Photo by Travis Pratt Mount St. Mary's graduate assistant Marina Vedernikova uses a webcam and Skype to connect and communicate with a class in Russia during Mount St. Mary's first webcam-to-webcam lecture.

The university's first webcam to webcam lecture was part of a class being taught concurrently with South Ural State University in Chelyabinsk, Russia. The Mount's students visited the university last semester, where the partnership began.

The class simulates global business teams of three to four Russians with three to four Mount students. The students are learning how to communicate and conduct business internationally with technological tools using Skype, Google groups and translation language tools, business lecturer Sandra D. Sjoberg said.

Sjoberg teaches the class at the Mount, and professor Olga Shabalina teaches the class at the Russian university. A joint case study written by both instructors is being used to discuss the challenges and opportunities within the two countries and allow the students to develop global marketing strategies for international success.

"It is a way to bring international marketing outside of just the textbook," Sjoberg said. "The student teams work on the case assignments outside of class and then discuss them together via the webcam sessions."

Except for a few freezes in transmission and an echo, the one-hour session went well.

The discussion focused on a Heineken case study that examined how the beer can penetrate the Russian market.

"We compared Russian viewpoints and American viewpoints," business major Amanda Buckel said.

The whole experience was neat, Buckel said.

"We're learning a lot from the Russians about how different our countries are," Buckel said. "You're getting out of your comfort zone."

Jessica Sauers traveled to Prague, Czech Republic, recently, so the class was especially enjoyable for her, she said.

"The class makes you reach higher because you're working on a global perspective," said Sauers, an international marketing and economics major.

William G. Forgang, dean of the Mount's school of business, attended the class.

"It was a wonderful learning experience, a wonderful collaboration for both universities," Forgang said. "It gives the students a chance to experience the contemporary global economy. They will have a chance to work in this environment very soon."

The students' visit to Russia last semester exposed them to a whole new culture and new business practices, university spokesman Christian A. Kendzierski said. "They were able to see firsthand how the weakened global economy really was global."

Chelyabinsk is a fairly steady industrial-based town that was just starting to feel the pinch from worldwide issues, Kendzierski said.

Sjoberg said the discussion will continue. She encouraged the students to continue the dialogue and work on other class topics.