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Distance Learning in Business Education
Edited by Hooman Estelami
1 Introduction
Over the past decade there has been an increased emphasis on providing students exposure to the international business community ([4] de Jong et al. , 2010; [5] Donnelly-Smith, 2009; [6] Hallows et al. , 2011; [11] Mills et al. , 2010; [15] Sachau et al. , 2010). Educational institutions have responded to this demand by offering students opportunities to study abroad, specifically increased availability of short-term study abroad programs ([2] Carley et al. , 2011; [18] Zamastil-Vondrova, 2005). The growing popularity of short- vs long-term study abroad programs appears to be a reflection of financial and resource constraints faced by colleges and universities as well as budget-tightening by students and their families ([5] Donnelly-Smith, 2009; [11] Mills et al. , 2010). In addition, short-term study abroad programs appeal to adult learners, who now comprise 44 percent of student populations across the country ([3] Chao et al. , 2007).
A non-standard short-term study abroad program initiated by the Florida Institute of Technology's College of Business (FTCoB) is representative of these trends. Taught as a blended learning experience in which academic content hours were provided through synchronous online education, traditional classroom lecturing, and on-site company as well as cultural visitation, the FTCoB's program offers a concentrated international visit within the context of a six week summer session. The demographic profile of the FTCoB's online and extended studies students, who comprise the college's largest market segment, requires the scheduling of a short-term experience. The time constraints - employment, leave, financial, etc. - faced by these remote students would render medium or long-term study abroad impractical. As a result, distance learning serves as a necessary condition for the operation of the FTCoB short-term study abroad, ensuring program viability through the maintenance of academic content hour requirements without sacrificing cultural immersion opportunities.
This paper offers perspectives on the benefits derived from the FTCoB program to date, particularly with respect to the online population and the effective use of distance education. The literature surrounding the nexus between online learning and study abroad is embryonic, most likely reflecting the apparent disconnect between the personal, real-time cultural enrichment typically associated with study abroad and the geographic and temporal variance which earmarks...