Fall 1997
Vol 6 Issue 1
IN THIS ISSUE...
A First Year Editor's Perspective
Wu Yi - MCCD Business Initiative
Alternative Assessment in Mathematics
The Library Tour is Gone, Long Live Live Instruction
SEE ALSO...
The Labyrinth
Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction
Wu Yi - MCCD Business Internet Initiative
Richard D. Shortridge
Business Department Chairman, GCC
Zhao Pincheng
Vice-director of the Department of Economics and Management
Wu Yi University, Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province, Peopležs
Republic of China
Last summer, eleven other faculty from MCCD and I traveled to The People's Republic of China as part of the China Fellowship Program. We lived, taught, and took classes at Wu Yi University in Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province (located 60 miles northwest of Hong Kong). The faculty represented a cross-section of colleges and disciplines.
During our stay, Zhao Pincheng, Vice-Director of Economics and Management at Wu Yi, and I discussed a Wu Yi - MCCD student initiative. The goal of the initiative is to allow Wu Yi and MCCD business students to learn how to solve problems and communicate with one another across United States and Chinese cultures while working in small groups and communicating via current telecommunication technologies. Briefly, Wu Yi and GCC business students would be assigned to teams and given a business problem to solve. The students would share information and prepare a report outlining the solution to their business problem. Such an initiative is bold but feasible, given the resources of both schools.
To a reasonable extent, actual business problems will be addressed by students. For example, a company in Jiangmen might need to have marketing data in the United States gathered and analyzed. Students could accomplish this and then create a feasibility study based upon the analyzed data. In order to complete this task, students would need to be able to exchange spreadsheet, accounting, and word processing documents with team members in the other country.
The students would have to overcome cultural, collaborative, and technological difficulties in order to complete their project. Whatever country they live in, business leaders of the 21st century will need to overcome these difficulties in order for their companies to remain competitive in the world market.
Cultural Difficulties
Needless to say, there are many cultural differences between Chinese and
American students. Fortunately, most of the Chinese students who will
be involved with the project speak and write English well enough to communicate
via e-mail. This project will give Wu Yi students an opportunity to practice
their written English and will give American students an opportunity to
overcome the difficulties associated with collaborators who use English
as a second language.
Communication styles vary considerably between American and Chinese students. For example, our students tend to be more direct when communicating. A memo might appear rude and abrupt to a Chinese student, while such a memo would appear perfectly appropriate if read by an American student. In China, where communication tends to emphasize the context, American students may have difficulty picking up subtleties in e-mail sent from Chinese students.
Collaborative Difficulties
Generally, American students spend more time in group class projects than
do Chinese students. Coordinating schedules and dividing the workload
within a group can be difficult enough when the students meet face-to-face
several times a week. Accomplishing such tasks via e-mail will be even
more difficult. For a project such as this to succeed, students in both
countries will have to demonstrate superior leadership, organizational,
and cooperative traits.
Students will have to learn to cope with unexpected problems that will inevitably arise. For example, what should Chinese team members do if their team does not receive, as scheduled, an Excel workbook that was to be completed by an American team member? Did the U.S. member send it incorrectly, not understand the time schedule, or simply act irresponsibly and not do the work at all? Should the Chinese team members bring the problem to the attention of all the American team members or simply send an e-mail message to the American member to seek an explanation? How much, if any, grace time should the Chinese team members give the our team members?
These problems may not seem complex, but even apparently simple problems can become complex when individuals from different cultures try to communicate via e-mail and related communication technologies.
Technological Difficulties
Finally, technical difficulties abound. At Wu Yi, students use Windows
3.1. However, they use a Chinese version, which is not compatible with
file formats generated by the American version. Since students will be
transferring files to one another, it is important that the respective
files be accessible on both systems. Furthermore, the versions of the
application software (MS Office) are not the same.
In addition, students will be using e-mail programs that differ in capabilities. For example, some programs can send binary attachments (such as a PowerPoint presentation) over the Internet. However, the recipient of the message may not be using an e-mail program that can decode the binary file. Instead of getting the binary file, the recipient may get an e-mail message that is full of gibberish code.
Various Internet tools will be available to the Chinese and American students, including e-mail, ftp, telnet, WWW, and conferencing utilities. Students' abilities to use such Internet tools vary widely, and instructors at both institutions must be prepared to spend a fair amount of class time teaching students how to use these tools.
Despite these difficulties, Mr. Zhao and I are looking forward to this initiative with great anticipation. We hope students on both sides of the Pacific can learn from one another. While it is a bit of a cliche, the world is becoming a smaller place. We would like to see our students stake a claim.
For further information, check out:
http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/~2dts000/rds/china.htm