Faculty Focus

Dan Smith

Assistant Teaching Professor, Business

dws18@psu.edu

Office Phone: 724-773-3909

Office Location: Penn State Beaver Campus

B.S. Carnegie Mellon University

M.S. Carnegie Mellon University

EDGE projects give students exposure to state of the art, pioneering experience in international virtual learning.

Dan Smith

EDGE Spring 2019

MKTG 297: Special Topics

This course examined numerous aspects of business, such as finance, strategy, entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, operations, international business, and negotiations necessary to complete in the global economy. This is a one credit course designed to familiarize students with international business, commerce, culture, history, the arts and education in The Netherlands and France.

Over Spring Break 2019, students visited four major European cities in a ten day period: Amsterdam and The Hague (in the Netherlands), and Lille and Paris (in France). In addition, students also traveled by train thru Belgium.

In this course, students visited two major European Universities: The Hague University of Applied Sciences, and Lille Catholic University. Students attended business classes at each university, interacted with fellow students from each university, and developed cultural competencies as well as life-long friendships.

In addition, students also visited several museums, historic sites, and international businesses, as well as an urban farm. With this course, students developed a tool kit for analyzing international businesses, cultural competencies, and skills needed to successfully navigate in a foreign country. Each of these is quite valuable in the marketplace as more and more employers are looking for students with international business experience for full time employment.

Student Projects

Students from Penn State Beaver (PSB) examined the admissions process at the Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS), and students from THUAS examined the PSB admissions process. Students interviewed subject matter experts, conducted web site research, and interviewed each other regarding their respective admissions processes. They produced a final report using various business analytic tools (business process flow diagram, SWOT analysis, capability maturity model, competitive grid matrix, best practices, technology assessment, etc.) and gave a final presentation of their findings. This project was essentially an international consulting engagement where students had to utilize project management techniques such as planning, leading, organizing and controlling.

International business is an important mechanism in the global economy. Developing cultural competencies and being able to compete in the global economy is key to a business’s economic success.

The class offered opportunities for student social interaction and building friendships. For one-on-one communications, Zoom worked well, and students used Facebook to further develop social relationships. They also used WhatsApp for communication and texting, and Polycom for large group presentations.

~Dan Smith

Background and Interest in EDGE

The project seemed like a great learning opportunity for my students. It would give them the opportunity to communicate, collaborate, and cooperate with students from a different culture that spoke a different language.

Connecting and Collaborating

International business is an important mechanism in the global economy. Developing cultural competencies and being able to compete in the global economy is key to a business’s economic success. This course examined numerous aspects of business, such as finance, strategy, entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, operations, international business, and negotiations necessary to complete in the global economy. This was a one credit course designed to familiarize students with international business, commerce, culture, history, the arts and education in The Netherlands and France.

Over Spring Break 2019, students visited four major European cities in a ten day period: Amsterdam and The Hague (In the Netherlands) and Lille, and Paris (In France). In addition, students also traveled by train thru Belgium. In this course, students visited two major European Universities: The Hague University of Applied Sciences, and Lille Catholic University. Students attended business classes at each university, interacted with fellow students from each university, and developed cultural competencies as well as life-long friendships. In addition, students also visited several museums, historic sites, international businesses, as well as an urban farm.

With this course, students developed a tool kit for analyzing international businesses, cultural competencies, and skills needed to successfully navigate in a foreign country. Each of these skills is valuable in the marketplace as more and more employers are looking for students with international business experience for full time employment.

Traveling and Visitations

Jenifer Cushman, Chancellor of Beaver’s campus, introduced us via email. We then connected via email began to Zoom to plan our project and conduct weekly project status meetings from start to finish. Polycom was used for final group presentations.

I took a group of 10 PSB students to visit our EDGE partner for the Spring Break 2019 International Travel class MKTG 297.

Dan Smith presenting EDGE at IVEC 2019 in Tacoma, Washington

An EDGE collaboration with The Hague is explained.

Dan Smith explains the EDGE project in his Management course.

Tiffany MacQuarrie and Dan Smith answer audience questions about how they successfully implemented the AAC&U Value Rubric in their EDGE courses.