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Winter 2012/2013 ISSN: 1848-395XACMT REPORTERMusic, video and “flipped classrooms”TEACHING FOR THE 21ST CENTURYThe world is changing, and professors at RIT/ACMT are changingwith it, updating their teaching styles and methods in response torapid changes in technology and today’s student lifestyles.Professors at RIT/ACMT and around the world are making increaseduse of technology, and multi-media learning, such as video and music,to help students learn better. Students say that these new methodsreally work, and make studying more interesting and, sometimes,even fun.Bye, bye quartersSEMESTERSARE COMINGAt the Zagreb campus, Professor Peter Schmidt has made big changesto his Financial Accounting course, which is known among studentsas a tough subject, especially for people who aren’t big fansof numbers. To better reach those students, Prof. Schmidt has introduceda “flipped classroom” – instead of the traditional schedule ofin-class lectures and then practice exercises for homework, he doesthe reverse.Continued on page 7Starting in the fall of 2013, RIT and ACMT will move to a semesterbasedacademic calendar. Two 16-week semesters will replace thecurrent calendar of three 11-week quarters. This change will makestudy abroad and exchanges with other universities much easier,since the semester calendar is standard in most educational institutionsaround the world.“Semester conversion is a positive change that promotes greaterstudent mobility, and allows students to study in greater depth andbreadth of subject matter,” said ACMT President and Dean Don Hudspeth.Continued on page 6WINTER BREAK: A CHANCE TO SEETHE WORLDZAGREB CAMPUS ASSOCIATEDEAN DR. SHAWN STURGEONALUMNI SHARE HR ANDCONSULTING EXPERTISEpage 2 page 3 page 5

EventsHoliday Auction raise 28,000 kn for charitiesStudents, faculty and staff raised more than 28,000 kunas for worthy causes at the annual Holiday Auction events at both campuses. By biddingon donated items, members of the Dubrovnik campus raised 17,000 kunas for the family of Ante Jović, of Dubrovnik, whose disabilitiesrequire extensive therapy. The evening was hosted by student auctioneers Hanan Besović and Gregor Ettinger. The Zagreb auction event,hosted by students Mislav Peček and Ida Maržić, raised over 10,000 kunas for “Veliko srce malom srcu” a non-profit organization assistingchildren with heart problems, and their families.ZagrebcampusDean’s ListDinner2Children’sWinterFestival

ProfileZAGREB CAMPUSASSOCIATE DEANDR. SHAWN STURGEONPoet, wordsmith,teacherBy Ena Paponja-st,gDr. Shawn Sturgeon is a wordsmith,an introvert by nature, someonewho stopped listening to popular musicin 1998, one of students’ favoriteteachers, and the current associatedean and professor of English at theZagreb campus.In addition to his administrative leadershipand teaching responsibilities,Dr. Sturgeon writes daily and believeshe can find inspiration in everything.He believes poetry is a crucial form ofknowledge about the world and thatthe poet helps us see things and understandthem in new ways.Dr. Sturgeon was born in Scottsbluff,on the high plains of westernNebraska, 47 years ago, and movedfrequently during his childhood. Hehas lived all over the western US, inWashington, Colorado, Wyoming,“the sort of bleak small towns andempty, surreal landscapes that in the19th century people called the GreatAmerican Desert,” he said.As a young man, Shawn was involvedin all sorts of activities, perhaps becausehis strict parents believed thatfree time should be spent constructively.He was a part of the studentgovernment, community service,sports, speech team, music, dramaand journalism.He showed a strong interest in writingduring high school and won libraryawards for his prolific reading. At firsthe planned to attend law school andbecome a lawyer, but at the age of 23,decided that writing would be his career.His first professional publicationwas a poem called “Misreading OurLives”.“I thought it a good omen that it appearedin The New Republic magazineon my birthday,” he said.His first collection of poems, titledEither/Ur, written over a ten year period,was a finalist for the Paris ReviewPrize in 2000 and a semi-finalist forthe Walt Whitman Award in 2001.“Ur is the oldest known city in humanhistory and Either/Or is a famous bookof philosophy by one of philosophy’smost intriguing philosophers, SorenKierkegaard,” he explained. “The bookis so much about beginnings- first orsecond or even third beginnings, andabout making choices, that it seemedlike an appropriately obscure title.”His earliest influences have remainedconstant in his life. These include thepoets Walt Whitman, T.S.Eliot andW.H. Auden, although many others favoriteshave also influenced him overthe years.Dr. Sturgeon moved to Kosovo in2008 and spent three years there asa professor of English and Directorof Academic Affairs, at the AmericanUniversity of Kosovo, one of RIT’sglobal campuses, before joining theRIT/ACMT Zagreb campus in 2011.“I love teaching, because as much asit sounds like a cliché, I learn a lot,” hesaid. “I wouldn´t be happy if I didn´thave the chance to work with studentsin the classroom.”Students appreciate his knowledgeand friendliness.“Prof. Sturgeon is an outgoing, friendlydean who wants the best for hisstudents,” said student Marina Milos.“He truly is looking to get involvedand make sure we are happy with ourstudies. He walks around the hallswith a big bright smile, ready to helpout.”“Prof. Sturgeon’s good soul showsthrough his teaching and care for hisstudents,” added president of the Zagrebcampus student council TasiaPejkovic. “Class with him is somethingto look forward to.”Prof. Sturgeon is currently workingon several writing projects, includinga new collection of poems called“Before I Sleep” and a novel called“The Big Bang Sayonara” which hedescribes as an apocalyptic comedy.Into My EyesBy Shawn SturgeonThat was the time I hardly knew howto speak: cars and trucks passed me,wordless wondering at so much speed.Things moved slowly: I could hold themForever: things moved without me, so muchmore between each blink. When stars fell,I could fill their space with an eye, and whenpuddles dried out there was earth left to drink,and all the small things crept into my handtouching me. It was a time, it was a spacethat wanted me to linger. The streets criedin syllables, signing take me take me and eachstep I took lifted me along. And I ate light, atedark like the hungry child I was, moving pastwindows that looked in on open doors, feelingmyself floating until I scraped the sky. Andeverything asking, when will you grow up?!I didn’t want to grow up. I wanted only to be alive.3

By Ena PaponjaEight accomplished graduates visited theZagreb campus in January to share theirexpertise and experience in the field ofHR and consulting, share friendly news, andnetwork with old and new colleagues. Theevent, titled, Eight Minutes for Eight People,is the latest in a series of RIT/ACMT Alumnigatherings, held in various locations on differentprofessional topics.“Alumni events are a great opportunity tosee old friends and colleagues, or meet newones,” said Alumni Association President AnaJarak. “We had great speakers to discuss personaldevelopment in the time of economiccrisis, EU funds management and consulting,the importance of brands and naming andmany other interesting topics.”Alumna Maja Vitas ‘02, started off the eveningby Skyping in from Kuwait, where she isHR manager at the Radisson Blu Hotel. Manyof the employees there have been working forthe hotel for many years, and are so loyal thatit is sometimes hard to get them to leave, evenif they are not highly paid. She said people inKuwait do not believe in the power of moneybut the stability that this kind of company offers,especially since the company encourageshiring of family members.Maja Benčić ‘99, shared her experience startingher own naming consultant business,called Vokado, in Zagreb. Maja gets paid tocome up with names, and some of her mostAnkica Tomić – Obrdalj ’07 was hired as AdmissionsCounselor at RIT’s campus in Dubai, UAE.Neven Marđetko recently opened his own business,offering court interpreter and translation services inEnglish, German and Croatian. www.mardetko.com.Katarina Kušić earned a fellowship in a master’sdegree program in International Business at CentralEuropean University (CEU) in Budapest. “I just startedworking on my thesis so the next few months willbe interesting,” she said. “I’m really happy to haveescaped business, academia makes me much happier.”Jure Bočina ’08 opened his own business, AgroAger Pharos, on the Island of Hvar, a family-ownedplantation of 3000 olive trees and 48000 artichokeplants.Ivana Valentić ’09 completed a Master of ScienceDegree in International Business and Management atKozminski University in Warsaw, Poland.Sydney Viaccoz ’11 was hired as client advisor forInternational organizations/Non-governmental organizationsat UBS (union des banques suisses)bank in Geneva, Switzerland.Domagoj Marić ’08 started his own educationalgame and toy company, Dorat, in Varazdin.An article by Lucija Bilandžić, titled “Orange Wine”was published in the most recent issue of RIThink,an online interdisciplinary academic journal. www.rithink.hrAn article by Franica Miloš, titled “Miloš FamilyWinery: 500 Years of Tradition on the Pelješac Penninsula”was published in the most recent issue of5AlumniAlumni share HR and consulting expertisewell known successes are the Soundset Radioand the Oryx Grupa. She admires creativeand clever brand names on the market suchas “Silk“ soy milk, “Loverdose“ perfume and“Innocent“ all-fruit juice.She was also the mind behind the companyname of the next speaker, Miroslav Kosović‘05 senior consultant for EU funds at SenseConsulting. Miroslav addressed some of thenegative stereotypes of consultants, whoare often considered “fog sellers” or in otherwords, people who charge you big money totell you everything you already know. He evenhad someone tell him that consultants are thepeople who they call thieves in their village. Itwas interesting to hear him unravel this mythas well as the misconception that consultingcannot be creative. For example, SenseConsulting has a comic book about EU fundsnamed “James Fond,” a funny spoof on thefamous Agent 007.Livia Reljić ’05, a regional manager with SmartFlex outplacement. Her job is to help employeesfind new jobs in the unfortunate situationthat their employer shuts down. In this helpfulprogram, Livia and her co-workers help employeesfind a job and offer free counselingservices.Amila Avdagić ‘05, made everyone laugh withher funny stories from her experience as retailmanager for Riva tobacco company in Bosniaand Herzegovina. For example, customerslike to pay half price for newspapers if theyCAREER UPDATESRIThink, an online interdisciplinary academic journal.www.rithink.hrIvan Ora ‘07, was hired as Sales Manager, at HunterDouglas Croatia, a maker of sun protection systemsand façade products, in Zagreb.Nina Mimica ‘07 was hired in the Marketing Communicationsdepartment of Electrolux Professional inPordenone, Italy.Mia Dragović ‘09 was promoted to Leader of Energyefficiency projects for Slavonia and Baranja at theUnited Nations Development Programmein Osijek.She is currently enrolled in an on-line masters programmeat Beuth Hochscule, Berlin, and an interdisciplinaryPhD study in Environmental Protection, atthe Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb.Lidija Radačić recently began hosting a weekly onehourradio show called Balkan Beatz, on communityradio in Dublin, Ireland. “The idea is to connectexpats from Balkan countries who live in Ireland, orfurther afield through music, news and gossip. I willbe broadcasting on near.ie live every Monday 7-8Irish time. It would be interesting to have people fromhome listening in as well.” www.facebook.com/BalkanBeatzDubEva Legati ’07 was hired as an English LanguageInstructor at Berlitz Croatia in Zagreb.Josipa Lukić ’10 was hired asJunior Supply ChainPlanner at Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company inZagreb.Vladimir Dujić ’06 was promoted to CompetencyDevelopment & Strategic HR Expertat the Mol Groupin Budapest, Hungary.bring them back in half an hour, or store ownerswho keep their shop so neat they makeAmila to take her shoes off and put on slippersif she wants to walk around.Other speakers included Ida Hohnjec ’03, TalentDevelopment Associate Director at Merckpharmaceuticals, Lea Uroš ‘05, a senior consultantin retail services for Spiller Farmer realestate, and Zdenko Lučić ‘05 director in theSector for Investments in the Croatian governmentAgency for Investments and Competitiveness,who shared his experience in helpingto write Croatia’s new Law on StrategicInvestment.All in all, it was a great event to help RIT/ACMT alumni reconnect with each other andshare their industry experience with currentstudents. Stay tuned for more information onour next event.Bojan Budeš ’02 was hired as Brand manager DiverseyINL at Eurosan in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.Željka (Karacic) Musa co-founded a branding anddesign agency, Shift Brand Design (SBD) with officesin Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Zagreb.Franka Tomić, ’01 was hired in the customer servicedepartment of Sunsail Adriatic in Dubrovnik.Milena (Jovović) Vucinić ‘04 was promoted to Headof Protocol and PR at the Central Bank of Montenegro.She also enrolled in a master’s degree programat the Faculty for international economy, finance andbusiness, in Podgorica, Montenegro. She is currentlywriting her thesis on the topic of financial stability.Marko Čule ’08 was promoted to Regional salesmanager for the Mostar Region at Hypo AlpeAdriaBank inMostar (BiH)Sanja Majić ’07 opened her own business for bookkeepingservices, Inportanca, in Split.Ivana Karačić ‘11 earned an MBA in marketing fromthe University of Wales, in Cardiff. She is currentlybased in London.Marko Petrović-Poljak ‘12 was hired as ExecutiveSales operational manager at Atlas travel agency inZagreb.Anđelo Kerum ’09 was hired as brand manager forDiageo and Monin alcoholic beverage brands suchas Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Baileys, and CaptainMorgan Rum at PPD Distribucija in Zagreb.Ana Filipović ‘11 was hired as Business Secretary atC group d.o.o. in Podgorica, Montenegro.5

Handball team raises funds for tournament in SpainThe Zagreb campus handball team raised 250 kunas for their planned trip to compete in an upcoming tournament Barcelona,organized by Spanish national handball team coach Valero Rivera and goal keeper David Barrufet. Thanks to supportfrom about 70 fellow students, who attended a special party at the Cab Club in Zagreb in January, the team is now onestep closer to their goal.The fundraiser was organized by team members Marin Juran, Matej Buzuk and Armin Alibegović, who hope to raise an additional1000-1500 Euros through future events and possible sponsorships.“Thanks to everyone who came to support the team,” Marin said. “We hope to see you at our next event!”--Ena PaponjaBYE, BYE QUARTERS:SEMESTERS ARE COMING- Continued from the front coverUnder the new semester system, the majority of courses willcarry 3 credits, (instead of the current 4), and will meet for 3hours per week. Most students will take five courses per semester,for a total of 15 credit hours.Fall semester at the Croatia campuses will begin September2nd and run until December 19th and will be followed by a holidaybreak. This will be followed by an optional 3-week Januaryintersession, called Tiger Terms, in which shorter, intensive,specialized courses will be offered. Tiger Terms allow studentsto catch up on or move ahead with their coursework, earn extramoney, travel, or work intensively on a project.The spring semester will start in late January and run throughthe end of May, with a one week Spring break.To help students prepare for the change to semesters, eachstudent will have a personal meeting with Academic AdviserDrazenka Franić at the Dubrovnik campus, or Danijela Kraljevićat the Zagreb campus, to create an Individual Advisement Plan(IAP). This plan helps each student map out a course for completingthe required courses in his or her degree program, ontime.“We are all excited about this change, and we know that oncethe semester system has been implemented all students willenjoy the new structure”, added Dean Hudspeth.For more information about the RIT semester conversion process, visithttp://www.rit.edu/conversion/

TEACHING FORTHE 21ST CENTURY- Continued from the front coverFACULTYSCHOLARSHIPAfter a brief introduction to new concepts inclass, students watch his recorded lecturesfor homework.That way, they learn theory on their owntime, when they are ready, while classtime is used for hands-on practice in smallgroups, since working on practice materialis one the most efficient way of learning newconcepts.“With video lectures, learning and preparingfor classes became much easier,” saidstudent Tajana Grubišić.“When watchingvideos I can always press pause and makenotes, and if I didn’t understand something Ican always go back and play it again, whichis really important. Lectures are much betterexplained in the videos than in the textbook.”This method has led to higher grades, moreinvolvement with the material, and fewerfailures in the class overall, Prof. Schmidtsaid.“Students seem to find this method a lotmore appealing than to sit “alone” in frontof a thick textbook, which they find discouraging,”he said. “Also it is easier forthem to understand the spoken English ofa video rather than the dense writing styleand vocabulary of an accounting textbook.The videos seem to significantly lower thehurdle for students to engage in the coursematerial.”But supplementing textbook reading with avideo lecture doesn’t mean students don’thave to work hard. Videos will not help studentswho are unwilling to do any work orwho have poor study habits. Some of the F-students fell for the delusion that it would be“enough” to just watch videos. They watchthe video, nod at everything they see, butcompletely fail to practice. Those studentsare obviously still going to be in trouble onthe exam. ”Music and video in Writing SeminarAt the Dubrovnik campus, Prof. RebeccaCharry has redesigned the Writing Seminarcourse, to increase use of video and musicin the classroom.When the Writing Seminar students workedon interpreting texts, they used popularsongs and YouTube videos – from PinkFloyd to Japanese anime -- as subjects fortheir study, in addition to poems, paintingsand magazine articles.“Music, photography, video, and paintingare as important and serious works of art aswritten words,” Prof Charry said. “Today’sstudents need to know how to understandand interpret all of these.”“Prof. Charry obviously likes to try newteaching methods and thinking outside ofthe box, and I can see that in the WritingSeminar class. She keeps up with technologyand trends and that’s really awesome,”said student Pero Djangradović.“Everyone learns differently, and researchshows that some people respond better tosounds or pictures than to written words.So, I introduced a series of 5 multimediavideos and animated presentations to helpstudents prepare to write their own literacyautobiographies,” Prof. Charry said. “I cansee that these multimedia tools helped studentsbetter prepare to write their papers,and start thinking seriously about the conceptswe discussed.”In the Technology in Service Systemscourse, students are creating videos topromote Dubrovnik tourism, said Prof. IvoTomić, while Prof. Jasminka Samardzijauses current news videos and inspirationalmusic in Macroeconomics class.“We watched a video in connection withunemployment rate, inflation, GDP percentage,development of current global crisesand many other topics,” she said. “Then wediscuss the topic and look at it from differentperspectives (macroeconomic and microeconomic)so we can compare the views.Students also enjoyed interviews with famouseconomists such as Jagdish Bhagwatiand Xavier Sala-i-Martin. Diagrams ofsupply and demand curves make a lot moresense to students when they can hear aspoken explanation at the same time.”Sometimes, music just helps make classmore fun, and puts students and professorsin a better mood for learning. “Before theexam, we listen to positive and motivationalmusic to create a good atmosphere,” Prof.Samardzija said.Many professors at RIT/ACMT have alsomade greater use of the My Courses onlinediscussion forums to encourage students toshare ideas, ask questions, and help eachother. Prof. Schmidt uses the discussion forumto answer student questions, in a publicway so that the whole class can benefitfrom the answers and explanations. As studentsbecome more comfortable with thematerial, more and more students will answerquestions, and sometimes substantialdiscussions emerge from a simple practiceproblem solution.“One of the advantages of online discussionsis that the written format encouragesmore thoughtful and interesting responsesfrom students,” Prof. Charry said. “Theyhave time to think carefully about their responses,and write when they are ready.Because their comments are public andpermanent, they seem to put more thoughtinto them than just speaking casually inclass. Online discussions are also great forstudents who are a little shy about speakingin front of a group, and help make sure thateveryone gets an equal chance to speak.”Professors Ana Maria Šimundić,and Bob Foley were members of anRIT team which won the Bronze ExcellenceAward for their First-Year GlobalCollaboration Initiative, a project whichlinked students in the first year Pathwayscourse at the Rochester (NY), Dubrovnik,Zagreb and Prishtina (Kosovo)campuses. The award was given by aninternational association of Student AffairsAdministrators in Higher Education(NASPA). RIT professors Maureen Barryand Julia Norrgard as well as Prishtinacampus professor Albina Malidemaj alsoshared in the award.Articles by professors StašaPuškarić, Milena Kužnin, Kevin Walker,Vanda Bazdan, Rebecca Charryand Shawn Sturgeon were publishedin the winter issue of the online multidisciplinaryacademic journal RIThink.www.rithink.hrProf. Puškarić co-authored “TheTheory of Needs: A Revision for the 21stCentury” with Christian Petersen, and“Effects of Various Fuel Blends on thePerformance of a Two-Stroke InternalCombustion Engine” with Damir Oros,as well as “Flexible Selection of IronSources by Marine Microbial ConsortiaRelated to Temperature.”Prof. Walker’s paper was titled, “TheTechnopreneurship Process: AcademicEntrepreneur University Spin-Offs.” Prof.Bazdan’s paper was titled, “Einstein:The Method of Theoretical Physics andReality.” Prof. Kužnin’s paper was titled,“Lifelong Learning for Tourism in Croatia:A “nice to have” or “must have”?Prof. Sturgeon contributed a poementitled, “Goodbye,” and Prof. Charrycontributed a collection of seasonal haikupoems in Croatian and English.Professor Nikolina Božinović successfullydefended her doctoral dissertation,entitled “Grammar learning strategiesand grammatical competence inforeign language,” in the field of AppliedLinguistics at the University of Zagreb,Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,in December.RIT/ACMT President and Dean DonHudspeth was recently appointed Chairof the Human Capital Committee of theAmerican Chamber of Commerce in Zagreb.This committee will be addressingrequired changes to the accreditationprocess in higher education, increasingcompetition in the hiring practices ofstate-run companies, and general educationreform in Croatia.7

ZAGREB CAMPUS IT STUDENTJOSIP FRANJKOVIC EARNS PRIZESFROM FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE—Freshman IT student Josip Franjković has put his programmingknowledge to work, helping Google and Facebookdiscover and fix security bugs on their websites.In the process, he has earned himself a place in the GoogleHall of Fame and Facebook’s Whitehat lists and over $4,000in rewards from these two companies.“My hobbies are the internet and the security of web applicationsand I plan to work in that area in the future,” Josip said.“For both companies I found errors in their security systems.For Google I submitted three errors in their security systemsthat are called Cross Site Scripting (XSS) that can be stored.This bug enabled me to take a user’s “cookies” after they visiteda site. Besides that, I reported two Cross Site Scripting(XSS) errors to Youtube. I also found a bug that enabled meto delete poll results that Google did for other companies.”Both Google and Facebook have established reward programsfor individuals who find errors in their systems. Theseprograms enlist the help of skilled members of the public tohelp improve their security. Individuals who find errors in thesecurity systems which can harm the confidentiality and integrityof its user’s data, receive a monetary reward and theirnames are then listed in their Hall of Fame.“Facebook had a little bug in their system for their investorsite that enabled me to see the private data of some usersthat I shouldn’t be allowed to see,” Josip said. “Both Facebookand I were confused as to why this happened underonly specific conditions (e.g. special IP addresses), and wefound out that it was a bug in their caching system.”The issue of internet security is important to Josip and hesees his career focusing on this area. He has already enteredseveral international team competitions in this field.“Currently, I’m under the impression that many companiesin Croatia don’t really care about the security of its users.Likewise, there are only a small number of companies thatdeal with that part of the internet. This personally bugs me,because I don’t want my password or personal data to beavailable to other people.”AMERICAN COLLEGEOF MANAGEMENTAND TECHNOLOGYamerican.college@acmt.hrwww.acmt.hrDUBROVNIK CAMPUSDon Frana Bulica 620000 Dubrovnik, CroatiaPhone +385 (20) 433 000ZAGREB CAMPUSIlica 24210000 Zagreb, CroatiaPhone +385 (1) 643 9100ACMT REPORTEREditor in ChiefProf. Rebecca CharryLayoutViktor ZimmermannPrintingBalboa d.o.o. ZagrebFollow us!