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Management Education And The New Technologies

Author: George Siedel and Graham Mercer, University of Michigan Business School, Jim Sheegog, Duke University, Fuqua School of Business, Brandt Allen, University of Virginia, The Darden School
First published: 1997

"There are forecasts of a profound transformation in the way we educate managers and there are many pilots and initiatives underway but there are also some thorny questions about just how much to expect from these new capabilities."

ICEDR Working Paper - May 1996 Forum - Developing Global Capacity

Executive summary

How will video-conferencing, the Internet, multimedia cases, on-line classrooms and all the other educational technologies affect management education in business schools and in-company development programmes? For example, distance learning has huge appeal for institutions but it may be less than appealing to the actual students and managers subjected to this new format. Electronic meeting rooms and on-line classrooms may represent the latest in in-classroom technology but what sort of learning does it enhance, if any? And so the debate rages. This paper presents some of that debate from the perspective of four faculty members whose institutions have actively embraced many of the newest capabilities of educational technology.

Introduction

With the possible exception of computer science departments, graduate business schools have typically had more access to the newest educational technologies and the staff support necessary for their implementation than any other department at universities - and much more access than even most corporate training centres have had. The newest technologies include:

software for computer-aided instruction;
computer games and models;
multi-media cases and course material;
groupware such as Lotus Notes;
Internet capabilities, including e-mail and the World Wide Web;
automated classrooms(keypads and instructor's console);
electronic meeting and group decision software such as Group Systems;
on-line classrooms, where all students have laptops which are linked to the instructor's console;
distance learning via conventional video-conferencing;
team conferencing via audio and video links over the Internet.

A host of other capabilities, products and services have been made possible by today's personal computers, software and telecommunications. So what has been the effect on management education? Not much, if one listens to the critics of business education.

Typical is this excerpt from a recent study:

Although universities create and acquire knowledge, they are seldom successful in applying that knowledge to their own activities (Garvin, 1993). In fact, academic institutions typically lag businesses by roughly a decade in the adoption of new technologies. This is certainly true in terms of the application of information technology (IT) into the learning process: the blackboard and chalk remain the primary teaching technologies in many business schools even while the merits of information technology to improve communication, efficiency and decision making in organizations are recognized and inculcated by IS researchers.

However, as business schools experience increased competitive pressures, information technology is one area that schools might use to differentiate or compete with or, more importantly to use as a catalyst for transforming educational processes. IT is not heralded as a miraculous means of mitigating educational attrition, but as an efficacious means of enabling international changes in teaching and learning processes (Leidner and Jarvenpaa.).¹

The promise of technology

The conclusions of Leidner and Jarvenpaa are at odds with what one actually observes at universities: business schools are undertaking major efforts at incorporating the new technologies into their teaching and scholarship. The remarks of Harvard's new dean, Kim Clark, are representative of this determination:

[We are undergoing] a profound transformation around information technology (IT), an initiative that would earn for the School and unequalled reputation for intelligent, creative and efficient utilization of IT in support of the School's education and research mission. Today's general manager is operating in an information-inundated world.. We need to prepare our students to meet that challenge. We also need to take full advantage of cutting-edge technologies that allow us to bring our students face to face with realistic business situations right in the classroom.²

W Earl Sasser, Jr, Harvard's Associate Dean for Executive Education, feels that the ability to transmit high volumes of information at high speeds will revolutionize executive education. For example, video can be used to enrich and deepen case analysis. 'With a broadband capability in place, we'll be able to transmit video to our on-campus rooms - including classrooms, discussion group rooms and guest rooms - and the larger community of alumni' he explains. 'That's one example of how technology can help us take the concept of lifelong learning into a new dimension.'³

Indeed, the educational potential of this technology has never been so widely recognized. For example, William M Plater, Dean of the Faculty and Executive Vice Chancellor, Purdue University, comments that:

One critical aspect is what I call 'hyperlearning'. Drawing on increasingly sophisticated and transparent (ie, user-friendly) software programmes that integrate video, graphics, sound, computing, communications, databases and other technology applications, teachers at all levels will have the capacity to reformulate some of the most fundamental boundary conditions of learning and interaction - permitting students themselves enormous latitude in the ways in which they learn.

Technology will change forever the dominant model of synchronous, time-linked interaction that has made teaching and learning complementary and interdependent. Learning will no longer depend on a faculty member's teaching. Although the centuries old model of teacher-student-classroom will not disappear, it will no longer dominate. Technology can free us and our time but only if we count our effort and our productivity in new ways based on what students learn instead of how - and how long - we teach them. This is a change in fundamental conditions which we cannot stop. We must adapt.⁴

Great claims are already being made by business schools such as this enthusiastic statement about groupware at Dartmouth:

Instead of the traditional perusal of out-of-date corporate case studies, the bread and butter of many an MBA course, students at Tuck will be able to study live data or recent information fed into the school from cooperating commercial organizations. Every student will be working with up-to-date information supplied by a real corporation. ⁵

And this about multi-media case studies at INSEAD:

INSEAD first based its multi-media cases on the idea of an 'electronic book' that allowed students to browse, mark, annotate and search for specific topics or people in the text. They also allowed direct access to related images and videos - the real difference that multimedia brings. For example, the Swatch case allows students to compare North American and European advertising approaches by watching video clips, which appear in a small 'window' on the computer screen.

Students can also watch the steps involved in product development and see a short interview with the product manager.⁶

Or these comments about Harvard's CD-ROM-based teaching materials:

Harvard Business School Publishing announces the release of High Performance Management, the first programme in the award-winning Interactive Manager Series. High Performance Management is designed to provide flexible, cost-effective, just-in-time learning to all levels of manager. The breadth and richness of the programme's content serve the needs of management development professionals across a broad range of industries, from manufacturing and service to high-tech.

With High Performance Management, Harvard Business School Publishing merges new media technology with the best business practices to bring the concepts necessary for successful management to today's fast changing organizations. Forthcoming titles in the Interactive Manager Series include Managing across Difference and Teams that Work. The flexible, multi-media format allows managers to use High Performance Management in a variety of settings, from the individual desktop to a large facilitator-led classroom. Users have the ability to determine the pace and depth of their work with the programme by selecting from or combining three different kinds of information delivery formats including: audio topic overviews, text-based question and answers, or interactive case studies.

With proven expertise and powerful content, Harvard Business School Publishing delivers state-of-the-art interactive multi-media learning for managers at every level. Using simple point-and-click technology, the content-rich programme includes interactive video-based case studies in which users can explore how their decision-making leads to alternative outcomes. The programme features role plays, audio commentary, quick-reference question and answer sections, self-assessment tools, and a database of topical Harvard Business Review articles linked to programme content.⁷

Even more scholarly pieces assume this premise, as one sees in this piece of testimony about computer-assisted instruction:

While it would be presumptuous of me to attempt to predict all of the innovative approaches that researchers and educators will doubtless discover over the next 20 years in the course of their efforts to advance the state of the art in educational technology, I believe it is already possible to identify some important ways in which such technology may help to fundamentally alter the nature of the primary and secondary education. Among the most important potential advantages of educational technology is its ability to individualize the educational process to accommodate the needs, interests, proclivities, and current knowledge and skills of each particular student. Even the earliest drill-and-practice-based computer-aided instruction systems, in which the student was exposed to successive blocks of instructional text and answered a series of numerical or multiple-choice questions posed by the computer, typically offered the advantages of self-paced instruction. Among other things, self-pacing avoids the need for teachers to target their presentations to some hypothetical 'typical' pupil, leaving part of the class behind while other students become bored, restless and inattentive. Drill-and-practice-based computer- aided instruction systems also frequently support 'branched' structures, in which the student's performance on one question determines the sequence of questions to follow. Additional time can then be spent on material with which the student is having difficulty, while avoiding needless repetition of subject matter he or she has already mastered. Further, more 'intelligent' systems may be capable of inferring a more detailed picture of what the student does and does not yet understand, and of actively helping to 'debut' the student's misapprehensions and erroneous conceptual models. If a student is having difficulty learning to subtract, for example, the computer may recognize that he is systematically failing to 'carry a one', making it possible to offer specific coaching rather than simple repetition of the original instruction material. Another aspect of the computer's potential for individualization of the educational content is presented in visual form, while others make better use of written or verbally presented materials. Computer-based learning systems admit the possibility not only of varying the form of presentation to match the student's preferred mode, but of ascertaining which modes actually prove most effective for a given student.⁸

And these observations about Group Systems and its potential:

In discussing software such as Nunamaker's Group Systems: These computerized meeting environments represent a fundamental shift in the technology available for group interaction. The new electronic media they provide can have quite different characteristics than verbal media. Electronic media, for example, allow group members to make anonymous contributions, and to work in parallel, simultaneously pursuing several solutions for the same task. However, they also have reduced media richness and communication efficiency. The conditions for groups to be effective, to work quickly, to maintain effectiveness as size grows, and a host of other issues may be quite different in this new media. Thus much of what has been learned about how groups operate may need to be re-examined in this new media (GP Huber, 'A theory of the effects of advanced information technology on organizational design, intelligence, and decision making'. Academy of Management Review,vo115, pp. 47-71).⁹

The Internet only came into widespread use in 1991 and yet it is already seen as a powerful force for change in management education. The reasons are spelled out clearly in this Financial News piece:

Educators are enthusiastic about the potential of the Internet to expand and enhance learning. In a survey of major educational organizations, the Center for Telecommunications Management at the University of Southern California found that educators believe that connection to the Internet will increase student motivation, provide greater opportunities for independent investigation and research and increase access to information and experts for educators. Most also believe that access to the Internet can equalize educational opportunities for students and reduce economic or geographical barriers to learning.¹⁰

And in Professor Plater's words:

Technology will make the integration of education and practice in many professional fields a norm, which will test our ability to keep universities distinct from the for-profit service industries whose members we taught originally and whom we keep current through continuing education. Hospitals, law firms, banks, television stations, museums and governmental agencies will offer in-home education services along with other information products. Our need for immediate dissemination of research through teaching and the need to reduce costs will induce basic academic disciplines to follow the professional school lead quickly. In most fields, education - especially continuing education - will converge with practice through electronic interaction and distance learning. ¹¹

Indeed, distance learning, of all the available technologies, has generated the most speculation. For example, Charles Hickman of the American Assembly of College Schools of Business, the national accrediting body, says:

If you could start a virtual university and have Lester Thurow and Michael Porter and other gurus to teach, why would you want anybody else? What it means is that a faculty member at Acme State will increasingly be, not a subject expert, but a learning facilitator, a mentor, a coach. ¹²

And one final thought from Professor Plater:

Both technology and societal needs are making distance learning practical. The immediate incentives are access and convenience; later, effectiveness and quality will be factors. There is no reason for a distinction between on- and off-campus learning. If properly designed, a distance education course can open areas of student discovery, build learning communities through electronic connections, cover the necessary material, and involve students directly in their learning as participants and practitioners instead of passive readers or listeners.¹³

Typical of the hopes for distance learning is The Virtual College concept of New York University's Information Technologies Institute aimed at graduate level management programmes:

Considering the capabilities of groupware, hypermedia and networking for distance learning triggered critical re-examination of key assumptions, including:

the need for a physical classroom;

the need for synchronous communication handled by 'live' meetings held on a fixed schedule at a fixed place;

that a classroom communication is primarily a one-way broadcast, from instructor to students;

that course content is a linear sequence, organized and paced by instructors;

that students do class work individually.

The Virtual College design challenged these assumptions to reinvent the classroom, aiming to produce a learning environment that was more accessible, richer and more engaging than taped or live telecasts of typical lectures.

The Virtual College defined its purpose as providing an alternative to the classroom that combined the richness and collaboration of the best on-campus courses and the time/place independence and privacy of self-study courses. ..

Other stated objectives include:

increasing teaching effectiveness by using multimedia to make course content easier to grasp and retain;

strengthening learner-directed learning by supporting diverse preferences for pacing and learning styles(both individual and collaborative);

increasing accessibility and flexibility by allowing anytime/anyplace access, enabling a wider range of faculty and students to participate;

facilitating reuse of class materials and shortening cycle time to incorporate new knowledge into courses.¹⁴

Examples of current pilots and applications

Each of the authors' home institutions is vigorously experimenting with these new technologies.

Michigan

With the launch of the Global MBA programme in 1993, the University of Michigan Business School has created a new paradigm of delivering multifaceted, high-quality degree programmes to international locations at a distance from the main campus.

The programme utilizes video-conferencing (two-way video, with classes broadcast from studios in the Business School) and adds a layer of interactivity by allowing students to hold discussions with faculty via computers. The programme also includes intensive live instruction at remote sites as well as residency on campus, which expands the availability of electives and enriches the regular MBA programme.

The Global MBA programme has shown the faculty that teaching via video-conferencing is different from traditional classroom instruction and that it demands new teaching methods. The University of Michigan Business School has developed instructional guidelines for faculty as well as a student orientation workshop on distance learning for students addressing the issues that arise from the new paradigm. A generous gift from BT (British Telecom) is allowing an expansion of technical and instructional capability, and development of more sophisticated evaluation of remote programmes.

This distance learning capability developed for the Global MBA is increasingly used in the regular MBA programme. Video-conferencing brings case studies to life in a 'Designing for Quality Excellence' class, allowing students to 'visit' companies to interview managers and view facilities. One business policy class offered in 1995 regularly featured video-conferences with Washington, DC, policy-makers. Appropriately enough, a class on 'Work in the 21^st Century' is taught from Washington, DC, where the instructor is based. And a former University of Michigan Business School faculty member, now at Stanford University, uses video-conferencing to teach a class on gender issues. In addition, companies such as Chemical Bank and Morgan Stanley now regularly recruit college students via interviews from remote locations.

Using its experience with these degree programmes, the University of Michigan Business School is developing a model executive education programme that will include technology-based learning. The programme will be delivered in four one-week modules on-site in different geographic regions to senior executives from a consortium of companies. Between modules, the executives will continue the learning experience with professors and other participants via interactive technology. This programme is designed, in part, to offer participants a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the capabilities embodied in the technology.

Duke

Duke's Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) programme was launched in May 1996. The product of more than two years of faculty and administrative planning, GEMBA was developed to meet the needs of executives and high-potential managers who currently have, or soon expect to have, cross-country responsibilities within their companies.

GEMBA was designed to provide each student with a thorough understanding of:

the core disciplines of business;
the nature of cross-cultural, global work;
team-oriented learning; the use of information technology for collaborative work.

In this 19-month MBA degree programme, students learn about the core functional business areas and how to integrate them so that they can think and manage globally and use new information technology tools for effective management in a global organization. About 50 per cent of the coursework in this programme is accomplished with intensive classroom study at various international sites. The balance is delivered by Fuqua faculty using Internet-based interactive communications technology.

Several new courses were developed specifically for the GEMBA curriculum, which is delivered in an integrated structure consisting of five modules. Each module consists of a pre-class reading period, a two-week residential period at one of several sites around the world and a post-residential period of electronic distance learning.

Residential classes convene five times during the course of the programme at sites in Europe, Asia and the United States for a total of 11 weeks during the course of the programme. Class sessions include lectures, cases, simulations, problem-solving exercises, company visits and guest speakers from leading academic, government and business organizations in the region. Fuqua professors deliver the balance of the instruction using interactive software applications. These communications tools allow faculty and students to hold extended dialogues without the normal constraints of classroom and office hours. From their home bases in Shanghai, Munich, Sao Paulo or New York, GEMBA students are able to interact with faculty and classmates in real time, bringing up-to-the-minute information and unique regional perspectives to any group assignment or class discussion.

UVA

In January 1996, the Darden Graduate Business School of the University of Virginia moved into its new home and into a complex of buildings replete with the latest in educational technology. Technological features at the new facility include:

classrooms linked to a unique technology control centre providing two-way video-conferencing, the School's own TV channel and TV studio, and LANs and media distribution facility;
1,000 phone jacks throughout the complex, allowing students and faculty to connect their laptop computers to the LAN;
classrooms that support a laptop at every desk; . multi-media lab and CD-ROM fabricator.

Some of the most interesting projects underway include:

teleconferencing supporting MBA classes (ie, bringing the Darden class to remote events such as the recent Cola Wars in China Project);
teleconferencing Darden speakers to remote locations (ie, the Alumni Speakers Series);
teleconferencing over the Internet in support of international field projects linking several business schools (ie, the GROW project with the Manchester Business School in the UK and IESE in Spain);
multi-mediacases and lectures on CD-ROM materials (ie, the Options Tutorial and the Jackie Woodscase).

Other business schools

Many other business schools also have interesting projects underway. For example, the Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Western Ontario runs a programme offering students the ability to attend the actual classroom or to attend via video-conferencing. Two groups of six to ten students simultaneously attend each session: six to ten students sit in the classroom in London, Ontario and six to ten students attend via video-conferencing sites around Canada. Both 'live' and 'virtual' students are arranged in three tiers of four people each, called a 'pod'. When the instructor in London, Ontario, starts the class, the 'virtual' students' images are displayed in the classroom on eight screens in a panel configuration. At a 90 degree angle from the 'virtual' students is the pod of 'live' students. The idea, of course, is that both 'virtual' and 'live' student gets the same attention; instructors strive to teach to the screens, not only to those real bodies - in fact, the instructor must turn 90 degrees to see the 'live' students. And the 'live' students must make the same adjustment as the instructor. They face the panel display, on which they can also see the image of their instructor; they also have to turn 90 degrees to see the instructor, who is looking away from them, teaching to the display panel.

The pros and cons of educational technology

The authors have decided to put our hopes and concerns in the form of a discussion between Brandt AlIen and Graham Mercer to highlight some of the key issues raised by these new technologies.

Question: How do you see technology being used in the classroom in the future?

Brandt: Before that question can be answered, we need to determine whether we put instructors into the centre of technology (which we have done with computers, projectors, multi-media cases, video-conferencing, etc) or do we use technology to replace traditional teaching, as happened with computer-aided instruction? Personally, I believe that technology without a change in the way we teach has limited payoff. In my own institution, we've really tried to make in-classroom technology payoff. Our efforts started with time-sharing and then Apples and now networks and CD-ROMs. We have spent a fortune on classroom projectors with little effect other than allowing for a few PowerPoint presentations. In fact, after years of trying, we probably rely less on computers in the classroom now than we did five or ten years ago. Most of their use happens outside the classroom. But we do see a big role for video clips and video-conferencing to augment what goes on in the classroom.

Graham: Rather than, 'How will technology be used in the classroom in the future?' I think the more important question is, 'How will technology be used for teaching in the future?' If we continue to apply technology to traditional teaching methods, the payoff will be limited and it will come with a huge price tag. Brandt says that they have spent a fortune on classroom projectors with the only gain being the ability to do PowerPoint presentations but if this is all we are doing, then we are not using the potential that technology offers. If we are to use technology successfully, we need to rethink our whole approach to teaching. We need to think about creating new forms that integrate computers, video-conferencing, interactive CD-ROMs, on-line databases and live teaching into collaborative learning environments. That is what technology can bring to us and where the focus of our effort should be.

Question: The automated classroom that uses technology to poll student responses is seen by some instructors as a major improvements over the traditional classroom. How do you view this development?

Brandt: The problem I have with the automated classroom is that it seems like a tool searching for an application: with enough instruction and coaching, the students learn how to use the keypad that sits on every desk. If everything works right, the instructor can ask a question, the students select a key on the keypad, the technology swings into action once the last student has been warned to use the keypad and, presto, the answer appears. If the system is good and the instructor has mastered its details, the answer may even appear on the screen for all to see: 45.3456 per cent voted 'yes'. Now why is that any better than the old pro who says, 'How many of you would fire Bruce now?' Hands shoot up; an in ten nanoseconds the old pro says, 'About half of you.' The pro is then on to the next topic; the instructor who's using the keypads isn't even in the game. So much of this new technology is like this; it slows down and distracts the attention of the class. I think that's why fewer of my colleagues try to use student spreadsheets in their classes. Yes, today it's a simple matter for an instructor to ask, 'Who's got a good model we can look at?' and quickly put it up on the computer/ video projector. That process is fast. But then it takes ten minutes for the instructor and the students to decipher the new spreadsheet because each is freeform and unique, and the underlying logic is mostly hidden.

Graham: I think Brandt's comment about the old pro out-performing an automated keypad system is very true for a traditional classroom and if that is the way the system is being used then it adds little value. However, the real value of keypad systems is that they allow interaction when the students are in a non-traditional setting. Teaching via satellite TV provides a good use for keypads, as the instructor using the system can engage the students by asking well-designed questions even though he/she cannot see them. The system also works well in multi-site video-conferencing classes, as the instructor can engage all the students even though he/she can only see one site at a time. Learning how to use the system is very simple but the instructor has to plan classes that include these well-designed questions. This means that faculty cannot be totally freeform', as the keypad system requires careful planning if it is to be used effectively.

Question: Changes in information and communication technologies are making it possible to develop interactive distance education programmes. From your experience, can you retain the same educational quality when you teach via technology as you have when teaching alive class?

Brandt: The problem with distance learning is that it lacks energy. We've all sat through distance learning classes that were just plain flat while students who were at the live session found it thrilling. Same students, same course, same time, perhaps only a few meters apart; yet one is full of energy and one is like watching an old videotape, which is what it is. Not much question as to what that difference is all about: that instructor, the one pumping energy into the room.

Graham: I believe we can retain the same quality when we teach at a distance if the right conditions exist. However, student selection is important; you need self-motivated and disciplined students. You also need an exciting design. Listening to a talking head on a TV monitor is boring, but so is listening to a monologue in a classroom. The same requirements for engagement and interaction exist when teaching at a distance as when teaching live. Most skilled instructors know how to make a traditional class exciting, but the same instructor may be at a loss as to how to teach effectively from a distance. Distance learning requires new skills that many experienced instructors do not yet have. To design and deliver a good distance class takes more time than a traditional class and it requires that the student have a certain skill level. The real trick is to create a learning community in which students can engage each other as well as the faculty. The technology to do this exists but it takes some orchestration by the instructor.

Question: There seems to be an increasing interest in using CD-ROMs for educational purposes, particularly in corporate training. Do you think CD-ROMs have a role in higher education?

Brandt: I think this perception does exist. Some of our biggest benefactors are our biggest nightmares, because these people walk into a 1997 classroom and see the same blackboard and overhead projector that were in the classroom when they were students. The notion that immediately comes to their minds is that, 'Something's wrong here and we should get somebody in here who understands educational technology.'

In reality, technology has made a big difference. Spreadsheets, presentations graphics, word-processing and now e-mail are essential tools for all MBA students, most of the faculty and many executive participants. In 1970, discounted cash flows and internal rates of return were advanced topics in business schools. Today, those same students are deep into derivatives, hedging, foreign exchange speculations and now 'value at risk'. All this is being done with fewer classes, because those same students are also studying business ethics, corporate communication and the latest in self-directed teams. If a point was missed in class or a topic was botched, the instructor may hear from half the class on his email that afternoon and be able to respond with a note to all students by nightfall. Materials are more current and easier to read. Classes are supplemented with video clips and presentation graphics which, under the instructor's control, actually add to the energy level. Video-conferencing can bring students to a board meeting or to another country for a site visit; the Internet and the Web have become a part of daily life connecting students to a global base of information. Research is speeded with on-line data searches over Lexis and Nexis or Bloombergs and Pro-Quest terminals. That said, it seems to me that the heart of what we do hasn't changed. The magic is still in that room with the blackboards and the overhead projector - and all the new electronics.

Graham: I do believe that corporations are moving much more quickly than business schools in integrating technology into their educational programmes. While most schools are networked, have direct access to on-line databases and have incorporated presentation technology into their classrooms, few have created a network of digital learners. Some top schools are piloting innovative, technology-based programmes but these efforts are small and have little effect on their core activity.

Final thoughts

The digital revolution is upon us and the resultant changes in information and communication technologies are fundamentally changing the way education can be delivered. New forms of learning that integrate computers, multi-media technology and interactive video are allowing collaborative learning environments to be created that are independent of time, distance and location.

However, simply transferring traditional teaching to new technologies will invariably lead to unsatisfactory results. These new forms of learning require carefully designed course materials and effectively structured asynchronous communication. If interactive video is used, planned interaction is necessary. These developments require teaching faculty to understand the constraints, demands and opportunities that technology-based learning imposes and it also demands that faculty have access to technical and instructional support. Students also must learn how to use the technology in a collaborative and effective manner.

When developing learning solutions, it is critical to stay focused on the educational purpose and not to become distracted by technology that adds little to the learning process. Everything must add value. Nothing should be done just because it is technically possible, as the questionable use of technology only adds to complexity and reduces the overall quality of the educational experience.

The reality of technology-based learning is that it is different from traditional education. Both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses. The key is recognizing the right solution for the given situation, which in some cases will be a blend of technology-based and traditional teaching. The application of technology in developing a learning environment required thought and careful design. Teaching faculty need support and students need an orientation to this new type of learning process. When all this is done, the results that technology-based learning bring and the new opportunities it creates can be very exciting.

References

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