December 1998 — Features
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Digital Classrooms: Some Myths About Developing New Educational Programs Using the Internet
A Focused Curriculum
The importance of designing curriculum and technology in tandem is underscored by the Fielding experience. The curriculum for the Master's degree is positioned on the intersection of organizational design, electronic communication and cross-cultural issues that grow out of its students, their communities and places of work. A focused curriculum offers opportunities to explore demanding challenges facing organizations today: human and cultural difference, electronic communication, group dynamics and globalization. There is balance between the "hard" theory and research that professionals need and the "soft" skills provided by leadership and group process training and interactive learning in small teams. Core courses and seminars are delivered worldwide via the Internet. Event-based seminars are just-in-time elective courses designed around real problems and opportunities, with student-generated topics as "living" case studies.
The program is an intensive 20-month experience. Generally, students spend 10 to 15 hours per week on their studies. They are advised to check into their electronic seminars at least twice a week. Faculty provide detailed assignments and guidelines for participation. Collaboration with other students may involve reading and responding to their work and receiving feedback from them in threaded conversations. There are also opportunities for discussion leadership, critiques, simulations and role-play. The program includes the opportunity to develop truly marketable intellectual property in students' culminating Master's theses projects. Other components include a capstone seminar, "Grand Rounds," which allowed students to shadow internationally recognized consultants to industry and to exhibit their work in the San Francisco Bay area.
The program begins with an initial one-week face-to face session required of all participants, regardless of geographic home base and travel time. At these orientation and planning sessions, students and faculty have a chance to meet one another and to obtain a general orientation to the program. Faculty conduct small group sessions, introducing students to learning objectives, course content, expectations and group norms. There are opportunities for clarifications, questions and answers as well as team-building sessions. Polaroid photos are taken and shared. Opportunities to purchase texts via online booksellers are explained.
An important aspect of the week's activities is the introductory training in the Fielding educational software, FELIX, an adaptation of Alta Vista forum software in a password-protected intranet. Students also obtain advice and assistance in configuring their own hardware and software for optimal Internet access, e-mail and search functions with a Web browser. Each student's entering computer skills and proficiency level are assessed in a user-friendly atmosphere with service-oriented professional staff. Every effort is made to ward off possible technical problems with up-front technical support and practice sessions before students return home to work on their own. Of course, technical assistance remains available to students and faculty throughout each term. An especially attractive feature of the Fielding operation is the "human face" of the technical support staff, who are outgoing and friendly people possessing both technical expertise and strong interpersonal skills. They are accessible to students by telephone, fax, e-mail, the FELIX forum and other methods almost around the clock.
