University Alliances (UA) spotlights xinshun.guo from the Business and Information School of Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade, who shares his background and UA experiences including teaching students, “Introduction to SAP ERP.”
The goal of this series is to exchange insights with UA professors, lecturers, and staff from around the world and share their experiences. View UA Spotlight blog posts.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I am a professor from the Business and Information School of Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade, which is located in the Songjiang University Town of Shanghai, China. There are seven universities located here with more than one hundred thousand students. I mainly engage in teaching students fundamental computer applications, such as Flash Animation, Photoshop Image Processing, Dreamweaver Web Design, SPSS Data Analysis, PowerBuilder Database Programming and Introduction to SAP ERP.
I was born in Xinjiang province in Northwestern China. In 1983, I went to Xi'an University, in an ancient city with a long history in China and in 1999, I joined the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade.
I have one daughter who graduated from the university last year and recently went to America for further studies in a Masters Degree program.
I enjoy walking, listening to pop music, and also cooking. These hobbies are very relaxing for me.
Figure 1 (right): Photo-taking session for most Outstanding Academic Award 2011 - Award Winner from China Professor Guo (left) with Crispian Tan, Director of University Alliances APJ (right)
Share a bit about your SAP and UAC history.
In 2008, through the UAC, I first came into contact with and became aware of SAP and the University Alliances program. In December of 2008, I attended the first SAP Academic Conference APJ in Thailand. It gave me a deep impression.
In September of 2009, I began teaching students “Introduction to SAP ERP.” Students liked this course very much. Firstly, students are able to operate and have hands-on classroom exercises on the world's top enterprise information coordination and management software. Secondly, students can learn the Sales and Distribution, Materials Management, Production Planning, Finance and Controlling, Human Capital Management, and Warehouse Management modules through relevant exercises and case studies by attending only one course. Thirdly, it is an innovative, experimental course. It helps students gain more knowledge and improves students' practical ability. Lastly, it will increase students' skills and employability.
I like teaching the Introduction to SAP ERP course. I designed seven experimental reports, built up objective and operational question database, and developed automatic marking software. It is very useful to evaluate students.
What do you like most about the University Alliances Community on the new Jive platform? How does this help improve your regular UAC activities?
What I like most about the UAC on the new Jive platform is its rich content, interaction between different people, and convenience of the navigation. I often read columns, such as Solutions，Training & Education，as well as within University Alliances areas such as Events & Webinars, Blogs, Documents and Discussions.
These sites provide information on the new SAP technology development, recent activities, SAP careers and skills, etc. I usually visit the UAC once a week and often tell my students of the very important information that I obtain from it.
How can or do your students benefit from the UAC?
As part of the first lesson in my course, I ask each of the students to register an account on SCN. Students will be able to know more about SAP enterprise, SAP software, new technologies on the market, recent events and UA career blogger. Students can also take part in discussions and the blogs and as well as read some success stories, such as “A Step in the Right Direction.” Some students often browse the UA Career Resource Center to prepare for their future employment.
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