Distributed Learning

International faculty provide "distributed learning",  teaching both from the Grenada site and from other locations around the world, using Sakai and Wimba, which are collaborative learning software packages. Each course normally takes one month, and meets online for two evenings per week (depending on your time zone), with an additional weekend session provided if necessary, during the assigned month.

Our Sakai software is asynchronous, which means that learning interactions occur on the student's own schedule, This is used for all course work other than our live sessions. We use Wimba for synchronous, live classroom experiences, connecting teams in real time around the world for case work, project development, presentations and discussion led by the professor. The cohort participates in each course together. Within the cohort, most work is done in teams, though team membership may shift at times.

Assessment of learning is clinically-driven. It is expected that every participant has substantial work and management experience, so evaluation of instruction is contextualized in practice.

Consequently, each assessment tool used by faculty to provide feedback to participants is grounded in real-world operations. Traditional examinations are rare – performance and effectiveness are measured through more contemporary vehicles, reflecting best-practice companies and organizations.

As an example, you might start BUSI 825 Managing Turbulence in April. On the first day of the month the instructor will begin communicating with you and your class on Sakai. The course site will have been open prior to this in case you wanted information on this particular course. Most, if not all, of your readings will be available electronically on Sakai beforehand, or as needed during the course. If something needs to be shipped you would have received it on your doorstep before the first day of the month. Before the first class session your instructor may have traded several messages with the class, setting up teams, clarifying assignments and deadlines or discussing initial readings. If you're on the east coast of the U.S., your first live session will kick off at 5 pm on Tuesday of week one. You might have closed your office door with a "do not disturb" on the outside or left work early and logged in from home. The students in Grenada will be gathered around a large "smartboard"  on the SGU campus, catching up on the latest cricket scores. If you're in London, it will be 10 pm and you might be curled up with your pajamas on - this is a good time to be sure that your webcam is focused only on your head. The participants in Los Angeles, having finished a morning round of golf, are seated in the clubhouse picking up a wireless signal as the class begins.

With Wimba up and running, a live video headshot of your instructor pops on the screen as the list of other participants logging in grows at the bottom. For the next few hours, various members of your class will appear on the screen with their own video headshots making comments, asking questions or contributing to a discussion. Your instructor may mark up a powerpoint while presenting it, go to a pertinent website on the screen, put a spreadsheet up and walk through a set of calculations, show a video newsclip from a related BBC story or begin a case discussion. While exploring the case, the four or five teams which are subsets of your class may break into groups and move into private electronic discussion groups, then reconvene with team findings. Your significant other may drop in with a fresh cup of tea. Eventually you log off, use Sakai for interaction until your next live session on Thursday, and so the month winds on. By the last day of the month, all your assignments are in, your team has made a live video presentation, you have prepared a useful organizational continuity plan for a possible crisis at your hospital that your boss likes, and now it's time to start thinking about BUSI 809 Accounting, which starts tomorrow.

When eighteen months have ended you are left with a highly useful MBA, a promotion at work because of the new competencies you have demonstrated, a group of friends you will stay in contact with for many years into the future, and a nice tan from your last residency in Grenada. This process has created very little disruption to your work or your family life, while giving you an entire new level of confidence to handle the fresh responsibilities your promotion has brought.