Just a few years ago, the idea of real-time collaboration with other classes and campuses involved costly travel, or a telephone, and mailing shared documents back and forth. Virtual technology has drastically changed the dynamics of education collaboration, and BYU–Hawaii is taking advantage of those changes. During this most recent Fall semester, BYU–Hawaii Leadership and Management students used technology-enhanced classrooms and other virtual tools to pull off a special project with Leadership students at Boston University – and got a little national attention in the process.
Their task was to create different organizational training modules, test them, write reports on their findings, and present their results to other students at both universities. However, collaboration meant working closely with students over 5,000 miles away with a 5-hour time difference. In order to close the gap between the two universities, the students used virtual systems in order to “meet” with their groups and present their projects.
“The students had to come up with training module topics and work virtually,” said Helena Hannonen, professor of Human Resources & Organizational Behavior at BYU–Hawaii. “We taught them how to use virtual systems, and they were really creative in their uses of technology to stay connected. They also moved to systems which really worked for them.”
With the aid of social networking, shared documents on the internet, and video and phone calls, the teams were able to collaborate in a virtual classroom. Video conference calls, set up by Jamison Kissh at BU and Cindy Tutor at BYU–Hawaii and their staff members, were key in finishing the projects, since the technology allowed students at each university to see presentations that were happening in classrooms thousands of miles away.
Students from each university swapped school shirts. Featured left are BU students in Seasider red and gold. Featured above are BYU-Hawaii students in BU shirts.
Hannonen helped set up the collaboration with Boston University by working with Dr. Sandra Deacon Carr, master lecturer in the Organizational Behavior Department and faculty director of the Center for Team Learning at Boston University's School of Management. It caught the attention of the national media and was part of a CNBC segment on technology in the classroom. Watch the clip highlighting the project and other uses of virtual education at http://www.cnbc.com/id/101246484.