I’ve been imparted with my first course coordination task as a University Professor, and am currently mulling over a “Class Participation” scheme for an MIS course offered to senior undergraduates (4th year).
I’m toying with the idea of having the following components in the scheme:
Class Debates
In-Class Case Discussions
“That’s Interesting!” Dialogs
Other Contribution
Present / Absent
Do you have any other ideas, or suggestions to play around with the above (the participation component in the course is 15%).
Wanted to ask if people have had other interesting class participation experiences to share with me – the ultimate objective is to make the classes more interesting and to ascertain my course value proposition to business school students.
Having intro's in the beginning of the semester might be another thing. each and every one of the students would introduce himself/herself to the class..name..why is s/he taking the course.. what does s/he expect and so on OR make it interesting by having everybody to describe himself/herself by one word [a verb] starting from the first letter of their first name. the instructor might start by himself/herself[this would vary from instructor to instructor]
depending on the course, having them give [group]presentations might be a good idea too. ofcourse also having a q/a session at the end of each presentation.
having an online discussion forum for the course is a great way to communicate effectively with all the students..also provides an opportunity for everybody to speak out. posting assignments[from students] which deserve recognition, on the forum encourages the student and also promotes competition among them.
having practical assignments[relating to industry] as part of the course description might be fun for the students. this particularly should be useful considering they are seniors.
i think it all comes down to the professor. s/he is the one who can make the class interesting for the students. learning should be fun regardless of the course.
and yes at the end of the semester[or...] order a pizza for the class..not only would this surprise them but would help you in getting a good eval :-D been there done that :~)
Hey hb,
very good suggestions... in fact the course utilizes live case studies, guest speakers and course presentations from groups... so that's already taken care of - the participation component is designed to recognize individual contribution.
It is my first time teaching at the University level... I've been a College Professor for a while now so know how things work but this environment is a lil more formalized.
Munni,
most business courses require class participation. During my M.B.A. , it was pretty much every single course that had it, in one way or the other... in fact, I've had courses with a 40% class participation component - but you're right - the aim is to make participation easier on everyone and hence I wanna include components that everyone can relate with.
ohhh... and being a core course - my students can't walk out ;-)
Munni,
most business courses require class participation. During my M.B.A. , it was pretty much every single course that had it, in one way or the other... in fact, I've had courses with a 40% class participation component - but you're right - the aim is to make participation easier on everyone and hence I wanna include components that everyone can relate with.
ohhh... and being a core course - my students can't walk out ;-)
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I preferred other forms of participation, like when working together with a group on a project, and someone else gets to be the spokesperson. But then participation is a good thing. smile
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*Originally posted by Roman: *
Umar, include something along the lines of "best industry practices/patterns in real business world" in the course.
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Roman,
THe Best Practices idea is indeed valuable...
I'm planning to supplement the course with these if time permits but my knowledge lies onlu in ERP and HCI best practices... if you have any other resources that can be used, please lemme know.
I took a class back in the early nineties. The class was in my senior year on information resource management. The professor divided the class in 4 to 5 groups. Each group would take real business cases and discuss solutions/issues.
Didn't think much of the class because it really dealt with issues a CIO/IT Director/Manager would face and we as fresh grads would not really encounter this any time soon in our professional careers.
Our prof also got articles from computer magazines and discussed in class and had popup quizes based on the aricles.
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*Originally posted by sambrialian: *
Umar bhai, I think I might drop by in one of your classes. :)
ps. hmcq, were you able to get in touch with that guy?
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Coincidence or perhaps not.......but amazingly he found me out through the web and called me two days ago. The emails addresses listed no longer work (or at least he not been using them). May be we have a psychic connection :).
Thanks for the help.
Umar- that was just a suggestion....Do in class competitions between different teams.
Umer, check some sites on UML (like UML.com etc) that describe use cases and business process flow diagrams in more details (smartdraw.com and rational.com are also pretty good). Most of the time, you get the "best practices" diagram or case studies that address a wide range of industries including manufacturing.
The other good resource is java.sun.com site or similar sites on J2EE design. Usually these site have links or information on advanced technology architectural diagrams that are very helpful for students to understand since they are in pictorial forms.
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*Originally posted by Saqib Khan: *
Form groups, assign topics or let them choose their own topic, let them discuss it for a while and then present it to the class.
Umar bhai: Give out candies ... it really helps in keeping the class going. Students talk just to get a candy.
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How about making the students incharge of leading some of the lectures or discussion sections or the last few minutes of the lectures/sections, so that each student gets to lead one or two lectures/sections during the semester. Alternatively, at the end of every lecture you could have five minutes for the students, and each day a different student could lead. You can make sure that everyone gets equal turns. Allow the students to choose topics of their own choice from the syllabus. This whole thing should be part of the participation grade and you can keep the difficulty of the topic in mind when grading.