Using 21st Century Technology In Online Business Education

Abstract

<p class="Default" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The challenges for education in the 21<sup><span style="position: relative; top: -4pt; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt;">st </span></sup>century are fundamentally the same as they were in each of the past centuries – holding on to what is of value while discovering and developing what adds value to both teaching and learning. While the future is difficult to predict, the seeds of the future can be seen in the behaviors of the present. Obviously technology will play an even greater role in future education no matter how much and how quickly technology changes. Of greater importance than technology is the thinking needed for knowing how to use technology for advancing education for both students and instructors. Identifying the shifts in behavior that people are experiencing today provides clues on the practices that will be common tomorrow. Basic changes in education include the following: (1) moving from an instructor-centered paradigm focused on teaching to a learner-centered model focused on learning; (2) shifting from an emphasis on textbooks as a preferred source of knowledge to the use of technology as the primary tool for acquiring information and ideas; (3) advancing from knowledge to know-how exemplified in the differences expected from the cognitive, behaviorist and constructivist approaches to learning; and (4) sharing responsibility for learning through increased interaction and continuous communication between and among all individuals engaged in becoming educated persons. Technology, though it may be the key tool for facilitating these changes, has its limitations as well as its advantages, as any instructor knows when comparing face-to-face classroom lecturing with virtual asynchronous online discussions. Today’s students are techno-savvy and may be considered the “Wi-Fi Generation.” In the School of Business at National University, the second largest not-for-profit university in California, a blended approach to learning has been adopted in the accelerated one-month format used for its online education program. This paper explores the effects of some new technological options which were recently provided to marketing students in order to make their online learning experience more exciting and meaningful. National University’s online classes are offered on the eCollege platform. Students interact with each other asynchronously through discussion boards and synchronously in weekly chat sessions. Chat sessions had been offered in a text-based format, but the School of Business has invested in iLinc software which provides Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) capability. In iLinc, students can see and hear each other as well as the instructor in real time. The system allows application sharing, group web-browsing, the display of PowerPoint</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">® </span><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">slideshows, voting, and independent group work. Using this technology, the instructor acts as both a discussion moderator and a live lecturer. The traditional text-based chats are no longer used due to the high student acceptance and delight with the iLinc system. Outside of the virtual classroom, the marketing students were tasked to analyze and comment on the content of selected television shows. National University’s students are adult learners who grew up passively watching television from an early age. These assignments were designed to get them to think beyond the surface entertainment to the underlying marketing and business messages given in these shows. For example, a graduate advertising class was assigned to comment on the reality show, The Apprentice, while an undergraduate class critiqued the Super Bowl advertisements. In both classes the students were told to look at these programs critically and share their comments with the class. The use of these current mass media presentations, (which afforded live action cases that demonstrated the immediate consequences of managerial actions), was shown to be very powerful. </span><span style="font-size: 9.5pt;">Overall, the students appear to thoroughly enjoy this addition of topical and “live” learning tools to their online learning experience. While not tested empirically as yet, these new classroom tools seem to increase student comprehension and retention of the course material. </span></span></p>