OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR LONG DISTANCE EDUCATION ON COMMERCIALIZING

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: A CASE STUDY ON ESTABLISHING LEARNING NETWORKS

Pedro Conceição - IST, Lisbon and IC2 Institute, Austin, TexasBarbara Fossum - IC2 Institute, Austin, Texas

Manuel V.Heitor - IST, LisbonSheila Kearns - IC2 Institute, Austin, Texas

Conceição Vedovello - IST, Lisbon

Research Question

• New challenges to universities within the knowledge-based economy

• Need to go beyond traditional activities• Issue of how to contribute to the development and

commercialization of new technologies• Constraint of wanting to preserve the university’s

institutional integrity

How can universities foster innovation and the creation of new business and jobs, helping to transform organizations to

address the challenges of science and technology commercialization in a global economy?

Learning A set of formal and informal processes and practices, strongly influenced by the environment, that lead to knowledge accumulation

Challenge How to promote learning that links diverse social actors with different degrees of development

Perspective Universities

Key Actors Firms

Mechanisms Networks linking people in order to increase their ability to learn

Key Components of the Experiment

What kind of a network?

SOFTWARE

WETWARE

NODE D

SOFTWARE

WETWARE

NODE LD

SOFTWARE

WETWARE

NODE MLD

• Learning network that leads to self-reinforcing learning cycles (interactive model)

• Universities as agents that actively link participating people and firms in a web of knowledge sharing,

production, usage, and diffusion

The Population of the Program

Characteristics Austin Lisbon Washington (n = 36) (n=20) (n=10)

Sex Male 64% 80% 67%Female 36% 20% 33%

Age 25 years or less 6% 25% 0%26 - 30 years 31% 40% 11%31 - 35 years 25% 15% 22%36 - 40 years 22% 10% 22%41 years or more 17% 10% 44%

The Population of the Program

Qualifications Austin Lisbon Washington (n = 36) (n=20) (n=10)

Undergr, Engineering 33% 45% 33%Undergr. Business 22% 0% 11%Other Undergrad. 25% 20% 45%Master 17% 10% 11%PhD Students 0% 15% 0%Doctor 3% 10% 0%

The Population of the Program

Status Austin Lisbon Washington (n = 36) (n=20) (n=10)

Owner NTBF's 0% 50% 0%Collab. NTBF's 3% 10% 0%Existing Firms < 100** 11% 10% 11%Existing Firms > 100*** 53% 10% 11%Univ. + Tech. Infrastructures 5% 20% 0%U.S.Army (military and civilian) 17% 0% 78%Full-time student not employed 11% 0% 0%* NTBFs - New Technology-Based Firms with no more than 50 employees** Existing firms with less than 100 employees***Existing firms with more than 100 employees

Major Challenges

• Different cultures• Different time-zones• Complex communication

technology• Lack of basic teaming skills

Lessons Learned

• Handling different levels of cultural/environmental differences

• Improvement of global teaming techniques• Multiple channels for interaction and

communication

Recommendations for the Future

• More homogeneous, but nonetheless diverse, population

• One shared course• Cooperative and collaborative teaching• Cooperative and collaborative evaluation of

students• More formalized occasions for interaction and

communication