Delivering International Management Education in China Using Tutored-Video Instruction Technology
ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of a study of classroom performance and student attitudes of (on-site vs. the off-site) students enrolled in a distance education international management program leading to a MBA degree. The program was developed by the McLaren School of Business at the University of San Francisco and involves two large Hong Kong-based Chinese corporations. The off-site students of this distance education took classes at Hong Kong, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou via Tutored-Video Instruction methodology. The students were highly satisfied with the program and its delivery. However, their performance was less than anticipated.
The New ‘U’
Today's talk about tenure must be framed within broader discussions about the role of the university. Our university system is now over one hundred years old, the “Old-Time College” is gone, the “cold war” university is no longer viable, and the foundations of the modern “multiversity” are cracking, so it is time to talk about change. But change is not necessarily reform, and resisting change probably will not keep things the way they are, so academics must understand the forces reshaping the university. Whenever I listen to colleagues defend the status quo by saying that the United States has a university system that is the envy of the world, I hear echoes of the Detroit automobile industry's casual dismissal of foreign competitors in the early 1960s. The decision not to change did not preserve the auto industry, and it is unlikely to preserve public universities as we know them. The current debates about tenure began with ideological attacks on “tenured radicals” who used their secure jobs to subvert conservative cultural values. The attack on tenure gathered steam as fiscal hawks in financially-strapped states looked for ways to save money and found huge state university systems with budgets to match. When asked why he robbed banks, the legendary Willie Sutton replied, “Because that's where the money is.” When asked why they are robbing tenure, legislators, regents, and administrators reply, “Because that's where the money is.” Personnel costs are a large share of university budgets and tenure ties the hands of administrators and legislators accustomed to using purse strings to control universities.
Trends in Computers and Computing: The Information Utility
Demands for more effective information management, coupled with advances in computer hardware and software technology, have resulted in the emergence of the information utility concept, whereby computers specialized for information storage and processing serve as information nodes. The information nodes, which may be interconnected, can provide information management services to both conventional and personal computers. In this article the key hardware and software components of classical information systems are described to provide background on the requirements for an information utility. Four approaches to the development of specialized information nodes, drawing on various advances in technology, are presented: (i) firmware enhancement, (ii) intelligent controllers, (iii) minicomputer back-end processors, and (iv) highly modular database machines. The benefits of these advances will be systems that are more efficient, reliable, and easy to use.