even days, much of the content from serial publications used by business school libraries is offered exclusively online. For this reason, a business school library may not have the extensive book stacks found in other more traditional libraries. Instead, some will allocate much of their physical space to computer workstations.
While the volume of data is immense, a library's online search tools enable students to pinpoint and retrieve relevant and current research within a few mouse clicks.
Computer technology has changed the business school learning climate for the better. Today, business degree students benefit from computer and online resources that were absent from the academic community ten years ago.
They can utilize these tools to better organize their studies, enhance their learning experiences, and keep current on emerging business trends. As long as they have their laptop or another personal wireless device with them, business degree students can honestly say that the world is their classroom.
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