A model for use of multimedia

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A model for use of multimedia ICT in the
classroom teaching of MBA courses

• Kanishka Bedi
• Jaipuria Institute of Management, Vineet Khand,
• Gomti Nagar, Lucknow, U.P. 226005, India
• Email kanishkabedi_at_hotmail.com
• J. K. Sharma
• Department of Business Administration,
• University of Lucknow, Lucknow, U.P., India

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Introduction

• Multimedia and ICT have changed the face of the
  21st century MBA class rooms up to great extent.
  Teaching MBA courses using PowerPoint
  presentations, Excel SPSS spreadsheets etc. is
  common place with the help of permanently
  installed computers connected to an LCD projector
  in the classroom.
• In many computer training institutions, the
  classroom provides individual computer
  workstations (with personal headphones) to each
  student in the class room in addition to the
  earlier mentioned infrastructure. This set-up is
  popularly known as an Online classroom (OC).
• Dwight Look College of Engineering at Texas AM
  University 4 and the College of Business,
  Minnesota State University 5 are already using
  this kind of a set up. However, this kind of a
  set-up is rarely found in the classroom teaching
  of MBA programmes.
• It is proposed in this paper that in place of
  creating special Online classrooms, the
  existing computer lab in the MBA institutions
  should be redesigned by modifying its layout to
  convert the lab into an OC.

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Redesigning the computer lab into an Online
classroom
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Advantages of Online classrooms

• In an online classroom (OC) using multimedia
  lecture sessions, the students can easily reverse
  a few steps so that the concept gets clear.
• A real time conduct and evaluation of quizzes
  given to students at the beginning/ ending of a
  teaching session using the ICT becomes possible
  in OC.
• In the OC equipped with ICT, it is easy to take
  daily feedback of the instructors performance
  from the students.
• Many times certain comprehensive data or
  calculations shown in a spreadsheet in small font
  size (projected by the LCD projector on the big
  screen) are not clearly visible to the students
  at the back benches in the classroom. In these
  situations, the online classroom with individual
  work stations to the students can overcome this
  problem as the students not only see the
  projected spreadsheet on the big screen, but also
  on their monitors.
• In the OC, attendance can be taken by the
  instructor on the computer with the projected
  screen. This file can be password protected by
  the instructor so that the students may view it
  even later, but cannot make any changes in it.
• The students can have access to their fee deposit
  information, examination report cards,
  attendance, status of availability of books in
  the library etc. at their workstations in their
  classroom itself.

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Advantages of Online classrooms (contd.)

• The students need not go to the computer lab,
  thus saving a lot of time.
• Internet facility can easily be made available on
  workstations in the online classroom.
• Subjective examinations can also be conducted.
  The students can send answer files though email
  to the instructor. Precautions should be taken to
  ensure that students do not send emails to each
  other during the examination. Internet/ interanet
  should be disconnected during the exam but
  reinstituted at the end of the examination so
  that emails may be sent to the instructor.
• Students can have access to online research
  databases like EBSCO, Emerald etc.
• A video camera installed permanently can give the
  option to the instructor to make video films of
  his/ her lectures, which can be used with the
  future batches of students or in the distance
  learning programmes.

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Advantages of Online classrooms (contd.)

• Teaching concepts like ERP, RDBMS etc., which
  require distributed client-server set-up, becomes
  easier due to the option of role play by the
  students at different workstations.
• Programming languages like Java, C etc. can be
  explained and practiced in a better way in online
  class rooms.
• Interactive multimedia can be used effectively
  only in online classrooms.
• Teaching numerical oriented concepts like
  transportation model, LP etc.using Excel becomes
  easier.
• Notices can be sent through email to the
  students.
• Sessions can be conducted even in the absence of
  the instructor.
• Repetition of lectures by faculty in other
  sections of students can be aided by video
  recording and then, projecting through LCD
  projector/ at individual workstations.
• Team or group assignments can be more
  interactively conducted within the student teams.
• For obtaining a tally of student answers in a
  large class, online classroom is a prerequisite.

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Survey Results
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Response summary of the student survey

• A majority of MBA students would like the use of
  multimedia like Lotus Screen Cam in the classroom
  teaching of MBA courses, though occasionally in
  topics with numerical orientation.
• A majority of the students prefer to have such
  sessions in the online classrooms.
• A large majority of the students felt that online
  quizzes (in an online classroom) using ICT, which
  give instantaneous results to each student
  according to his/ her performance should be a
  regular feature of MBA courses for continuous
  evaluation.

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Cost involved in creating an Online classroom (in
the proposed model)

• This model recommends the modification in the
  layout of the computer lab in a MBA institution.
  Also, an LCD projector and a video camera would
  be required to be procured in this set-up.
• The cost of the procurement of these items with
  the proposed redesigning of the layout of the lab
  would incur approximately USD 4000, which can be
  easily afforded by even MBA institutions in the
  developing nations.

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Conclusions

• The use of multimedia and ICT can be successfully
  integrated in the classroom teaching of MBA
  courses only when supported by an online
  classroom.
• The computer lab of the MBA institutions has to
  be redesigned in order to convert it into an
  online classroom.
• Instructors willing to use multimedia ICT can
  conduct their sessions in these online
  classrooms.
• This kind of a set up does not require
  substantial investments. At the same time, it
  promotes awareness amongst the faculty not
  currently making use of multimedia ICT to
  explore possibilities of its use in their
  courses.

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Thank You!