From: Ron Purser [mailto:
rpurser@sfsu.edu]
CALL FOR AD HOC REVIEWERS
for MERLOT's IBUS Digital Teaching Modules
While online teaching in higher education has grown in popularity over the
last decade, access to high quality online teaching materials in
international business for faculty is severely lacking. Online teaching
modules in international business will be developed, peer-reviewed and made
publicly available through the MERLOT website
www.merlot.org .[1] This project involves an
expansion of the digital collection of IBUS modules within MERLOT.
Resources that will be added to the collection will include simulations,
tutorials, animations, references, case studies, assignments, and other
digital materials that can be integrated within the larger context of a
course focusing on international dimensions of business, the global
management of innovation and technology, export and international trade.
The project is being funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Business
International Education (BIE) program. San Francisco State University's
<http://cob.sfsu.edu/cob/index.cfm%20> College of Business was recently
awarded a $191,544 Business and International Education (BIE) grant from
the U.S. Department of Education to support academic and community outreach
projects with the local wine industry to develop better global marketing
strategies. The two-year grant is the largest federal grant the College has
ever received. Seven faculty members from four departments -- Management,
Information Systems, Marketing and Decision Sciences -- created and will
participate in the grant project.
The grant will fund three academic and two community outreach projects
through 2007. One project will develop a digital collection of online
teaching modules in international business for
<http://www.merlot.org> MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Repository for
Learning and Online Teaching), a free online catalog of education modules
created by a consortium of higher education institutions. A second project
will create software called "Global Wine Match" that pairs small wineries
with distributors according to product attributes and distribution goals.
Another outcome will be creation of a family-owned winery conference on
international trade, developed with the College of Business's
<http://cob.sfsu.edu/fbc/index.php> Family Business Center.
CALL FOR IBUS REVIEWERS
A unique feature of this project is online teaching and learning modules in
international business will undergo a rigorous peer review process,
utilizing MERLOT's Business Discipline Editorial Board. The MERLOT project
has well established process for the peer review of instructional
technology. Currently, over 140 faculty members from institutions in the
United States, Canada and Australia are collaborating on MERLOT's peer
review process.
This initiative seeks qualified faculty from other institutions in North
America, Europe, Asia and Australia to serve as ad hoc reviewers who will
work in collaboration with the MERLOT Business Editorial Board. Reviewers
will receive training that will be conducted through online tutorials and
conference calls. Steps in the training for peer review will include
triaging existing modules in the MERLOT collection, understanding peer
evaluation criteria, and posting of reviews to MERLOT. Peer reviews of
online international business teaching modules will be posted publicly on
the MERLOT website, allowing faculty to select and use the highest quality
materials within their existing courses. Because MERLOT is a free gateway,
faculty at any institution in the world could access the International
Business modules within MERLOT.
In addition to enhancing the digital collection of peer-reviewed
international business modules within MERLOT, this project will also
develop a portal on the MERLOT site devoted to Teaching International
Business online. This portal will direct faculty to specific modules in
International Business, illustrating how they have actually been used by
other faculty in the classroom. The portal will serve as a public forum for
enhancing the scholarship of teaching and learning in International
Business.
Faculty interested in serving as ad hoc reviewers for the MERLOT/BIE
project should contact: Professor Ronald Purser, MERLOT/BIE Project
Director, Department of Management, San Francisco State University. Email:
<mailto:
rpurser@sfsu.edu>
.
[1] The MERLOT website is compliant with Section 508, which requires that
Federal agencies' electronic and information technology is accessible to
people with disabilities, as well as MIS Global Learning Consortium
metadata specifications.
Ronald E Purser, Ph.D.
Professor of Management
College of Business
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Ave
San Francisco, CA 94132
(415) 338 2380 (office)
(415) 338 0501 (fax)