Wharton's online destination for Web-based teamwork & collaboration

The webCafé Story

We've all seen students working on group projects at Wharton, often huddled together around the tables in the Steinberg Café or Sun Lounge. As part of its ongoing student communications project, Wharton Computing and Information Technology (WCIT) offers a virtual "café" for group projects. Based on a "teamware" software package known as eRoom, from Instinctive Technology, webCafé gives students a virtual, online meeting place where they can communicate and collaborate via the World-Wide Web, regardless of location or schedule conflicts.

Enhancing courses using webCafé

webCafé brings together file sharing, document history tracking, a search engine, multi-topic discussions and voting capabilities in an easy-to-use "drag and drop" Web-based interface. Shared files can be in any format used by group members, so Windows applications used at Wharton are fully supported in the webCafé environment.

webCafé made its debut for curriculum-related applications in twenty-five 1998-1999 Wharton courses. A course's webCafé electronic room, or "eRoom," can include faculty members, teaching/research assistants and students as members, adding new channels for course discussion and teamwork outside of class meeting times. Faculty members can use webCafé tools to configure and manage online content autonomously, without having to wait for Web pages to be published by computing support staff.

webCafé in action: Marketing 777

Dave Reibstein, the William Stewart Woodside Professor, and Howard Kaufold, Director of the Wharton Executive MBA Program, were among the first faculty members to recognize the potential for utilizing webCafé as an enhancement to Wharton courses. Dr. Reibstein's course, Marketing 777, is a second-year elective in Marketing Strategy for MBA students in both the full-time and Executive (weekend) MBA programs. Graduate business students, whether full-time or attending on Fridays and weekends through the WEMBA program, are very busy people. Enhancing collaboration opportunities for these students was-- and remains-- an important aim of the webCafé project.

Each team in the course was given a private webCafé room in which members discussed marketing strategies for the team's "firm" in the INDUSTRAT simulation. Team members made use of the collaborative features of webCafé: sharing files, utilizing version tracking for group papers, and even taking votes to settle on strategy directions, to set meeting times and even to schedule conference calls (see Fig. 1). Alongside the "firm" rooms, a course room, open to all students, provided a forum in which general course-related issues were discussed.

Fig. 1. Students in Prof. Reibstein's Marketing 777 course take advantage of webCafé's voting feature to plan a time for a conference call.

Statistics 430: pick your midterm date online!

Benjamin Yakir, instructor for Statistics 430 and 431, became another early adopter of webCafé for his courses. After setup of a Statistics Department webCafé facility by WCIT, Dr. Yakir-on his own, in two sessions lasting approximately ½ hour apiece-set up course rooms that include downloadable homework assignments, data sets, a question-and-answer forum, and announcements of important upcoming dates. Rather than converting assignments to HTML for Web publication, Dr. Yakir simply "dragged and dropped" Microsoft Office 97 documents and JMP IN data files directly into folders (see Fig. 2) in the webCafé room, without having to remember server or directory names.

Fig. 2. Prof. Yakir provides downloadable data sets and homework assignments for his Statistics 431 course. Students can post questions for Prof. Yakir in the Q & A area and find their exam grades in the "midterm scores.JMP" file.

Once his students (a mix of MBA students and undergraduates) became accustomed to the webCafé environment, Dr. Yakir decided to take advantage of webCafé's polling tool. Students were asked to rank three possible dates for a midterm examination, submitting their preferences using a voting form designed by Dr. Yakir using the webCafé poll "wizard." Dr. Yakir then scheduled the midterm according to the vote outcome.

Spring 1999 and beyond

WCIT has deployed webCafé more widely during the Spring 1999 semester. In twenty-five courses in Insurance, Management, Operations and Information Management, Legal Studies and Statistics, instructors are using webCafé as a Web-based forum for course-related discussion and group project work. The easy-to-use webCafé tools help faculty members add material at any time during the semester. Students create "group folders" to keep track of tasks and manage shared files for group papers and course projects. Faculty members stimulate discussion by posting polls in webCafé, allowing students to vote on an issue and then elaborate in comments (posted below the voting area) shared with the class.

Several Wharton faculty members are using webCafé rooms as an online collaboration tool for research and administrative projects. Wharton clubs and organizations, including a student-run investment fund, are using webCafé to manage business planning and share important information. In addition, a number of Class of 2000 MBA learning teams are evaluating webCafé as an aid for the Field Application Project and other group projects assigned as part of the MBA core curriculum. The Announcements feature of webCafé helps learning team members alert the rest of the team to issues of primary importance (see Fig. 3), while file-sharing folders and version tracking assist the team in preparing papers and presentations.

Fig. 3. This first-year MBA learning team is evaluating webCafe as a way to collaborate on group projects in several classes. The "Announcements" area helps the team stay in touch while reducing the need for face-to-face meetings.

For the 1999-2000 academic year, WCIT plans to make webCafé available to faculty members who wish to use it in graduate or undergraduate Wharton course, as well as for collaborative research and administrative projects. A wider rollout for MBA students is also projected for the incoming Class of 2001, and new applications of the webCafé service for administrative and IT projects are already underway.