Biz/ed: Business Education on the Internet
- Project web site
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http://www.bized.ac.uk/
- Programme area
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Access to Network Resources
- Contact details
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Catherine Sladen, Project Manager,
Institute for Learning and Research Technology, University of Bristol 8 Woodland Roads Bristol BS8 1TN
Phone: 01179 288 443 Fax: 01179 288 473
Email: catherine.sladen@bristol.ac.uk
Project description
as of 24th July 1996
Introduction
The volume of research, educational and primary data relating to business, economics and management available over the Internet is vast and unmanageable. Business Education on the Internet (biz/ed) is a free information service available via the World-Wide Web which allows users to search and retrieve targeted information about business and economics held on computers around the world. The service offers a one-stop information gateway for the one million economics, business and management students and staff as well as the general public in the UK and overseas.The biz/ed project was launched in January 1996 as a self-funding project which is managed from the Institute for Learning and Research Technology and is operated in association with five partners: The Economics and Business Education Association (EBEA), BT, Education and Youth (E&Y), Blackwell Publishers and Norfolk LEA.
The core service is currently targeted at the needs of students and staff up to first year undergraduate. Funding under the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) will extend the service to encompass research users and those developing and using materials for more advanced courses in the HE sector. This new layer to the biz/ed service is being developed in partnership with the Association of Business Schools.
Description
- Business Education on the Internet offers on-line access to economics and business resources on the Internet and hosts information sources not found anywhere else in the UK
- Answers to questions students typically ask firms
- Downloadable company case studies and briefings
- UK macroeconomic statistics from the ONS, Penn World Data Tables, Inland Revenue, and the US Bureau of the Census
- Company financial fact file
- Three on-line glossaries
- An educational resource database
- National and regional network listings
- A talk back feature where users can contribute news, views and their own resources to biz/ed
- An intelligent keyword search facility means that users can quickly find relevant information.
Objectives
The centrepiece of the new eLib-funded biz/ed layer will be an extensive and comprehensive searchable database of electronic resources for business and economics. Making use of the eLib-funded ROADS software, the service will use WWW forms to allow contributors in the UK and overseas remote access to update or edit pages held on the service.Deliverables
- Development of existing and new on-line datasets. These will be both quantitative (e.g. an extension of the current economic and financial datasets) and textual (e.g. on-line company reports and profiles)
- An on-line HE glossary covering technical terms
- Extension of the talk-back feature of the biz/ed service to incorporate HE users
- Provision of materials for assessment
- Experiments in virtual classrooms and collaborative working between students, staff and non-resident participants (such as executive learners)
- Links to materials produced to support open learning by HE students, for example by the the Open Learning Foundation and Open University, with whom the project has existing links
- Creation of an Intranet between business schools for sharing of research materials and data as well as teaching materials
- Continued expansion of access on-line primary information sources