Overview of the webCafé solution

What is webCafé?

From 1998 through 2012, the Wharton School's award-winning webCafé services provided easy-to-use Web-based tools for collaborating and sharing information in teaching, research and student activities.

• webCafé provided virtual "team rooms" on the web in which faculty and students can discuss and vote on topics of interest; share and search for documents, group calendars and task lists; and collaborate on projects online, regardless of location or schedule conflicts.
  
  webCafé was based on the eRoom enterprise collaboration solution from EMC Corporation, also incorporating many customizations and enhancements developed by Wharton Computing & Information Technology. Third-party tools, such as Study.Net course packs and Cogix ViewsFlash surveys, are also integrated into webCafé for specific applications and needs.
  
  Since 1998, webCafé provided an online enhancement for hundreds of Wharton courses. Through 2011, over 500 courses during each academic year, comprising four-fifths of enrollment sections and 80% of faculty teaching each semester, utilized a webCafé room. These courses spanned the various Wharton curricula: full-time MBA, full-time undergraduate, MBA Program for Executives, Programs for Working Professionals certificate program, Executive Masters in Technology Management, Wharton Fellows, and Aresty Institute of Executive Education seminars. In addition, there were many student organizations, Wharton conferences and other groups using webCafé to share information and coordinate projects.
  
  Faculty research and other non-teaching-related collaborative projects, originally accommodated on the teaching webCafé infrastructure (through 2004), now have separate hardware/software resources on a similar collaboration site known as facultyCafé. Wharton faculty may feel free to contact their Wharton Computing distributed computing support staff regarding both teaching and non-teaching needs.
  
  

Benefits for instructors

• webCafé made it easy for faculty to put course or research documents on the Web without HTML expertise.
  
  
• Files used in teaching or research were easy to access from the Internet using Web browsers.
  
  
• Using webCafé, faculty and students conducted focused online discussion surrounding a topic or document. In addition, built-in polling tools provided ways to gauge opinions or assess comprehension of materials.
  
  
• As opposed to a public or intranet Web site, a webCafé room is private to its members (faculty, research or teaching assistants, and students).
  

Benefits for students and teams

• webCafé worked with your Wharton computing account and is linked on web sites you already use, such as SPIKE and PennPortal. No special usernames and passwords were required for access by Wharton students.
  
  
• For courses or organizations that involve group projects, students built shared folders, group calendars and databases in webCafé.
  
  
• Documents in many different commonly-used file formats were automatically indexed for searching using the built-in search engine.
  
  
• webCafé provided notification when new or changed material is available, either through on-screen indicators or e-mail change reports.
  
  
  

What Wharton Computing provided

• Templates, custom development, tool integration and starter content, collectively known as "webCafé Classic" -- our adaptation of EMC Corporation's Documentum eRoom collaboration software product for academic purposes at Wharton
  
  
• Initial setup of a webCafé Classic room for any Wharton course
  
  
• Best-practices advice, help and technical support for faculty, students and staff
  
  
• Association of room membership with Wharton student computing accounts, as well as with course enrollment
  
  

For more information

Contact Wharton Computing and Information Technology:

• The primary contact for teaching and student uses of webCafé is Wharton Computing's Courseware Team:
  
  • Service and support for teaching and student organizations:
    Visit our Help & Support/FAQs pages
    Contact us at courseware@wharton.upenn.edu
    
    
  • Staff members of the Courseware Team:
    Ben Adams, Senior IT Project Leader
    Rob Ditto, Senior IT Project Leader/Team Manager
    Wendy Donnan, Consulting Developer
    Neil McGarry, User Experience Technologist
    Cadence Anderson, Consulting Analyst
    
    
• Alternative contacts for any faculty-related computing issues, as well as primary contact for facultyCafé support and requests for new sites supporting research and departmental initiatives:
  
  • Contact the Wharton Computing distributed computing support staff for your department.

webCafé news & information

Links to online publications and press releases mentioning webCafé:

• Students praise webCafé's ease of use in "Site aims to rival Blackboard", The Daily Pennsylvanian, April 8, 2011, p. 8.
• Alan Cane describes webCafé as one tool using advanced communication to support MBA Program for Executives instruction in "Classroom interaction offers best experience", Financial Times Business Education, October 19, 2009, p. 2 of Global EMBA 2009 Special Report.
• Shawn Aiken writes about a trend toward electronic course packs linked in webCafé and elsewhere in "Some bulk packs now online", The Daily Pennsylvanian, October 10, 2008, p. 3. (Note: as of 2009-10 academic year, Study.Net distributes most Wharton electronic course packs.)
• Christine Kane notes the upcoming tenth anniversary of webCafé at the Wharton School in "Enterprise Collaboration 2.0", EMC ON Magazine, Number 1, 2008, pp. 8-13.
• The University of Pennsylvania's information technology guide for prospective students and parents highlights webCafé as a collaborative environment supporting learning in "Enhancing the Curriculum with IT", part of the Penn gets IT web site.
• The Daily Pennsylvanian's editorial board encourages faculty to post grades online using capabilities of webCafé and related systems in "Using technology", January 17, 2008. (Note: Wharton Computing recommends that the webCafé Grade Book include assignment grades and related feedback, but not students' final grades; this is because the University Registrar distributes official final grades to PennInTouch, transcripts, and other systems of record.)
• Wharton undergraduate student Cassandra Tognoni identifies webCafé as one campus system which currently provides course information only to enrolled students in "Shop 'til you drop", The Daily Pennsylvanian, September 17, 2007, p. 6.
• Randy Smith quotes Wharton School director for new media, Kendall Whitehouse, on the role of webCafé in supporting academic interaction in his chapter of Teaching Management: A Field Guide for Professors, Consultants, and Corporate Trainers, James G.S. Clawson and Mark E. Haskins, Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 278-279.
• Incoming Wharton undergraduates taking Management 100 use webCafé to turn in images and essays depicting the essence of leadership. Knowledge@Wharton interviewed the Undergraduate Division's Anne Greenhalgh and Chris Maxwell about their findings in "Gandhi, Mandela, Mother Teresa, a Tree, a Pillow... Images of Leadership from Future Leaders", March 8, 2006.
• The Wharton School's webCafé was selected as a 2005 Laureate by the Computerworld Honors Program (case study).
• KMWorld Conference 2005 included a session on social software and knowledge management featuring webCafé's role in collaboration in the learning process at Wharton, presented by Lance Shaw of EMC (PowerPoint slides), November 15, 2005.
• The Daily Pennsylvanian's Ashwin Thapar highlights Wharton's success with online student collaboration in courses which use webCafé in "Library aims to upgrade course software", November 23, 2005, p. 4. Note: Also covered by Michael Sampson at Shared Spaces Research & Consulting (Quick Links, Nov. 23).
• Kendall Whitehouse mentions webCafé in an Educause Quarterly article, "Web-Enabled Simulations: Exploring the Learning Process", Volume 28, Number 3, 2005, pp. 20-29.
• Matt Villano describes webCafé as one of the University of Pennsylvania's "most successful undertakings" in "Rich Media", Campus Technology, August 2005
• Wharton Executive Education's e-Buzz newsletter describes how webCafé fits into blended e-learning for corporate customers in "Booz-Allen e-Learning Program Combines High Tech and High Touch," November 2004
• The editorial page of The Daily Pennsylvanian expresses concerns about differing University courseware systems, including webCafé, as well as other school technologies in "Interdisciplinary goal worthwhile", editorial, October 19, 2004
• Portals Magazine headlined "The Wharton School's Interactive MBAs" on their April/May 2004 cover, tying in with Kathleen Reidy's feature story on webCafé, "Class Discussion."
• webCafé was featured in ComputerUser magazine's cover story for August 2003, "The Worldwide Classroom"
• Bob Pielke describes webCafé as part of the school's "plan to reshape its business education" in "Wharton webCafe earns high satisfaction ratings," from California Virtual Campus Faculty/Staff News, 6/28/2002
• Wharton's MBA students give webCafé a 97% satisfaction rating, from "Web-Based Collaboration Enriches Learning at the Wharton School," press release, June 2002
• Van Weigel, professor of ethics and economic development at Eastern College, cites webCafé as "an unqualified success" in the book Deep Learning for a Digital Age (November 2001, Jossey-Bass)
• "eRoom Makes Sharing Data Easier" by John Fontana, Network World magazine, 5/21/2001
• The University of Pennsylvania's Student Committee on Undergraduate Education mentions webCafé as a system that "allows a professor to create an elaborate website with rich features in a minimal amount of time," in University of Pennsylvania Almanac, 4/3/2001
• Wharton's use of eRoom was profiled as part of the 2001 Crossroads A-List Award won by eRoom Technology.
• Wharton's use of eRoom was selected as a finalist in the Microsoft Corporation 2000 Industry Solution Awards, 11/6/2000
• "Collaboration On The Desktop" by Marion Agnew, InformationWeek magazine, 7/10/2000

Other background information on webCafé and Wharton:

• "The webCafé Story," about 1998-1999 launch of webCafé at the Wharton School (originally appeared in The Wharton Journal)
• The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania:
  • Facts at a Glance
• Home pages of key vendors:
  • EMC Corporation
  • Cogix
    
  • Study.Net

webCafé Team special thanks

• Deirdre Woods, Associate Dean and CIO
• Dave Reibstein, William Stewart Woodside Professor, Professor of Marketing, and our first standing faculty member to adopt webCafé
• Alec Lamon, Senior Director for Custom Applications and Online Services (CAOS)
• Anna Kent, Senior IT Project Leader in charge of our hosted e-support tools (without which our service would not be sustainable!)
• Alex Milne, Michael Greve, Mikki Miller, and the Student Support office for helping all students get accounts and access
• Margaret Troncelliti, IT Technical Director of Core Systems, and everybody powering the servers, networking, email, security, directory and on-call infrastructure support. Extra special thanks to the Guamaniacs (Joe, Mike, Matt, Jamie) for late-night patching!
• Jason Lehman, IT Director for Student Development, and the staff who produce SPIKE, the Auction, and other excellent applications
• Dan Alig, Senior Director for Administrative Computing
• Kendall Whitehouse, Director of New Media
• Don Huesman, Managing Director for Innovation
• W. Gerard McCartney, Purdue University CIO and the original champion of the webCafé project
• Our Courseware Team alumni:
  • Amy Rees
  • Karen Leary
  • Tony Kutovoy
  • Cornelius Adetiba
  • Michele Glassman
  • Jeffrey Hsu
  • Christian Lledo
  • Max Vaysburd

eRoom software © 1997-2012, EMC Corporation.  All rights reserved.
webCafé enhancements © 1998-2012, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.