Dr. Neil Hair

On Wednesday Sue Barnes and I presented our separate reflections on what works and does not work in online teaching environments. For me, the session’s preparation gave me reason to reflect on over ten years of online instruction. I’ve learned a lot over that time. Key reflections are as follows; the technology has, and will continue, to get better – I would have killed for online real time closed captioning for live synchronous office hours back in the day for instance. Students continue to be engaged with the materials with more traditional in-class students opting for the flexibility of online delivery. The quality of the online experience is in no way inferior to that of the in-class experience – hence the continued blending of online aspects of traditional courses. Online courses, just as their traditional counterpart, can be just as much fun, engaged, painful, rigorous, demanding, and worthwhile provided students commit to the experience as we hope they do in traditional settings. I also have a number of experiences that my online courses have given me, things that impressed, shocked and disappointed me.  Impressed; having people I have never physically met before work with others whom they have never met before, working for clients they have never met before and delivering fully fledged strategic and tactical marketing plans through solid team / client interactions. Shocked; the time I was thanked by a student in a Fall 2001 internet marketing course for setting a research paper that prevented her from going to work on September 11. Disappointment; that I still cannot access mycourses (our key course platform) on my Blackberry Storm, nor can my students watch flash based course lectures on their mobile devices. My overall conclusion regards my online teaching career is extremely positive. I would recommend the format to both students and faculty alike who are looking for that extra experience in their time with one of the worlds most advanced institutes of technology, it is every bit the real deal.  

Just finished a cracking session with four teams that are building their own businesses using the Second Life platform. If youre looking for creativity in the brave new world of web 2.0 – look no further. I had previously checked my enthusiasm and expectations of excellence at the door so as not to die of disappointment (not that this group was ever going to disappoint). I sat at home, pulled up a coffee and an HD Flip camera and so the experience began. The first team had a few issues with technology and so we moved to the second without delay. A roof top presentation that made use of a teleporting system from ground to roof. Great concept – because of the experience (and noise of being teleported Star Treck style). Great practical presentation that demonstrated the progress being made – the competition being assessed and the concept and value proposition of their business – came to life. Quite the treat seeing fellow terraformers sat listening, learning, and enquiring. The second presentation added a unique feature that impressed me as much as the experience of the first – a virtual brand avatar to help launch and promote the business. Whist I cant tell you much about the companies (some are planning on launching these ideas as commercial entities after the course) I can pick out some of the highlights of their unique pitches. The third presentation offered the class a wonderful amphitheatre setting for their presentation. Again – plenty of creativity on display as they danced through their slides. Finally we moved to another roof top meeting space of the 4th team – Corbusier LC2's to sit on none the less! Another unique display that saw all members presenting and animating their avatars whilst speaking. Im so proud of them as a class – its not easy building a business from scratch in any case – but doing so in virtual worlds under unique constraints is all the more impressive in my book. Thanks guys, truly impressive stuff today and HD video snippets and youtube videos to follow.

On Wednesday I delivered a live lecture at the RIT Amph- itheatre on RIT island to a number of guests and my 20 virtual terra- formers. The session was extremely successful and reminded me of the advances virtual worlds have made in recent years in terms of stability and functionality. The event contained the usual mixture of work (asking questions, taking notes) and play – (I’m not sure who brought the huge watermelon cannon to class). It continues to surprise me that organizations don’t make best use of these immersive worlds. Many just don’t get it – or thought they got it in 2007 and then subsequently shut shop when the crowds disappeared (not realizing they disappeared because the value offering of those traditional brick and mortar companies in Second Life was NON EXISTANT). Of course the economic issues haven’t helped – companies always tend to cut the most valuable resource available to them – creative marketing types. First tactics to go are usually those that are the most innovative yet fail to demonstrate performance (again because they don’t understand the metrics). I do though predict a whole hearted return to these environments in the coming months and years. Just as social media has opened up a great deal of opportunity for marketers – so too has virtual worlds that enable deep interaction with customers and other valuable stakeholders. As with social media though – virtual worlds need a plan of action, a strategy, understanding of purpose and tactics – and a heavy heaping of understanding performance metrics of these plans. Which is why I am enjoying this class so much – we aren’t dodging this tricky subject, were tackling it head on. Our terraformers might not always carry watermelon cannons, but I can assure you – they are armed and dangerous in this new brave world.

Over the summer one of my other projects was the design of a new course on commercializing virtual worlds. Despite some of the press signaling the end to virtual worlds, usage by the dedicated has continued to grow. Its a bit like saying just because Oprah has got fed up of tweeting that the era of micro blogging has waned. Utter twiddle. Accordingly Saunders has, what I believe to be, the worlds first class that looks exclusively at commercializing new student run enterprises inside a virtual environment. For this purpose we are using Second Life. Second Life retains its popular interest, virtual entrepreneurs are continuing to make real money, and we get to use the RIT Second Life island facilities (which now sports a spangling new business park facility that my students are using). The core aim of the class is to show students how you can apply marketing towards establishing a viable virtual business thus becoming a cadre of virtual terraformers. The deliverables are (expectedly) many. A business plan and presentation aimed at venture capitalists; a personal branding strategy that strategizes the best use of virtual media for putting students in their best light; an e-portfolio charting learning experience and key findings from their travels and of course the intangibles of developing supporting media that can be used in-world (such as youtube videos and the like). Whether Second Life is here to stay is not the question. What will remain however is expertise in researching, planning for and executing a market enabled business plan that graduates will be able to continue to use in any virtual world environment. Yet another course to add to the experiential learning list of a Saunders’ student resume.

So, it's somewhat inevitable that we are likely to suffer from some sort of flu this season on campus – the joys of being in close proximity. I like many have probably found themselves sanatizing their hands as they enter and leave buildings like something out of a bad hospital movie. What I love about the campus spirit of course is the can do attitude of its constituents. Life goes on (we hope) and we have to make the best out of a duff deal. In amongst the 40 emails I have recently received in the nature of the threat an what you can do to prevent it came a request for contingency plans for those teaching this quarter. Got me thinking about the benefits of online learning and how it can affect in class training programs. As you probably know, Im no stranger to the use of Adobe Connect to deliver streaming sessions when needed from where ever to where ever (try hospital maternity ward to my MBA class last Winter for instance with the wife in bed about to bring Lillian into the world). No reason why we cant use the same technology to stay connected if were home recovering from flu. So yesterday I published my contingency plan for my students and enclose a copy of the letter here. Stay happy, healthy, and keep sanitizing those hands..

Dear all, we have been asked to write to our students informing them of contingency plans for an outbreak of the H1N1 virus. First off – I don’t want you to worry. You have more chance statistically speaking of being killed by an elephant in Times Square then you do from this virus. However, that said it’s important we have plans in place to continue with our work if any of us become ill. By now you will have received details of what to do and not do if we have any problems on campus. Stay at home. Here are the steps that we can take if there are any issues (and again, don’t worry – remember the elephant in Times Square).

1.       Email or phone me immediately if you suspect you have a problem. THIS IS MANDITORY.

2.       DO NOT COME TO CLASS. THIS IS SENSIBLE.

3.       I will use Adobe Connect (an online video conferencing package that is web based to record live our usual class session so that you can log in, see and hear the usual lecture and team activities, and participate from your home). THIS IS COOL TECHNOLOGY.

Go to *connect room* and log in using your normal RIT account information. You will be transferred to a live video session that will display powerpoints, and live video recording of the lecture taking place in the usual class. Please note – you can also use this to communicate with your team should you miss a face to face meeting.

You should connect your webcam and your microphone so we can interact as we would in a physical setting. If you do not have a webcam this is not the end of the world, you are though behind the times in this super-connected world of ours. You will though need a microphone.

Step 1. Run the audio wizard in connect to automatically set yourself up for this task. >meeting>manage my settings>audio set up wizard

Step 2. Run the select camera wizard in connect so we can see your beautiful face.
>meeting>manage my settings>select camera

Step 3. Press play in the video box and accept any invitation to start broadcasting your mic and or your video.

4.       Sit back, relax with a hot cup of tea with milk in it, and continue to learn and get your monies worth from the course.

5.       Make sure you start your research papers now. Medical documentation will be required for anyone missing the deadlines.Provided you are physically present during the live connect session there will be no penalty what so ever for your unfortunate predicament. And you never know, I might end up being the one delivering the lecture from my bed to you in the A400 room.

Once again, don’t be alarmed by this message, its sent on a ‘just in case’ basis and I'm quite confident we won’t need to put this plan into action.

Best wishes, keep washing your hands, see you soon.

Prof H.

A new academic year is upon us and I'm teaching evenings this quarter. That doesnt stop the e-family from saying goodnight however and Lillian is pictured here suddenly realizing it was her daddy in the box (aka the laptop screen). Teaching two cracking courses on internet marketing and B2B e-marketing to seniors at the undergraduate level. Ive a number of great local clients to work with on pro bono student consultancy projects and Im fortunate enough to be teaching these both in the state of the art A400 Learning with Technology Center housed in a secret location under the library. One pleasant surprise – almost all of my B2B students have sat classes with me before now. Looking forward to working with them again. Best of the new academic year to everyone!

I am very pleased to announce a collaborative project between Henley Business School, IESI Business School and the E Philip Saunders College of Business at RIT. The project, sponsored by Cisco, is exploring through industry thought leaders the role that social media plays in assisting innovation and collaboration projects between and within organizations. My partners from the UK and Spain and I are looking to interview companies in both B2C and B2B spaces that are using social media to facilitate intra and inter firm relationships. So far we have interviewed a whole host of advanced users including representatives from Cisco, Xerox, Bank of America, 3M, Oracle, Capgemini, KPMG, Corus, LinkedIn, IBM, Unileaver amongst many others. This is your chance to participate. We are currently interviewing companies across the world about their social media practices with a view to colating insights into best case practices. The results of the study will be made available to all participating firms that qualify to meet our inclusion criteria. So – if youre using social media and youre interested in talking about it with me, let me know by signifying your interest on our project website. Either myself or one of my partners will then contact you to set up a convenient time for a one hour interview with you. I will of course be blogging some of the genric findings of the study as it progresses including updates on my twitter, LinkedIn and facebook feeds. Its a great project, extremely timely and Im looking forward to talking to more experts in this area.

 I was recently asked by the Provost to represent the Saunders college of business at the Greater Expectations Institute that was held in Burlington VT over the past few days. We were charged by Number One to explore the 'experience' of our students and make recommendations towards enhancing it. The team was an excellent example of what can be achieved with a diverse set of faculty, staff and students from all over the institute who care about one thing – RIT success. I was truly amazed at the extend to which we managed to bond, resolve issues and come up with strategic as well as tactical recommendations for the university. Our efforts are still on going and therefore I cant say too much about the ideas as they need to continue to be fleshed out. I can say though that we all hoped to make a difference in the perceptions of our students and that from our perspective we've come a long way towards achieving it in just a few intense days of deliberations. I met a number of really interesting people from RIT as well as a number of cool folk from the US Navy – as my twitter feed attests, I was even hugged by a General in the closing hours of presentations to delegates. Not many people get to say that in a lifetime As an aside I was also taken aback by the whole renewable / recycle / local produce focus on Burlington university. They really made an effort to source all materials from local quarries and businesses helping to reduce its footprint ecologically, the buildings even had water bottle filling stations to help in the reduction of bottles of water being bought by students. We could learn a great deal from this campus effort.

Monday’s four hour training that I ran for Saunders and Digital Rochester’s Get Smarter program was extremely engaging, at least from my perspective. I always enjoy interacting with practitioners as the experience is very different from that of more traditional student audiences. For one there is no grading! I always find that practitioners are great at keeping us academics honest about the theories and strategies we promote. The session was structured so that delegates received a review of social media channels, and a heavy emphasis on a review of current business models in both B2C and B2B realms. Following dinner the session was geared towards establishing a marketing plan for social media and therefore much more experiential and personally relevant. Whereas there are many opportunities to attend talks on social media very few that I am aware of actually offer the take home of a plan of action. Granted, there is only so much you can accomplish in a four hour session but feedback suggested that the opportunity to work with smaller teams of 5 worked really well. Delegates were particularly pleased to be at least talking to like minded folk that are social media evangelists but work in environments that are not ‘currently’ accepting of the social media cause. Therapeutic one imagines! One interesting reflection on the session was that the vast majority of the 80 participants were from the B2B area. I counted less than ten representing B2C companies.  Thankfully for the majority, my research tends to focus on the B2B applications of social media so we had lots to talk about. The live tweet feed worked well also. I asked a number of questions throughout the session aimed at polling the wisdom of the team. The contents of this feed will be the subject matter for a number of follow up blog posts so worry not – I’ll share those discussions once I have content analyzed the feed. I was also happy that most of the participants were already experimenting in the space which meant I got to kick the discussions up a notch and not have to pitch the analysis at the level of the beginner. The most pleasing aspect of the event was the passion people shared, to an extent I was preaching to the converted, but hopefully the session helped arm delegates with details on how you can build, and frame politically the case for social media in their organizations. I look forward to continuing the conversation with this fantastic group of people. There are even a number of tweet pics out there from the session Thanks Julie and Donna for helping to organize this event and thanks again to those who were there that made it such a success!

On Monday June 15th from 5-9pm I will be facilitating a first in kind class that presents an overview of strategies for social media use in business. The session's objectives are to produce a plan of action for delegates as they chart these new waters. What's different about the session is that it will initiate a direct call to action for attendees leaving them with a clear understanding of next steps. To my mind this is a deliverable worth having! We are proud to be working with Digital Rochester for this event and I expect it to be both heavily attended and extremely worthwhile. Further details including registration can be found here. Please note that walkins for the event are not permitted given anticipated demand for the event (we have 100 spaces available and I believe 70 registrations already). We will also be tweeting the event live on the night and sharing experiences of the social media space. One to watch for!