A Professor Dreams ...

[Baron Scicluna]

LTL is the new Boom.

Students should call ahead to find out if the class is meeting. It's a fluid situation.

 

[Machine Head]

I blame the teacher's parents for naming him Irwin. He had no chance of controlling that classroom.

 

[jr/shotglass]

If I were a college professor, I would not cut much slack to those students who arrive with the belief that they (or their mommies and daddies) are paying tuition for free college credits.

Fail the entire class? Probably too far. But don't let anybody bring the real students down, either.

 

[DeskMonkey1]

Probably too far? Unless every single student was a part of it, it was certainly too far.

Since I've never taken classes of this type, can someone enlighten me to the format? Virtually all of my upper-level and graduate level courses were non-lecture courses. Essentially, we'd read the material beforehand and then come to class and discuss it as a group (the joys of being an English major). I've more than once seen a student or two whose passion was dialed up a bit. But those students always wrote the best papers.

 

[da man]

Hey, he was a professor, too!

 

[User 11148]

Since I've never taken classes of this type, can someone enlighten me to the format? Virtually all of my upper-level and graduate level courses were non-lecture courses. Essentially, we'd read the material beforehand and then come to class and discuss it as a group (the joys of being an English major). I've more than once seen a student or two whose passion was dialed up a bit. But those students always wrote the best papers.

As I understand it, this was the capstone class for business majors. I taught this course extensively as a doctoral student (and in the semester or two right after I finished my PhD) and generally had a good time teaching it. The intent of this course is to get the students to draw on knowledge from across the business disciplines (e.g., marketing, finance, accounting, operations, general management, etc.). So these courses generally use some combination of lectures, cases and projects to drive that home.

There are some topics that are specific to this course, and in most cases these are dealt with in a traditional manner (i.e., text + lectures). The rest, though, you get at with your cases and your projects. In my class, for example, I put my students in groups -- taking care that each group had a variety of different majors in it -- and made them first analyze an industry, then analyze a particular company within that industry. We also did case studies of particular firms, but at the undergraduate level I was much more active in leading the discussion than at the MBA level. What you try to drive home is that if you do this thing over here (say, in marketing) that can have serious implications over here (say, in operations). Or, alternatively, as attractive as doing X might be, it's folly to even think of it given Y and Z.

Across the years I taught this course, the biggest challenge I ran into was students who couldn't resist the plagiarism siren. I warned the students: "When you're doing your company analysis, you're going to come across that company's 10-K. In that document, there's going to be a management statement that covers management's analysis of a lot of the things I'm expecting you to analyze. And you're going to be tempted to cut and paste that. Don't do it. I don't want to know what management thinks. I want to know what you think and how you got to that. If you cut and paste, I'm going to know it, and I'll fail you not only for this project but also for the course." And believe it or not every damn semester I had at least one group do it anyway. It was so ridiculously obvious ... you get a terribly written intro paragraph, five or six very clean/competent ones (with formatting that is particular to those kinds of documents), then a terribly written closing paragraph.

 

[DeskMonkey1]

As I understand it, this was the capstone class for business majors. I taught this course extensively as a doctoral student (and in the semester or two right after I finished my PhD) and generally had a good time teaching it. The intent of this course is to get the students to draw on knowledge from across the business disciplines (e.g., marketing, finance, accounting, operations, general management, etc.). So these courses generally use some combination of lectures, cases and projects to drive that home.

There are some topics that are specific to this course, and in most cases these are dealt with in a traditional manner (i.e., text + lectures). The rest, though, you get at with your cases and your projects. In my class, for example, I put my students in groups -- taking care that each group had a variety of different majors in it -- and made them first analyze an industry, then analyze a particular company within that industry. We also did case studies of particular firms, but at the undergraduate level I was much more active in leading the discussion than at the MBA level. What you try to drive home is that if you do this thing over here (say, in marketing) that can have serious implications over here (say, in operations). Or, alternatively, as attractive as doing X might be, it's folly to even think of it given Y and Z.

Across the years I taught this course, the biggest challenge I ran into was students who couldn't resist the plagiarism siren. I warned the students: "When you're doing your company analysis, you're going to come across that company's 10-K. In that document, there's going to be a management statement that covers management's analysis of a lot of the things I'm expecting you to analyze. And you're going to be tempted to cut and paste that. Don't do it. I don't want to know what management thinks. I want to know what you think and how you got to that. If you cut and paste, I'm going to know it, and I'll fail you not only for this project but also for the course." And believe it or not every damn semester I had at least one group do it anyway. It was so ridiculously obvious ... you get a terribly written intro paragraph, five or six very clean/competent ones (with formatting that is particular to those kinds of documents), then a terribly written closing paragraph.

So, it's a senior-level course? I have a hard time seeing how hooligans lasted that long. Don't get me wrong, I've seen folks graduate who had no business doing so, it's just that the students I picture when reading the original description are ones who usually flunk out by their sophomore year.

 

[User 11148]

Oh, it's possible. The material has a lot of ... white space. There's probably not a right answer, but there are plenty of wrong approaches to getting an answer. So if you have a handful of butt-heads who've managed to stay this side of the law in the more structured classes, it can go south really fast if they want to take it there.

One fall I had a particularly bad section. The head butt-head was a party/sorority girl whom I can still see. Kinda tall, moderately attractive, attitude from here to eternity. I'd have the glass in little mini-discussion groups and she'd immediately start shooting the **** with one of her Greek buddies. I'd shut things down and start asking the class some pointed questions -- So at this point in time, who's pressuring firm XYZ? -- and she'd pop off, "People." "Which people?" "Just people." Oh, would she be satisfied with herself.

Rather enjoyed giving her that richly deserved D, I did.

 

[DeskMonkey1]

Oh, it's possible. The material has a lot of ... white space. There's probably not a right answer, but there are plenty of wrong approaches to getting an answer. So if you have a handful of butt-heads who've managed to stay this side of the law in the more structured classes, it can go south really fast if they want to take it there.

One fall I had a particularly bad section. The head butt-head was a party/sorority girl whom I can still see. Kinda tall, moderately attractive, attitude from here to eternity. I'd have the glass in little mini-discussion groups and she'd immediately start shooting the **** with one of her Greek buddies. I'd shut things down and start asking the class some pointed questions -- So at this point in time, who's pressuring firm XYZ? -- and she'd pop off, "People." "Which people?" "Just people." Oh, would she be satisfied with herself.

Rather enjoyed giving her that richly deserved D, I did.

Just to clarify, when I say hooligans, I don't necessarily mean cheaters. Plagiarists exist at all levels. I'm talking about ****heads who have to dominate the conversation (even when it's a lecture), believe they could teach the course and pretty much waste everyone's time.