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The case study concerning the use of Blackberry mobile devices describes the development of the
mobile business model of The Kogod School of Business, which is a college located in Washington D.C.
This business school serves both undergraduate and graduate students and is said to be one of the top
wireless campuses in the US. The case study gives you some indication of the Kogod School of
Businesss business processes and applications of mobile technology in an education environment.
Students were offered Blackberry 7100t phones and can stream self selected media content, news, job
offers, lecture notes, assignments, project guidelines as well as conventional email and web browsing
access.
Ranson. We realized that it was not just a question of academics. Students wanted all the
social and networking content available to them, too.
Real-world Tools Offer Real-world Learning
We want to make sure that we provide our students with the training and expertise in the latest
business tools so that when they go for their internships, they have a leg up on their
competitors, says DeLone. We chose this solution because BlackBerry is an important
business tool. Among the Fortune 500 companies, its increasingly becoming the tool of choice.
Kogods visionaries see their wireless tool as an important success factor making academics interactive.
They are working on helping faculty members develop their own streams of information to augment what
is being presented in the classroom.
An example would be a student in a finance class studying what is going on in a set of
companies, says Ranson. They will have a steady stream of information that will come to their
BlackBerry device on exactly what theyre studying in that course. Instead of having to surf
numerous sites, and all the time thats involved with that, the content comes to them. Its a
paradigm shift a change in what students can expect from the academic experience.
The team behind the strategy believes it builds on the universitys commitment to bring real life case
studies and events into the classroom. For example, if a particularly compelling headline appeared in the
paper, a professor could alert students on the BlackBerry device with a link to the RSS newsreader, to
read the article for discussion in the class later that day. They also see the BlackBerry and RSS solution
as a vital connection to career building. According to Ann Donahue, Associate Dean.
One of the first questions the admissions office gets is how the school will assist with job
placements after graduation, she says. Our students are often coming back to school in order
to make a career change or move up the ladder. Part of the stream that we set out for them are
job and internship opportunities, so they can be alerted to an opportunity.
Their future plans also include building on stakeholder relationships, with groups such as recruiters, using
the same technology. They may soon push out streams to recruiters that include student qualifications for
internship opportunities and feedback on the top choices for positions among the student body.
What is Required: Core Technical Components
The Kogod School of Business relied on the integrated components of the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution
to securely manage their wireless connectivity behind the firewall. It piloted the solution with a small
number of users, before an initial roll out of 150 devices. It will soon have 300 devices in place for
students and faculty, with a long-term goal of deploying 600 to 800 devices. It chose BlackBerry as its
device because it offered an all-in-one device for email, phone, web and organizer that reflected the
schools forward-thinking image.
Were dealing with a target audience that is younger than the traditional business audience,
says Donahue. The BlackBerry 7100 Series was much more geared to a cellular form factor,
which they are used to with text messaging. This device was the newest one out there and it fit in
with our thinking; we have a reputation of not necessarily thinking with the flow, but thinking
against it.
This year, it will be upgrading to BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.0 for Lotus Domino to handle the
anticipated number of users that will be placed on the server. To create access to RSS technology, it
enabled the Mobile Data Service (MDS) feature of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. MDS allows mobile
applications to run smoothly on BlackBerry devices. The Kogod School of Business worked closely with
its network carrier and a technology partner, New Target, to build the RSS functionality. Since New Target
had been its web partner since 2002, it turned to them to customize a newsreader that would work on the
Java-based devices. The carrier partner offered technical support to send the content over-the-air.
An aspect of RSS technology that particularly attracted the School was both its ease of updating and its
customization. The school is able to make automatic updates to the content relatively simply using the
machine-readable formats of RSS.
We want to make sure that we provide our students with the training and expertise in the latest
business tools so that when they go for their internships, they have a leg up on their
competitors. We chose this solution because BlackBerry is an important business tool. Among
the Fortune 500 companies, its increasingly becoming the tool of choice.
Bill DeLone, Acting Dean
Looking Ahead to the Benefits
The Kogod School of Business believes, based on early feedback, it is leading the way with a solution
that fundamentally changes the learning experience. As it rolls out more BlackBerry devices, and adds
more RSS streams, it anticipates a groundswell of support and are open to the possibilities.
I think the beauty of being a pioneer is we dont necessarily know what the next steps will be,
says DeLone. I think if youre going to be a leading business school, you need to be out in front
exploring what technology can do in business. Our goal is to make people understand the bottom
line advantage of BlackBerry and RSS beyond the traditional model of email and web. We hope
that our students will actively take over the process and show us what we can create to help
them.
Some of the benefits that the Kogod School of Business expects from its BlackBerry and RSS wireless
solution include:
Supporting marketing efforts by attracting new students with leading edge technology;
Engaging students with the university before they enrol and throughout their education to build a
sense of community;
Giving students a competitive edge by using real-world technology in their day-to-day lives;
Improved ability to share and publicise campus news and events to create a more vibrant student
experience;
Providing an interactive learning environment where current events can be shared wirelessly and
integrated into the classroom;
Linking students with recruiters during their education to promote internships and job opportunities.
Available at: http://www.blackberry.com/products/pdfs/KogodSchool_CS_v1.pdf
Accessed on: 22nd February 2010
See also:
http://kogod.american.edu.
http://newsweaver.co.uk/kogod/e_article000352652.cfm?x=b11,0,w