Schools of business aim to help students develop employer-valued skills, which include communication, teamwork, critical thinking, and application of learning. This can be achieved through team assignments and community-based learning. Such approaches help students apply the concepts they are learning, collaborate with others, develop managerial skills, and solve real-life workplace issues. Teamwork is commonly thought to be enhanced when students establish a team charter outlining their goals, norms, and processes. Research on the value of team charters in business education, however, is limited. This study examined the role of team charters on student perceptions of working well together. Data was collected and analyzed from a mid-term team evaluation and a final team charter assessment. Findings indicated that perceived value of team charters differs across the year in school and tends to be higher for less experienced students. The provision of a structured project roadmap clarified team member roles, responsibilities, personal accountability, and team vision.
Tag: business
Putting Business Students in the Shoes of an Executive: An Applied Learning Approach to Developing Decision Making Skills
Students often struggle with how to translate textbook concepts into real-world applications that allow them to personally experience the importance of these concepts. This is an ongoing challenge within all disciplines in higher education. To address this, faculty design their courses using methods beyond traditional classroom lectures to facilitate and reinforce student learning. The authors believe that students who are given hands-on problem-solving opportunities are more likely to retain such knowledge and apply it outside the classroom, in the workplace, volunteer activities, and other personal pursuits. In an attempt to engage students and provide them with meaningful opportunities to apply course concepts, the authors have initiated a number of experiential learning methods in the classroom. Since fall of 2008, elements of problem-based learning were integrated in the authors’ business courses. Specifically, real-world consulting projects were introduced into their classrooms. This paper focuses on the authors’ experiences implementing problem-based learning processes and practical project assignments that actively engage students in the learning process. The experiences and the feedback gathered from students and executives who participated in the “real-world” project are reported in this paper.
Benefits of Collaborating Finance Research in Business Schools
Collaboration in business research provides outcomes and results that are more efficient than those due to individual efforts. The integration of diverse environments and disciplines often generates creative ideas. Collaboration increases the quality of research and effectiveness of discoveries, and promotes the dissemination of knowledge. Cases of collaborative finance research in the business schools are illustrated in this study. The findings include many significant benefits in knowledge stimulation, education advancement, community connections, and other rewarding results. Benefits of collaborative research outweigh the challenges and contribute to faculty development, student education, and advancements in the field of business.
Learning, Course Satisfaction, and Community in the Time of COVID-19: Student Perceptions of the Switch to Emergency Remote Teaching
This multiple descriptive case study explores how university students responded to their Business Communications course’s transitioning to an emergency remote course during the spring semester of 2020. Thirty-nine students completed an end-of-semester questionnaire that recorded their impressions of learning and course satisfaction. Nine of those students also participated in semi-structured interviews about these topics. The data revealed that most students enjoyed and felt they learned more from their in-person course, they missed learning from their peers, and they missed the community that was created during the in-person class sessions that were suspended due to university-sanctioned COVID-19 protocols. This article discusses the need for instructors to integrate continuous interactive community into online courses and the need for universities to provide training for online instructors in this essential component in course preparation and execution.