As the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, begins to make its rounds, business school officials are turning to technology to help keep their MBA programs on track in the event of an epidemic, the Financial Times reports.
According to the FT report, the business school population is particularly vulnerable to the swine flu, which infects young people more than it does older ones. Add to this the format of many MBA programs – which rely on face-to-face group discussions and lots of work in teams – and the potential of an epidemic to disrupt class continuity is acute.
Many schools are putting measures in place that would allow professors and teachers to take advantage of virtual teaching to help combat the spread of the flu. “We want students to stay away from classes if they are unwell but we don’t want them to think they are being penalized,” Robert Bruner, dean of the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, told the FT.
At Darden, the school is making audio tapes of all the classes and making them available, along with images, photos and slides, on the web. Discussion groups, too, can be conducted virtually as necessary. “We have put in place for these students things that would not be possible a year ago,” Bruner told the FT.
Officials at New York University’s Stern School of Business are taking similar precautions. In addition to recording classes, Stern has assigned each faculty member a back-up professor who can step in and teach should a professor get sick. “We can’t reschedule classes. That’s not an option,” Kim Corfman, vice dean of MBA courses, told the FT. But with the steps her team has taken to prepare, she thinks Stern is ready. “I don’t think we’ll get to the point where we have no students and no faculty.”
Elsewhere, business school officials are also thinking ahead to the impact the flu could have on projects and field research that takes place off campus. “We are already in discussions with companies to deal with [this],” C. Michael Stepanek, MBA director at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, told the FT. “If there were an outbreak, we may have to change our approach,” he added.
Even as schools take these precautionary steps, it is unclear how severe the swine flu outbreak may prove, the FT article stresses. According to the American College Health Association, the nationwide rate of infection for swine flu as of last month was 20.1 cases for every 10,000 students, with the highest rates of flu activity in the northeast.
For the complete Financial Times article, click here.
