School of Business > UPDATE > Summer 2002 > Article

Going Global

CIBER funding has helped support a variety of initiatives over the past four years. Two recent examples: an international business class that was part of a new exchange program between UW-Madison and the University of International Business (UIB) in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and an undergraduate case competition in Copenhagen.

Technology Links Kazakhstan and Wisconsin Students

It was 12:05 in the morning on May 1, 2002 - May Day. In the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan, nine students were feverishly preparing. They had gathered scores of charts, graphs and other information detailing Kazakhstan's economic life's blood: its oil pipelines.

Nine thousand miles and a dozen time zones away, School of Business students were gathered in Morgridge Auditorium in Grainger Hall. With a push of a button, the voices of the Kazakhstan students filled the Wisconsin classroom and images from their PowerPoint presentation filled a video screen. The spring semester interaction - part of a new exchange program between UW-Madison and the University of International Business (UIB) in Almaty, Kazakhstan -was possible due to technology.

As part of the exchange program, students in Kazakhstan listened to lectures from an international business class taught by School of Business Senior Lecturer Rod Matthews. Internet audio streaming allowed Kazakhstan students to listen to the lectures via the web. Course materials and telephone discussion forums were also provided via the Web.

The May 1 interaction was live. Due to the 12-hour time difference between Kazakhstan and Wisconsin, the UIB students had to offer their presentation in the wee hours. The Wisconsin students had the advantage of listening to the presentation at the more reasonable hour -presumably even to college students-of 12:05 p.m. Following an in-depth presentation on Kazakhstan's oil industry and the role of government in its economy, the Wisconsin students were able to ask questions of the Kazakhstan students. Photographs of the Kazakhstan students, also shown on the video screen, helped put faces to the voices being heard. (The sleep-deprived Kazakhstan students gamely repeated the presentation an hour later to a second group of IB 200 students.)

Senior Lecturer Rod Matthews prepares a class of Wisconsin students to hear a presentation from their counterparts in Kazakhstan

Matthews was enthusiastic about the opportunity provided to both Kazakhstan and Wisconsin students. "It's wonderful to see technology and an international forum make a business class come alive. For our students to hear from their counterparts halfway around the world in real time is just an exceptional learning opportunity." Matthews, who has led distance-learning initiatives involving Chile, Italy and Hong Kong, believes the Internet and telecommunications not only export the university classroom anywhere in the world, but also bring the world to UW classrooms.

Several UW-Madison departments are participating in the exchange program, including the International Institute and the Center for Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, in addition to CIBER. Efforts are underway to expand the program and smooth logistical hurdles.

Many of the Wisconsin students who heard the lecture by the Kazakhstan students expressed admiration for their international counterparts. "I was impressed with the way the technology allowed this class to communicate with a group of students thousands of miles away," said Wisconsin student Andrew Calof.