Ohio University Serves as E-Business Training
Site for Workers from Amsterdam
Contact: Rick Milter, management systems professor (740) 593-2072
Editors: Photo of workers from Amsterdam conversing with MBA Without Boundaries students can be downloaded at: www.ohiou.edu/news/pix/MBA.JPG
Cutline information is available under "file information" in Photoshop.
ATHENS, Ohio (July 28, 2000) -- Ohio University's Division of Lifelong Learning and College of Business faculty have spent the last month training a group of e-business professionals from Amsterdam. The focus of the training program was to increase their competence in dealing with the information technology business American-style.
The 13 men and four women who work for IQUIP, an e-business company with 1,500 employees, came to Ohio University to prepare for careers in software testing and application engineering and to learn how to prepare business presentations for clients. The employees completed their training in Amsterdam this week with presentations to their IQUIP supervisors on new product and service ideas for the company.
According to Rick Milter, an associate professor of management systems and one of the faculty on the design and delivery team, the students were sharp and energetic and the goals of the program were met. IQUIP could send as many as eight employee groups a year to Ohio University if the pilot program receives positive evaluations.
One of the employees' learning exercises was to create a hypothetical e-business company and explain how to realize its inception. They also had the task of advising an actual e-business company in Columbus, Ohio, on whether it should expand its market internationally or remain solely in the U.S.
"It was a very good experience. We learned how to work on projects as a group and complete them in a very short time frame," said IQUIP employee Anika van den Bosch. "We also learned a lot about technical issues, especially e-commerce applications."
The program came about when Dean of Lifelong Learning Thomas Shostak contacted IQUIP to suggest Ohio University as a potential host after he found out the company was looking for an American university to provide e-business training for its new employees. IQUIP selected Ohio University over six other schools, primarily because of its MBA Without Boundaries program, which has utilized project-based action learning since its design phase five years ago.
The MBA Without Boundaries program is a joint venture of the College of Business and the Division of Lifelong Learning that allows working professionals to earn MBA degrees using the Ohio University intranet and project-based action learning exercises.
"We learned how to make quality presentations to clients who want to conduct business on the Internet," said IQUIP employee Andy Schoonbroodt. "You have to sell your concept to your customers. We learned by doing and that was very positive. We didn't just copy and paste information from the Internet, we learned through participation."
Milter, director of the MBA Without Boundaries program, worked with College of Business faculty John Day, Valerie Perotti and John Stinson to prepare the learning curriculum for the program. Associate director of continuing education, conferences and workshops Muriel Ballou and her assistant Jill Nice handled the administrative duties. The technology infrastructure was designed and maintained by Mike Snavely, technical resources manager for the College of Business.
