It’s business as usual for the USC School of Social Work students taking professor Michálle Mor Barak’s global diversity management class.

Vasanthi Srinivasan, a professor from the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, is beamed to a USC classroom as the day’s guest lecturer.

Srinivasan pulls the shades on the setting sun and welcomes the pupils she sees on her computer screen. Half a universe away, it’s another beautiful Southern California morning.

Utilizing the school’s distance-learning studio, a live interactive video feed connects students at the University Park campus with classmates in Orange County, who interact with another monitor featuring that week’s guest speaker. This semester, “visiting” scholars have hailed from France, Germany, India and the United Kingdom.

Mor Barak originally proposed the idea for the class as she was writing the first draft of her award-winning book, Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace, which is now used as a textbook in the course.

With input from students, she determined that inviting speakers from other countries to talk to the class about diversity and management would be an inventive way to illustrate her lessons.

“Our ability to bring guest speakers from other countries via video conferencing makes a huge difference because it demonstrates on a daily basis how global we’ve all become and how small the world is,” Mor Barak said.

The global diversity management class is especially suited for the possibilities provided by distance-learning technology.

“It was one of my most positive experiences at USC,” MSW candidate Delilah Carolina said. “The typical classroom environment is nowhere near as exciting as the high-tech classroom.

Despite a few technical problems, students are quick to point out the benefits of distance learning. Many Orange County students were happy to save commuting time and participate remotely. Because each lecture is posted online following class, students have unlimited access, giving them the opportunity to review the classes as many times as they want and to expand the learning process beyond the classroom.

The course was designed with an interdisciplinary focus to accommodate the varied interests of students. Some are fascinated by issues of globalization and are interested in the topic in general. Others want to do business abroad, and some wish to promote diversity and equality in the workplace.

Mor Barak asks the guest scholars to talk about diversity management specific to their countries and regions. Often, they also are willing to share details about themselves as representative examples of a globalized society.

For example, Cordula Barzantny, who teaches at the Toulouse Business School, spoke to the class from France.

Fang Lee Cook, director of the Centre for Chinese Business and Management Studies at the Manchester Business School, spoke from England. Before moving to the United Kingdom, she was an interpreter in China.

Cook gave a lecture comparing diversity management in China and India, a subject she felt is likely to take on an increasing level of significance in the coming decades.

Nico Lüdtke of Liebherr Aerospace, the guest from Germany, spoke to the class about facilitating relationships among employees in different countries.

He suggested people’s attitudes about time, tasks and relationships would be different in Germany than in Brazil and that misunderstandings can arise from those differences.