Executive MBA program featured on Apple.com

Pamplin's executive MBA program was featured on Apple′s Web site as a Profile in Success. The company's education profiles series discusses how specific schools and universities use Apple technology to enhance learning. The story discusses how Pamplin′s Executive MBA students use the iBook laptop, iPod, iSight videocamera and iChat AV videoconferencing software. The MBA students work full–time while taking courses in the intensive, 18–month program at Virginia Tech′s National Capital Region center in Falls Church. Students Russ Adamchak and Sonia Schmitt are pleased with how the text,
audio, and video tools enhance study–group collaboration and student–
faculty communication.

Adamchak, who has a computer science degree from Boston College and is the programs and business development director at Mercury Computer Systems, says his study group conducts weekly iChat videoconferences from home. "I′ve kept pace with our coursework while traveling on business by videoconferencing from hotel rooms in Germany, the U.K., and Italy... We have been able to review critical lectures by videotaping them and transcribing them to DVD with iMovie and iDVD. We even podcast some of our class lectures for review while commuting during the week."

Schmitt, who has a master′s in systems engineering and a Ph.D. in technology marketing and is principal business development manager of Lockheed Martin, says the video quality "makes having long-distance meetings seem like the person is right in front of you."

She appreciates the ease of saving and retrieving files. "I do not have to look through directories trying to remember where I saved my class assignments." As for the wireless network, she says, "I can easily connect at Virginia Tech or at home simply by turning on my computer. I do not have to change any configuration or network settings—it just understands my local router and I can start working. The Mac is light enough to carry around with me while on travel."

Executive MBA director Charles Jacobina, a longtime Mac user, is delighted with the publicity. To keep students even more connected with the program, Jacobina created a podcast on Apple′s iTunes site this fall devoted to faculty presentations, announcements, and program updates. The executive MBA feature aside, the Apple site also included a blurb about Pamplin's 2005 Distinguished Alumna Bridget Ryan Berman (BAD ′82), who was vice president and chief operating officer of Apple′s retail stores before leaving the company in August (see page 19). The blurb linked to the college′s news release on the award.

See: "Mac Supports the Business of Learning" http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/vatech/