Update #4 - October 2010 - "Pilot Saturday MBA Program"
Overview:
Highlights of the Pilot Saturday MBA Program:
- Designs4Integration workshop June 2010.
- Designs4IntegrationTeaching workshop June 2011.
- The first pilot program event: MBA Orientation
- Data collection in the pilot Saturday MBA Program
- What’s next…
The Success of the Designs4Integration Workshop:
The first Designs4Integration Workshop was held June 2010 with three face-to-face meeting. Thirty-four faculty attended the workshop with two proposals for broad-based courses and five proposals for narrow-based courses. All faculty that finished the workshop received certificates of accomplishment and are ‘certified’ to teach in the Saturday MBA program. As part of the closing ceremony, AVP Cecile Lindsay handed out the certificates of accomplishment.
The next step in the process is the mapping of each course’s content to the curriculum matrices of the respective departments. The GPC will do this mapping and each department will evaluate the results. Once the mapping has been accomplished, the GPC will vote on these courses to become part of the MBA curriculum. The approved courses will be submitted to the curriculum office to be screened. Once they have been vetted, the courses will officially be courses in the MBA program.
The next workshop for those who could not attend the one in June 2010 will be in January 2011 during winter session based on demand. If there aren’t enough faculty signed up for the January workshop, it will be postponed to June 2011. The MBA fee is funding this course and all faculty members that successfully complete the course will receive a one-time stipend of $3000. The output of the course includes the following: (1) the new course proposal and (2) the SCO for the course. For the January workshop, faculty can select on of the two options: (1) Continue to work on a previously proposed broad or narrow-based course if it needs more work or (2) propose a new broad or narrow-based course for inclusion in the approval process. All faculty must work in teams on either one of these two options so that we remain true to our strategic objective of an Integrative Curriculum.
Feedback from participating faculty made it clear that there is a need to go the next step. Faculty need more help in moving from the generic SCO developed in the Designs4Integration Workshop to a truly integrated syllabus with assignments, daily discussions, exams, lectures, simulations, and other active learning exercises that fit together like a puzzle.
Next phase - “Designs4IntegrationTeaching” Workshop:
In an ongoing effort to support the pedagogical demands of our “integrative curriculum”, the GPC is working with the MBA Program and The Center for Faculty Development to develop a second, more advanced course that will provide support for faculty to teach in this innovative instructional format. The SCOs developed in the first workshop provide the framework to develop truly integrative syllabi. Faculty will learn how to teach together, rather than sequentially in a ‘parade of faces’ that is so common to the co-teaching model. Part of the ‘integrative’ aspect of this teaching format is that we will be working with faculty from other disciplinary areas to design, plan, and teach in the pilot Saturday MBA program.
The advanced pedagogical course, Designs4IntegrativeTeaching, will increase our understanding of integrative learning and collaborative teaching. The objective of the second course is to develop and hone our ability to design learning tasks that will engage MBA students and faculty in an integrative learning environment. Studies have shown that well-designed, student-centered, integrative learning tasks can enrich a student's learning experience, and lead to deep learning. The objective of Designs4IntegrationTeaching is to continue the transformation of our program while rethinking how we teach and how our students learn in the 21st century MBA classroom!
The first pilot program event: MBA Orientation
From August 24th to August 29th, sequestered in the Long Beach Hilton’s Executive Management Center, the 27 members of the Saturday MBA I Cohort completed a rigorous series of assignments that comprised their introduction to their graduate experience. Professors Mark Washburn (Mgmt/HRM), Jasmine Yur-Austin (Finance) and Lynn Dymally (Legal Studies) oversaw and directed the students through team building exercises, a demanding set of case discussions, presentations, written assignments, and more. Provost Don Para, AVP Cecile Lindsay, AVP Jeet Joshee and Dean Solt met with the students to offer their encouragement and delight with the proceedings. The students earned 3-units during the 5 days emerging somewhat exhausted, but highly enthusiastic and motivated to begin their MBA education in the pilot Saturday MBA program. While these off-site initiations to MBA Programs have become the norm elsewhere, this Orientation was the first time such an undertaking had been by the CBA and one of the first, if not the first by any CSU MBA Program. Overall feedback from the students was extremely positive and highlights that as we improve our graduate programs, the student expectations and satisfaction will likewise rise.
Saturday MBA Orientation - Camaraderie after a typical team presentation.
(Angelina Shamborska, Hogla Garcia, Brandon Harper, Stephen Teran, and Todd Turner)
Real time evaluation and data collection in the pilot program:
The pilot Saturday MBA program is being evaluated in multiple ways to assess the following:
- Information about how and why MBA students selected to join the Saturday MBA in its revised format (Phase One Survey),
- Student expectations of the program including the MBA Orientation,
- Student learning and satisfaction,
- Faculty teaching and satisfaction.
The Department of Marketing GPC and Alaine Weiss (MBA Career Services) have designed four online surveys that will be administered at four points in the typical MBAs career.
- The first phase was (is) administered immediately after the MBA Orientation in conjunction with the MBA Career Services. It is designed to capture the basic demographics of our students, their MBA selection process, and their expectations as to what they will experience in the MBA program.
- The second phase evaluates whether the CBA and the MBA curriculum met the expectations of the MBA students administered at the end of their first year.
- The third phase assesses their expectations and satisfaction with their experiences in the MBA program and job market expectations including changes in salary, promotions, and other related measures.
- The fourth phase will be sent at the end of their first year after graduation and determines the impact of their MBA education on their education and maintains a link with our graduates as they move through their career. Our goal is to strengthen our alumni base much like our competitors (USC, UCI, etc).
What’s Next for MBA Programs and GPC:
- A joint GPC-AC workshop on the mapping of MBA courses to the curriculum matrices for each department – October 29, 2010.
- Continue to work on collecting feedback from the pilot program.
- Marketing a second session of the pilot Saturday MBA program
- Developing a unified, consistent long run plan to collect data on prospective applicants, current MBA students, and alumni.
- Additional updates on the Saturday MBA program pilot will be provided to CBA faculty and the University administration.
