Face to face, but not in person
St. Michael's business class trys out video conferencing

Will Pickard | staff writer
wpickard@smcvt.edu

Professor John Ambrose,Alli McBride (left) and Matt McCarthy (right) read over some quick material about their video conference. Photo courtesy of John Ambrose

The St. Michael’s business department set up a video conference on Thursday, Sept. 20 with two senior vice presidents of ING Direct. The Netherlands-based company that has moved into the United States and Canada is worth $90 billion. 

The conference gave the students of business Professor John Ambrose’s Financial Services Marketing class a chance to talk with real company executives.  Ambrose, a new professor this year at St. Michael’s College, arranged the conference. 

Ambrose was enthusiastic about the conference, saying that it created a more exciting environment for the students.

“The video conference allows direct face-to-face contact, in real time,” Ambrose says. 

Why ING?

According to Ambrose, his class uses case studies to learn about the challenges that might occur in the business world.  His students study the different companies and industries by reading print material.

The video conference is a real-time discussion with people who are in businesses today, facing the very same challenges that students in his class study. 

Ambrose says his choice for a company to conference with was easy.  The president of ING Direct, Arkadi Kuhlmann, went to school with Ambrose at the University of Western Ontario at the Ivey School of Business, so they had a personal connection.  Ambrose went to Kuhlmann first with his idea. 

“When I explained the benefit to students and their company, we decided to do the interview,” Ambrose says. 

ING Direct has an interest in helping students and getting more involved with people of that age group, he says.

“Their business is very much in the retail banking sector,” Ambrose says.  “They are interested in what my students have to say about their company.”

The students in Ambrose’s class were given the chance to use some of the newest technology in the business communications world today by video conferencing with ING.

ExperiencING

The opportunity to speak with an actual business over a video conference was a unique experience for the class.  Some of the students say they were anxious before the interview and intimidated by the idea of speaking with such high-level executives. 

“I think we were all nervous,” says Ed Fennessey, a senior in the class.  “It was our second class.  We didn’t know much about the course or the subject.  We were worried about how we were going to come off to them.”

Fennessey says it was a phenomenal experience, and that only one person in the class had ever participated in a video conference before.  Video conferencing has become commonplace in the business market today, and Fennessey says he was glad to have the experience before he entered the work world. 

The class had studied ING Direct in a case study prior to the conference, and Fennessey says it was very interesting to talk with the vice presidents and see how much they understood about the companies product and enterprise.  He says the experience was a positive one, resulting in more than just learning the material. 

“Since [the conference], two employers have called Professor Ambrose with offers for some or all of us," Fennessey says. "They’re looking for young talent.” 

Fennessey recommends the class to anyone who has not taken it in the business department. 

“You have to be able to financially analyze a program or scheme before you enact it,” Fennessey says. 

Videos or Books?

Ambrose plans on having more video conferences, he says.  He was pleased with the reactions that he got from his students, and he wants to see if he can get the same results a second time. 

“It was a big success,” Ambrose says.  “Students are excited; they learned.  The staff in the business area are excited, and I’ve received two different phone calls from people who want to hire my students.” 

Although the video conference is a powerful tool, Ambrose feels that it will most likely not replace the current classroom setting.  St. Michael's associate professor of accounting Mark Nigrini watched the conference for half-an-hour on Thursday and says the conference had a minor effect on the department and its students.  

"It's very hard for one class to affect your entire career," Nigrini says.    

Nigrini agrees with Ambrose that using video conferences in the forefront of a curriculum would not work. 

“The primary way [to teach] is face to face classroom time,” Ambrose says.  “Next is video conferencing.” 

Field trips to business or manufacturing plants are another educational tool, Ambrose says. Trips can be used, along with video conferencing and other real-time communications, to supplement the classroom part of the education, he says.

However, there are attempts to make video conferencing, and techniques like it, the primary medium for teaching the subject, Ambrose says.  The immediacy and real world experience that the students get is an appealing tool for employers in an increasingly fast and global society. 

Ambrose still plans on scheduling more conferences in the future and he estimates that the class might organize 3 or 4 interviews in a year. 

Ambrose sees the confrences as a good tool to have as an educator.  He did not, however, see how it would be possible any time in the near future to use them as much as some would like.

“It is something to shoot for,” Ambrose says.