Fall 2003

ENRICHING GLOBAL MARKETING EDUCATION WITH VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS: AN EFFECTIVENESS STUDY

Bernd Simon, Parissa Haghirian, and Bodo B. Schlegelmilch
Global marketing education is embedded in an increasingly global high-tech business environment. Business practices and marketing education are strongly influenced by these developments. New technologies are successfully implemented in university curricula to improve the effectiveness of teaching and the cooperation between universities in management teaching. This paper deals with the usage and effectiveness of virtual classrooms in the global marketing curriculum and empirically investigates the antecedents of successful teaching in such an environment. The investigation is based on case teaching endeavors connecting up to three university classrooms in various countries. All together, some 90 students participated in the joint teaching sessions. The study presented was conducted in four countries (China, France, Spain and Austria) over a one-year period. The results of the research indicates that instructor empathy and classroom interaction have the highest impact on teaching effectiveness in the virtual classroom.

Introduction and Research Motivation

Marketing education is currently faced with a business environment that is becoming increasingly global. New technologies are not only influencing global marketing practice, but also education in this field (Bell et al. 2001). Thus, teaching mediated by information technology (IT) is becoming an important option within marketing education, because it facilitates the sharing of costs, information, and expertise among multiple sites while providing additional educational opportunities
BERND SIMON (Ph.D., Vienna University) is a researcher in the New Media Lab of the Department of Information Systems at Wirtschaftsuniversitt Wien (Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration). As a member of the research consortia Universal (http://www.ist-universal.org) and Elena (http:// www.elena-project.org/), he is leading the development of cuttingedge technology for e-learning and knowledge management. Bernd has published various research papers and a book examining the dependencies between information technology and organizational change. (email: bernd.simon@wu-wien.ac.at) PARISSA HAGHIRIAN (Ph.D., Vienna University)is Assistant Professor at the Department of International Marketing and Management, Wirtschaftsuniversitt Wien (Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration). (email: parissa.haghirian@wuwien.ac.at) BODO B. SCHLEGELMILCH (Ph.D., University of Manchester) is Professor and Chair of International Marketing & Management at the Wirtschaftsuniversitt Wien (Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration). He is also Academic Director of the Vienna Executive MBA Program, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and Adjunct Professor of International Business Studies at the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management. (email: bodo.schlegelmilch@wu-wien.ac.at) This work was supported by the UNIVERSAL project (http://www.istuniversal.org) and is partly sponsored by the European Commission (IST-1999-11747). Trials within the project where supported by the Departamento de Ingeniera de Sistemas Telemticos, Universidad Politcnica de Madrid using its video conferencing tool ISABEL (http:/ /isabel.dit.upm.es/). The authors would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on an earlier draft.

in a multi-cultural context (Meier and Simon 2000; Webster and Hackley 1997). As many of these technologies are being rapidly adopted by businesses, exposure to them provides the added advantage to improve the levels of technical competence and communication skills of learners (Bell et al. 2001). Another advantage, particularly pertinent for global marketing education, is the potential for communication, collaboration and the exchange of knowledge between learners and instructors beyond the boundaries of one country, or continent. This enables the creation of new opportunities for learners and instructors by permitting interdisciplinary and international collaboration (Scheuermann, Larsson and Toto 2001). This paper discusses technology-enabled marketing teaching in an international, virtual classroom. In the virtual classroom, two or more universities that are geographically dispersed use electronic links (e.g., video conferencing) to improve learning and teaching processes by combining faculty expertise, learners perspectives, and technological resources (Alavi, Yoo and Vogel 1997). It has been widely accepted that virtual classrooms add value when it comes to providing internationally enriched learning environments (The COHERE Group 2002; Bell et al. 2001; Pallab and Kausiki 2001; Webster and Hackley 1997; Alavi, Yoo and Vogel 1997). Consequently, we do not attempt to provide yet another comparison of the effectiveness of traditional teaching with approaches involving virtual classrooms. Instead, we focus on how the effectiveness of virtual classrooms can be enhanced. Specifically, this paper examines the effectiveness of virtual classrooms used for the purpose of enriching global marketing education in traditional universities and other campus-based
Marketing Education Review, Volume 13, Number 3 (Fall 2003).

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Marketing Education Review

training institutions. It analyzes factors influencing learner satisfaction and perceived teaching performance in virtual classrooms. The integration of IT into marketing education is by no means trivial, and it is not simply a matter of providing computer access and training. Effective use and integration of IT into classroom requires a departure from traditional interaction modes so that a technology-mediated learning environment becomes pedagogically effective and even superior to alternative modes of learning and instruction (Alavi, Yoo and Vogel 1997). With this paper, we aim to contribute to this objective. Therefore, the paper targets global marketing educators and managers of education and training institutions interested in using IT for enriching their marketing curricula by the means of virtual classrooms. It provides insights for those who are involved in organizing such teaching events and gives specific guidelines to the instructors involved. The remainder of this article is structured as follows: First an introductory definition of virtual classrooms is presented. Secondly, pertinent IT and distance education literature is reviewed and discussed in terms of its relevance to virtual classroom teaching. Next, design dimensions of virtual classrooms are presented and summarized in an effectiveness model. Furthermore, the methodology applied in our experiments is described. Finally, the findings are discussed; recommendations for global marketing educators are presented and used to identify future research and teaching challenges.

nous communication. Additional educational material such as slides, printed case studies, and video recordings may be incorporated in the lecture. A virtual classroom may be set up for a whole semester or just for one or two lesson. Herein, we examine the effectiveness of virtual classrooms embedded in traditional courses. In the virtual classroom activities described below, case studies were used as primary educational material supporting an interactive discussion among the various sites.

Relevance of Virtual Classrooms for Enriching Global Marketing Education

The AMA (American Marketing Association) defines marketing as the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of goods, services, and ideas to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals (AMA 1985). Global marketing can be viewed as an extension of this definition in the context of a global environment and primarily addresses challenges arising from marketing within diverse economic, socio-cultural, demographic, legal and technological environments. The virtual classroom offers great potential for enriching courses teaching global marketing skills. Exploring Cultural Aspects of Global Marketing. Global dimensions can be easily incorporated by exploring cross-cultural perspectives utilizing the virtual classroom (Bell et al. 2001). Teaching global marketing in the virtual classroom can thus broaden learners perspectives and increase their cross-cultural effectiveness (May 1997). It provides opportunities for making learners more aware of international issues and for developing a greater knowledge and understanding of the global business environment. Creating international awareness and interest is an important prerequisite for developing knowledge, understanding and skills in the context of global marketing education. Interaction with International Partners. Learners and instructors with different socio-cultural and educational backgrounds bring a host of different ideas, experiences, and distinctive management assumptions and practices to the (virtual) classroom (Ashamalla 1999). Increasing Students Skills in Global Marketing Communication. When teaching global marketing, a learning environment should focus on enhancing communication skills and training cultural sensitivity (Lundstrom and White 1997). Virtual classrooms can provide a valuable teaching re28

The Virtual Classroom in Global Marketing Teaching Definition

This paper deals with a special form of e-learning, i.e., the virtual classroom. Virtual classrooms are learning environments consisting of learners and instructors who take advantage of IT in order to overcome distance. In our case virtual classrooms are used for carrying out collaborative IT-mediated global marketing teaching. This is said to have the following properties: Two or more learner-instructor teams are geographically dispersed. Knowledge and content are available from many sources, not just from the local instructor. Direct, symmetric interaction is available between all combinations of remote and local instructors and learners. A combination of media may be deployed. (Multisite) Video conferencing supports symmetric, synchro-

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Figure 1 Workflow for Setting Up a Virtual Classroom (Simon, Haghirian and Schlegelmilch 2002)

source for achieving this educational objective (Green and Gerber 1996). Students learn to read, critique, and actively cultivate the ability to determine the relevance of emerging trends; in short, their critical-thinking skills are increasingly demanded and enhanced through interaction with multiple sources (Celsi and Wolfinbarger 2002). Understanding the Role of Technology in a Global Business Environment. In the corporate world marketing departments increasingly take advantage of IT to perform their communication tasks. Marketing professionals increasingly assume responsibility for sophisticated database marketing or tools for customer relationship management. Thus, marketing professors must not only teach these technologyinfused topics,
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they must also model active learning and flexibility by effectively using technology in their own extended classrooms. Since the marketing profession as a whole is undergoing rapid change, marketing educators must not only understand and use technology-enabled innovations to stay current in the field of marketing, they must learn effective new pedagogies for teaching these new developments (Celsi and Wolfinbarger 2002). With video conferencing increasingly becoming available on everybodys desktop, the technology provides a new flexible tool for communicating with international clients. Hence, marketing educators need to incorporate this tool in the classroom to familiarize learners with this kind of tool already at the campus.

Marketing Education Review

Marketing of Universities. Finally, the global presence enables universities to promote their culture and their courses and content throughout the world (Tsichritzis 1999). In Europe, French business schools (e.g., HEC Paris) take advantage of virtual classrooms between institutions in France and in the former French-African colonies as a means for tapping new markets. Similar efforts are evidenced in Spain (e.g., Universidad Politcnica de Madrid) and Latin America.

Organizational Processes and Interaction Patterns

Setting up a virtual classroom involves various actors, such as learners, instructors, teaching assistants and IT personnel (Guth, Neumann and Simon 2001). The following paragraphs outline how these actors participate in a series of activities. A summary of this interaction pattern is shown in Figure 1. Organizing a collaborative, IT-mediated teaching activity such as a virtual classroom starts with an agreement between the actors to undertake such an endeavor. Of course, the earlier this takes place the better, since aligning each participants teaching schedules with the other parties semester holidays and course agendas constitutes a major obstacle for such an endeavor if sites from more than one country are involved. Ideally, in this finding and co-ordination phase, web-based community platforms support the search for, and co-ordination of, dispersed partners. Such tools might even provide scheduling support so that parties can find appropriate dates more efficiently. They also maintain a basic communication infrastructure for a community of scholars anxious to engage actively in international research and teaching projects. After a certain number of parties have agreed on setting up a virtual classroom, the planning and preparation phase starts. Within this phase, instructors exchange teaching objectives and specify the educational material they intend to use. Educational materials typically specified in global marketing teaching include case studies, slide presentations and short videos that will be used during delivery. In this phase, intellectual property rights are asserted and related questions addressed, such as May others record the teaching activity and reuse the video? or Under which conditions may I reuse the other parties educational material? At the same time, the parties have to agree on whether they intend to evaluate the teaching and, if so, whether they will exchange and publish the results. The IT personnel must identify and test a communication infrastructure which is available at all sites involved.
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The delivery and collaborative learning phase starts on the date of the first delivery event. At this point of time the technology must be ready, and the teaching activity fully prepared. The instructors hold lectures to the local and remote audiences, and moderate discussions among them. Learners and/or instructors present proposition statements and give summaries of the discussions. The delivery phase may optionally be followed by an evaluation and reflection phase, during which the parties involved are asked to judge each others performances: learners presentations are assessed, data on learners perception of the event is gathered, and reflections on the technology and organizational setting can be made.

Design Dimensions of Virtual Classrooms

The previous sections have outlined the unique instructional opportunities that virtual classrooms provide for global marketing teaching and which organizational process marketing educators are recommended to go through when setting up virtual classrooms. In this section, we aim to determine key influence factors for the effectiveness of a virtual class room-based learning environment. Learning environments combine learners, instructors and educational artifacts such as books, case study descriptions, etc. They are created in order to facilitate learning. Learning can be defined as a continuous process of transition of a human beings knowledge, skills, attitudes, disposition, and values (Morrison 2003). In this paper the effectiveness of a virtual classroombased learning is measured along two dimensions: learner satisfaction and perceived teaching performance. In our model, we assume that learner-specific, technology-specific and instructor-specific variables have a direct impact on the effectiveness of virtual classrooms.

Effectiveness
Effectiveness refers to doing the right things whereas efficiency refers to as doing things right (Sassone 1987). Efficiency is perceived as an internal measure taking costs and benefits into account. Effectiveness tries to determine the degree to which a specified goal has been reached (Gumport and Sporn 1999). Effectiveness has historically been measured in terms of learners achievement (Piccoli, Ahmad and Ives 2001) and satisfaction (Jiang et al. 2003).

Perceived Teaching Performance

It can be argued that learners achievement is an inherently biased performance measure, since previous

Fall 2003

Figure 2 A Snapshot Taken from a Virtual Classroom Session Held Between ESADE Barcelona, HEC Paris, and Wirtschaftsuniversitt Wien (WU Wien)

knowledge can hardly be taken into account. As a consequence, the proposed model tries to determine the effectiveness of a virtual classroom set-up not on a learners achievement level, but tries to consider all functions of teaching such as motivation, communication of information, information processing, information storing and recalling, information application and transfer, controlling, and supervising learning (Klauer 1985). This is measured by perceived teaching performance.

satisfaction with the experience and the smaller this gap, the higher the level of satisfaction.

Antecedents of Teaching Effectiveness

The teaching effectiveness model proposed consists of three dimensional areas: the learner, the technology used and the instructor-controlled environment (see Figure 3). Each design component comprises a number of influence factors. Learner-specific influence factors are involvement, motivation, language proficiency, and attitude towards IT. It is assumed that a high quality of the technology used has a positive influence on the virtual classroom effectiveness. The instructor-controlled environment with a prospective impact on virtual classroom effectiveness comprises interaction design, empathy, and quality of educational material used.
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Learner Satisfaction
Pearson and Chatterjee (2000) used the met-unmet expectations of learners to evaluate the satisfaction of teaching and learning. Learner develop value attributes concerning the outcome of the teaching experience. These attributes might not be met by the perceived outcome of the actual experience. This gap causes dis-

Marketing Education Review

Figure 3 Effectiveness Model For a Virtual Classroom

Learner
Involvement Motivation Language Proficiency Attitude towards IT

Effectiveness Technology
Quality Perceived Teaching Performance Learner Satisfaction

Instructor-controlled Environment
Interaction Design Empathy Quality of Educational Material

Learner-specific Influence Factors

Involvement. Being exposed to a complex learning environment such as a virtual classroom, learners are confronted with new challenges: technology is more predominant and requires learners to focus, language proficiency and presentation skills of actors vary, etc. McKeachie (1994) stated that involving students actively leads to a positive learning experience. It has also been observed that learning in a more challenging environment is more effective for highly involved learners than for less motivated ones (Hiltz 1993). Involved learners show a fair understanding of the purpose and the expected benefits in education and training events they consume. We therefore expect that those learners who show a high level of involvement benefit more from a virtual classroom. H1: Involvement of the learner will be positively associated with the effectiveness of the virtual classroom. Motivation. Learners motivation plays a crucial role in a learning environment (Mumford 1997). The important relationship between motivation and learning has long been addressed in classroom teaching and applies to IT-mediated learning just as well. It can be assumed
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that learners motivation is linked to their satisfaction with the learning environment. Moreover, technology can become a motivational tool when used in education (Guzley, Avanzino and Bor 2001). Previous research indicates that lack of learner interest decreases the effectiveness of the case study as a learning method (Ashamalla 1999). Motivation itself has many influence factors such as the instructor teaching the subject, curricula design and personal involvement, which go beyond the scope of this study. The virtual classroom setting itself can have a positive influence on the motivation. In fact, for more mature and motivated learners studies have shown that collaborative learning is more effective than the traditional classroom (Leidner and Jarvenpaa 1995). H2: Motivation of the learner will be positively associated with the effectiveness of the virtual classroom. Language Proficiency. When the virtual classroom takes place in a multi-lingual setting, participants are required to express themselves in a foreign language, mostly English. Presenting solutions in a foreign language might cause problems for the learners, both in talking and in understanding (Simon, Haghirian and Schlegelmilch 2002). Different accents and culture-spe-

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cific modes of argumentation can make it difficult for the learners to comprehend the messages of instructors and peers. Consequently, it is assumed that the language skills of the learners have a positive impact on the effectiveness of virtual classrooms. H3: Language proficiency will be positively associated with the effectiveness of the virtual classroom. Attitude towards Information Technology. Clarke, Flaherty, and Mottner (2001) suggest to investigate learners previous exposure to educational IT and expect an influence on the effectiveness of learning environments. It is known from previous research that learners who are comfortable with technology and who have positive attitudes toward it should thrive due to low levels of anxiety and likely excitement with the learning environment (Piccoli, Ahmad and Ives 2001). Also, Sturgill, Martin and Gay (1999) and Hong (2002) state that learners who are lacking IT skills are more likely experiencing frustration when using IT-mediated communication. In a virtual classroom communication is also mediated by IT, although the main interaction partners are human beings (as opposed to a machine in case of an online tutorial, for example). With hypothesis four we investigate the influence of the learners attitudes towards IT on the success of teaching global marketing via a virtual classroom. H4: A positive attitude towards information technology will be positively associated with the effectiveness of the virtual classroom. Quality of Information Technology Used. Effective use of technology is of significant importance in an IT-mediated learning environment, because the technology can operate decrease the distance between learner and instructor, thus enhancing the learning environment (May 1997). Lower audio and picture quality are a source of distraction for the learners (Tsichritzis 1999). However, good picture and audio quality, good lightning, and camera work require professional equipment. Hence, technology quality and reliability are important determinants of the effectiveness of a virtual classroom (Webster and Hackley 1997). Yet reliability of hardware or equipment are regarded as one of the major disadvantages in IT-mediated teaching (Alavi, Yoo and Vogel 1997). In computer-mediated discussions a particular emphasis is put on the sound quality. The effectiveness of a discussion is reduced when individuals have a hard time understanding the remote sites because of poor sound quality. Having a high quality picture that allows following the mimics of the individuals at the remote sites increases discussion quality as well. Students comments support these aspects.
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Sometimes the sound was not very good and we had difficulties to listen. The technical standards should be more developed, cameras should move faster. Audio and video quality need to be improved. H5: The quality of the technology used will be positively associated with the effectiveness of a virtual classroom. Instructor-Controlled Environment. The instructor-controlled teaching environment is characterized by several factors: virtual classroom interaction, empathy and educational material used.

Virtual Classroom Interaction

The interaction taking place in the virtual classroom is relevant for students performance and satisfaction (Fulford and Zhang 1993; Driver 2002). Students point out that discussing with students from other countries is very exciting and a new experience. The differing aspects of the topics discussed by students at the remote sites were positively perceived by most interviewed participants. However, when three classrooms and three lecturers discuss with each other, debating also includes waiting periods and a lot of listening. It is very obvious that lively interaction keeps a higher level of interest among students. The various instructors at the different sites are therefore a dominant feature of the virtual classroom, because they play a vital role in leading the class discussion. They have to coordinate contributions from the local audience as well as from the remote sites. The dialog between the various instructors itself adds to the dynamics of the educational activity and helps to hold students attention (Tsichritzis 1999). The interaction of a distributed case study discussion is concerned with elaborating on the problems identified and emphasizing key findings. An important influence factor for interaction design is classroom size. Whereas in classroom-based discussions it is easier to address all learners, this is very hard to achieve when additional sites join a discussiona natural effect caused by the increased number of learners. There is danger that a larger number of learners will not participate in the discussion and consequently become increasingly less interested observers of the scene (Rosenberg 2001). If the group is relatively small, it can be seen as a major advantage (Guzley, Avanzino and Bor 2001). The increase in audience size can result in a strict planning of classroom interaction, since instructors might fear a chaotic conversation flow or too few voluntary contributions from the sites involved (Simon, Haghirian and Schlegelmilch 2002). As a consequence,

Marketing Education Review

Table 1

Measures Learner Involvement Motivation Language Proficiency Attitude towards IT Technology Quality Instructor Controlled Environment Degree of Interaction Empathy Quality of Educational Material Used Effectiveness Perceived Teaching Performance Learner Satisfaction

Items
4 3 1 4 4 5 7 3 6 5

Range
1 to 5 1 to 5 1 to 5 1 to 5 1 to 5 1 to 5 1 to 5 1 to 5 1 to 5 1 to 5

Mean
2.12 1.6 1.92 2.8 2.6 2.4 1.8 2.6 2.04 2.43

Standard Deviation
.72 .61 .81 .85 1.03 .73 .61 .81 .46 .73

Variance
.53 .37 .65 .73 1.07 .53 .38 .66 .21 .54

Alpha
.73 .71 .74 .85 .72 .75 .70 .91 .84

free discussion, a cornerstone of interactive teaching, becomes impossible. For example, one student commented: I wish there was more debating and faster answers to question. Listening to all the presentation was a little tiresome at times. The technology influences the interaction design, when switching between different sites is not possible within a very short timeframe. Experiments in group learning have shown that sometimes technology interferes with rather than promotes interaction, leaving students unsatisfied with both interaction and the learning process (Driver 2002). H6: A high degree of interaction will be positively associated with the effectiveness of a virtual classroom. Empathy. In an IT-mediated learning environment, the instructors empathy plays an important role (Piccoli, Ahmad and Ives 2001; Fredericksen et al. 2000). Empathy refers to the instructors skills in sensing the students needs and responding to issues that might arise during a discussion. Early research suggests that timely responses to learners questions and high personal involvement of the instructors contribute to a higher effectiveness of the virtual classroom (Piccoli, Ahmad and Ives 2001). H7: Empathy of the instructor will be positively associated with the effectiveness of a virtual classroom. Quality of Educational Material Used. The quality of the educational material used for preparation and delivery is another factor influencing virtual classroom effectiveness. Incomprehensible teaching materials with
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unclear work assignments reduce the motivation of learners to prepare and participate in a discussion (Tsichritzis 1999). Writing on blackboards or overhead transparencies may be clearly visible to classroom participants, but extremely difficult, if not impossible, to read for remote participants. H8: The quality of the educational material used will be positively associated with the effectiveness of the virtual classroom.

Method
The study was conducted over a one-year period during which students from five different sites in China, France, Spain and Austria were interviewed. The courses addressed topics of global marketing management, introducing marketing principles and marketing strategies to students. Case study discussions and lectures were used as primary teaching methods. A total of 90 students participated in two virtual classroom sessions. Overall, students had moderate interest in IT while their English skills were above average. In general, students motivation for solving case studies was high. After each of the respective marketing classes students experiences were captured through questionnaire surveys. With the exception of one variable (language proficiency), all measures were assessed via a 5-point-Likerttype scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. These scales were reverse-coded where appropriate. Please refer to Table 1 for further detail on the measures applied.

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Table 2

Learner Involvement: I believe in studying hard to get good grades Motivation: I feel a real sense of accomplishment when I come up with a good solution Language Proficiency: How would you rate your English skills? Attitude towards IT: In general, I am among the first in my circle of friends to know about a new technological device when it appears Technology Quality: I felt comfortable with the technology used Instructor Controlled Environment Degree of Interaction: There was adequate interaction among all participants Empathy: The instructors paid enough attention to the class Quality of Educational Material Used: The educational material used provided excellent support for learning Effectiveness Perceived Teaching Performance: The academic staff was able to stimulate interest in the subject area Learner Satisfaction: This educational activity was satisfying to me
Effectiveness was captured by two indicators: Learner satisfaction, based on satisfaction with activity by Fischer and Price (1991), and perceived teaching performance, developed by the authors and the teaching evaluation team of the authors university. Involvement was measured by four items based on the Involvement with Education scale by Arora (1982). Motivation of learner was captured by three items based on a scale by Andrews and Smith (1996). Language Proficiency was measured through a direct question asking respondents to rate their English skills from poor to excellent. Finally, Attitude towards Information Technology was measured by four items based on the Domain Specific Innovativeness scale by Goldsmith and Hofacker (1991). The quality of technology, degree of interaction, empathy, and quality of educational material used were measured by scales developed by the authors. Examples of items from the various scales are presented in Table 2. Hypothesis 3 predicts language proficiency to be positively associated with virtual classroom effectiveness. Results indicate that learners own lack of language proficiency has no impact on the perceived teaching performance, but influences satisfaction. Thus, language proficiency is an important prerequisite for involving learners in virtual classroom endeavors. Hypothesis 4 predicts a learners positive attitude towards IT would be positively associated with virtual classroom effectiveness. This hypothesis can neither be accepted for the satisfaction component of virtual classroom effectiveness nor for perceived teaching performance. The fact that the novelty aspect of the technology deployed is rather low provides a potential explanation for this result. Learners watch their international peers and the remote teacher in windows similar to watching TV and speak into a microphone as they are used to doing when they have interaction with instructors in a large classroom. Arbaugh (2000) came to a similar result when he tried to associate Internet usage with satisfaction in web-based learning environments. Hypothesis 5 states that the (audio and video) quality of the technology is positively associated with virtual classroom effectiveness. Interestingly, not only a positive association between quality of technology and learner satisfaction was supported, but also with perceived teaching performance. Sufficient audio and video quality seems to be perceived as mandatory infrastructure for making virtual classrooms work. Hypothesis 6 suggests that classroom interaction is positively associated with virtual classroom effective35

Results and Discussion

Table 3 shows the correlations between the factors hypothesized to impact on satisfaction and perceived teaching performance, respectively. Hypotheses 1 and 2 predict that involvement as well as learner motivation is positively associated with virtual classroom effectiveness. Hypothesis 1 was not supported by the data, whereas hypothesis 2 shows that motivation is positively associated with perceived teaching performance only (the means of the various cultures concerning motivation differed significantly from each other).

Marketing Education Review

Table 3

Virtual Classroom Effectiveness Satisfaction Learner H1: Involvement H2: Motivation H3: Language Proficiency H4: Attitude towards IT Technology H5: Quality of Technology Instructor-controlled Environment H6: Degree of Interaction H7: Empathy H8: Quality of Educational Material Used
*p<.05. **p<.01. ***p<.001.

Perceived Teaching Performance

.078 .174 .024 -.06 .347** .459*** .415*** .277**

.135 .256* .228* -.007 .213* .373*** .430*** .209*

Table 4

Independent Variable:
Empathy Degree of Interaction Adjusted R2

Dependent Variable Satisfaction

t=3.37 t=2.46 .22

Dependent Variable Perceived Teaching Performance

t=3.62 t=2.92 .26 A striking result of this study concerns the overwhelming importance of the instructor-controlled influence on satisfaction. A regression analysis revealed a highly significant relationship between the dependent variables satisfaction and perceived teaching performance on the one hand, and the independent variables empathy and virtual classroom interaction on the other (Table 4). The regression analysis indicates that instructor controlled environment has the most dominant influence on the effectiveness of a virtual classroom used in global marketing teaching. Even though technological developments allow classrooms to become more open to the world and integrate completely new aspects into the curricula, teachers empathy and the virtual classroom interaction with the additional sites are still the most important factors to increase teaching effectiveness. These results show very clearly, that even though the virtual classroom offers new technical opportunities in interacting and communicating with new participants, the technological aspects are not the most dominant when setting up a virtual classroom.

ness. This is also supported by previous studies, where a high degree of IT-based interaction ultimately leads to improved student recall and an increased enjoyment of learning (Ueltschy 2001). Hypothesis 7 states that instructors empathy has a positive impact on satisfaction and perceived teaching performance (the means of the various cultures concerning empathy also differed significantly from each other). Here, the study aimed to test whether the tendency that the traditional teacher role, characterized primarily by directed learning, and position-based authoritative respect, has given way to a learning facilitator role, wherein the instructor is moderator and coach as observed by many authors (Celsi and Wolfinbarger 2002; Smart, Kelley and Conant 1999). The hypothesis was supported by the data. Hypothesis 8 predicts that quality of educational material used is positively associated with virtual classroom effectiveness. The hypothesis was supported, albeit with different degrees of significance. Interestingly, the quality of the teaching material provided seems to have a weaker impact on satisfaction than on perceived teaching performance.
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Recommendations for Global Marketing Educators

Whereas in classroom-based discussions, it is relatively easy to address all learners, this is very hard to achieve when additional sitesand thus studentsjoin discussion on issues in global marketing. As a consequence, new instructional settings in collaborative, IT-mediated teaching have to be designed, deployed and tested to assure an effective knowledge transfer to all learners. Involving learners in new teaching endeavors such as global marketing teaching via virtual classrooms requires instructors to identify pioneers within their classes (Simon, Haghirian and Schlegelmilch 2002). Our findings suggest that only those who are motivated to participate in such an undertaking should be put at the forefront. However, if instructors were to divide classes into active and passive learners, they might impose a new two-tier role-distribution, reinforced by technology, with negative effects on overall learning effectiveness. When principles of global marketing are taught in a multi-lingual setting, many participants are forced to present their solutions in a foreign language. While this supports the development of communication skills it might also cause problems, since participants might not be familiar with presenting in a foreign language. If students are not prepared or carefully selected, the course can easily be perceived as too demanding. For other non-native-tongue participants the usage of a foreign language might cause difficulties in understanding their peers. However, at the same time it provides a learning environment within which international experience can be gained. In our trials, all instructors would have preferred more time to coordinate the preparation of the delivery. In the finding and co-ordination phase a (IT-mediated) meeting of the instructors is recommended to discuss questions of course outline, presentation styles, contents and discussion processes. Academic portals such as EducaNext (http://www.educanext.org/) can be used to exchange course materials and schedule meetings as well as actual course delivery. Enhanced coordination beforehand should improve the quality of the teaching endeavor, especially when teaching in a virtual classroom takes place for the first time. The number of participating sites should be limited to two or three. If more sites are involved, co-ordination becomes too cumbersome. There is a danger that instructors push learners towards developing a perfect solution beforehand in order to guarantee a good performance in front of the international audience. However, also in a virtual classroom an open and flexible approach to discussion should prevail. Instructors should put additional em37

phasis on motivating learners to deliver creatively, which should help them to get additional attention despite an IT-centered environment. At the same time, instructors and teaching assistants are required to coach learners in order to reduce the pressure perceived when giving an IT-mediated presentation in front of an international audience. Before delivery instructors should explain the properties of the media virtual classroom. Learners further would like to be informed about the different competences of the participating schools, in order to understand the value of exchanging knowledge in a collaborative environment. Instructors are advised to select the teaching material very carefully. Especially case studies describing global marketing issues which impinge on specific countries (e.g., a required product adaptation in France), differences in consumer behavior (e.g., different shopping habits in Spain) or cultural differences influencing negotiations (e.g., high-context culture in China) can be used very efficiently in the virtual classroom. It is also recommended to familiarize learners in advance with the use of the IT involved. Familiarization should focus on providing training in the new skills required (e.g., microphone handling, addressing two audiences simultaneously). Additionally, background information on the kind of IT used should be provided to instructors and learners. Users do not only prefer to be familiar with the usage of this technology, but also want to be informed about the educational and business opportunities it offers.

Concluding Remarks
Virtual classrooms are perceived as a strategic means for enriching global marketing curricula and tapping into new educational opportunities. However, applying new technologies in education is by far not trivial. This paper set out to test the impact of key variables on the effectiveness of IT-mediated joint teaching in global marketing. Learner-related influence factors, such as involvement in education and attitudes towards technology, seem to have no impact on satisfaction and perceived teaching performance. This is surprising, as scientific literature (Piccoli, Ahmad and Ives 2001; Hiltz 1993) suggests that both involvement and attitudes towards technology would positively impact on satisfaction and perceived teaching performance. A possible explanation might lie in the lack of variance we captured in the survey. Case study teaching via virtual classrooms is still a novelty for most students, and hopefully this novelty factor resulted in all students being highly involved and holding positive attitudes towards technol-

Marketing Education Review

ogy. In any event, before the significant impact of these two variables can be dismissed in general, more research on the issue would be warranted. Language proficiency and learner motivation were directly associated with satisfaction. Not only are these results supported by the literature, they also have high face validity. When teaching with case studies, students interest in solving them is imperative as an important prerequisite for an interactive class in front of an international audience. The technology for virtual classroom teaching must provide a sufficient level of audio and video quality in order to make the experience effective. Choppy pictures and noisy sound have a negative impact on the learners perceptions of their instructors teaching skills. Perhaps most strikingly, the results appear to suggest that the quality of the instructors by far outweighs the importance of technology. Put differently, instructors cannot hide behind technology since technology does not compensate for a lack of teaching quality. Consequently, marketing educators involved in virtual classroom endeavors should put special emphasis on giving students at all sites a maximum amount of individualized attention during the case discussions. In global marketing, this can be achieved by selecting cases and/ or teaching materials which are highlighting country specific differences and allow plenty of discussion and, whenever possible, create an emotional involvement among the students. In any event, a highly structured approach appears to limit the instructors ability to manage virtual classroom interaction at a satisfactory level. On issues of future research, the paper offers at least four potentially promising avenues. The role of student involvement as a factor impinging on teaching effectiveness of virtual classrooms should be revisited. Further, objective measures of teaching effectiveness should be developed. Other interesting aspects of future investigation are cultural differences among students participating in the virtual classroom. The results of our analysis showed two variables (motivation, empathy) differed across the nationalities of the students. This suggests that variables influencing teaching effectiveness may vary according to national culture. Finally, additional experiments need to be designed that contrast different degrees of structure in teaching approaches to develop normative recommendations on how best to approach global marketing teaching in the virtual classroom.

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