Wharton connects to future

It could have been a scene from The Jetsons. Hundreds of full-time business professionals gathered in classrooms across the country Tuesday night to interact with Wharton School faculty members "beamed in" live via satellite from a West Philadelphia studio. The business professionals -- from such companies as American Express, Microsoft Corp. and Coca-Cola -- were course-shopping for lessons in business strategy, finance and macroeconomics through a program called Wharton Direct, a joint venture in distributed education between Penn's business school and its technology partner, the Baltimore-based Caliber Learning Network. Through the program, which began this fall but previewed a new selection of six-week courses last Tuesday, Wharton professors use advanced technology -- such as live satellite feeds, video-conferencing and computer-networking -- to broadcast interactive lessons and communicate with classroom groups of around 15 executive students each in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and 23 other major markets in which Caliber operates. According to Wharton Direct Managing Director Allyson McGraw-Peirce, all of the courses are "interactive, integrated and applied." During most classes -- which cost between $2,500 and $3,000 each -- the professor lectures via satellite for 20 to 30 minutes of the three-hour session, usually on the case-based reading material students complete for homework. Three to four times during the class, the professor turns the discussion over to the site-based Caliber facilitators, who lead small group "module discussions" in the classrooms. Professors then use the video-conferencing technology to "virtually visit" different classrooms for larger group discussions, calling on students from any Caliber site across the country. "I think classroom participation is the future of education, but what we are trying to do is make it irrelevant whether or not the professor is in the same physical room with you," said Operations and Information Management Professor David Croson, the course director. "And we're damn near there." Students having trouble understanding a lecture can refer to slides from the personal computer at their desk, search a database of frequently asked questions on the course's World Wide Web site or contact the professor over the Internet during posted "virtual office hours." Students are also able ask the professor to answer questions of general interest to the entire class during the lecture by sending the professor an on-line instant message called a "connect." The response to the program thus far has been positive. "I had always dreamed of going to Wharton, to have the interaction with the professors, but the geography made that impossible," said Roberta Longworth, a full-time tax associate in Washington, D.C., for the Columbia Energy Group. Through the satellite program, Longworth is now able to remain in her home city while taking a Wharton Direct course. She said her company paid for the course because the "Wharton name is known and [its education] is proven" to many of her bosses who have attended executive education classes on campus. So far, Wharton Direct has offered "Building A Business Case," an interdisciplinary course that draws upon faculty from the Marketing, Management and OPIM departments to take budding entrepreneurs through the process of developing their business. Other courses -- such as "Macroeconomics" taught by Finance Professor Jeremy Siegel and "Reading Financial Statements" taught by Finance Professor John Hershey -- are slated to begin this spring. Administrators are currently developing courses in negotiations, the global marketplace and personnel management.

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