The learning experience goes beyond the basic disciplines of management. It includes learning how to cooperate as a team. This is not always an easy task, but this is a reflection of reality. Those human problems are the submerged part of the iceberg that the professor rarely sees, unless they come to the surface (which does happen). With Global View, teams are actively involved in negotiating with other teams which have excess capacity or lack of capacity and are looking for product. Negotiating is possible because of e-mail, the webCT communication center, and chat rooms where students can engage in interactive negotiations.

At Epsci, we start off with eight hours of training. It takes time to master the mechanics of the game and students need to work on such basics as demand forecasting, financial planning, and production management. After the trail run, weekly consulting sessions with the professor permit teams to discuss technical or strategic issues. The competitive pressure is obviously present, since weekly rankings based on stock price show teams how they compare with others and help focus their attention by setting objectives.

I use three elements for evaluation purposes

1. The team ranking (40%)
2. A final report (40%)
3. Their Firm's web site (20%)

To sum up, Global View is successful in stimulating student interest because of the amount of information available each week to judge team performance, because of the international dimension made possible by Internet, and because the number of parameters that teams control. I would be remiss if I did not mention Jean Hulsoor's patience and friendliness in handling the questions inevitably posed by students each week.