The Finance lab in room 102 of the Wright School of Business in Gignilliat Hall, features three large monitors constantly displaying Bloomberg TV updates, stock ticker, a world clock, and twenty-one individual computers for finance and applied economic students to make investment decisions.
Students can see stocks change in real time as they are learning about effective investment strategies.
“This computer lab is the primary upper-division classroom for students majoring in the Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance and Applied Economics,” said Dr. Marilyn Helms, dean of the Wright School of Business. “Three 65-inch monitors at the back wall of the class show a live feed of the Bloomberg TV channel, where students have real-time, up-to-the-minute stock news from this popular industry streaming service. Students can discuss and keep track of the stock market and changes going on in the financial sector. The monitors feature a crawler for breaking business and financial news headlines and other trending topics related to financial, economic, and corporate information. The service also includes graphs of major market indices and their movement.”
The lab was included in the expansion and renovation of Gignilliat Hall to house the Wright School of Business thanks to a $5 million gift from C. Lamar and Ann Wright, which was matched by the state of Georgia. Further gifts from the Wright Family have been used to add the stock ticker and world clock lab as well as an elliptical ticker to the atrium of Gignilliat Hall.
“Finance labs in schools of business typically include a student-led investment fund,” Helms said. “Senior-level finance majors work in consultation with a professional investment advisor to maximize returns and learn about portfolio diversification, asset allocation, risk management, and the investment environment. This hands-on learning elevates a business school, and we would welcome working with a donor who might share this interest with us. Currently we use an investment game but a $100,000 donor gift is on our wish list so students might invest actual funds into the company stocks they have researched.”
The lab also includes smart board technology with color annotating capabilities, the ability to save presentations to flash drives to share with students, a camera for video lectures and working with online and hybrid classes and the world clocks, which show times in various countries to facilitate real-time trading decisions.
For the elliptical stock ticker in our atrium area, faculty and students have chosen the local, regional, national, and international stocks they wish to view on the ticker. The second ring of the ticker shares WSOB events and updates with students.
Finance and Applied Economics is one of the six-BBA majors in the Wright School of Business at Dalton State College. For more information, visit http://lwdr.nigzob.com/program/finance-applied-economics-bba/.