Business Education in a Digital World- Entrepreneurial Spirit and Innovation Transform Learning Opportunities in SOM

Entrepreneurial Spirit and Innovation Transform Learning Opportunities in SOM

By Kimberly Laux (BA, 1999), MA

In dynamic fields like business, you don’t distinguish yourself by merely keeping up with trends and best practices. Instead, you strive to be the one making them.

When COVID forced much of the world to shut down, most schools scrambled to pull together the necessary resources to provide learning opportunities in a new, digital format. Issues within the workforce, training, funding, and technology presented unanticipated obstacles that hindered the quality of instruction. But not in the School of Management. Instead, the SOM community viewed the 2020/2021 academic year as an opportunity to improve and extend online learning that had already been in place for the past 20 years and explore new ways of offering meaningful SOM experiences and services in a digital format. |

Maximizing Online Learning

“Business faculty are not foreign to online teaching,” said Yener Kandogan, Ph.D., interim dean of the School of Management. “We have been delivering our MBA program in mixed online format since 2001 and our BBA program online since 2005. Our MS programs in accounting and leadership have been in mixed online formats since the onset. Over the years, faculty have integrated more recent pedagogical technology into their online courses.

Yener Kandogan, Ph.D., interim dean of the School of Management and professor of international business

“When the pandemic hit, and the university decided to convert classes online, we were ready to go pretty quickly. In fact, only one of our faculty members at that point had not taught online before. So, this transformation has been very easy for the School of Management faculty.”

Currently, UM-Flint offers online learning in three different formats: online asynchronous (no virtual meetings; lectures are pre-recorded), online synchronous (class meets virtually at specific days/times) and hyperflex (class meets on campus while simultaneously allowing students to participate online).

Although Min Jung Kang, Ph.D., associate professor in finance, has taught online since 2013, she took advantage of several recent online training workshops, including an intensive design course through the Office of Online & Digital Education (ODE), to improve and learn more advanced technological skills.

Min Jung Kang, Ph.D., associate professor in finance lecturing hyperflex finance course.

“In this class, I experienced what it’s like to be an online learner and how to set up Blackboard and video-content lectures more systematically and effectively so that it is less confusing and more personable,” said Kang.

“The biggest change was creating videos of my lectures for all of my classes. I could have uploaded text notes or PowerPoint slides (without audio) and asked the students to fill in the gaps with information from the readings. But if students are ‘teaching themselves’ this way, why take a class at UM-Flint? That’s why I wanted to create an online class that felt personable and approachable regardless of the format.”

Kang used video tools to record her synchronous lectures to accommodate students who could not make virtual class meetings. She posted announcements twice a week to help students prioritize assignments and prepared separate whiteboard recorded lectures so students could see how she solved financial problems using different equations step by step as if they were in class. She also held several one-on-one Zoom Q&A sessions—some as late as 11 p.m.

Min Jung Kang, Ph.D., associate professor in finance, used video tools to record her synchronous lectures to accommodate students who could not make virtual class meetings.

“Students appreciated that I tried to make the online classes as smooth and personable as possible and how much I cared about their successes amidst the pandemic,” she said.

“Fortunately, she got used to it as time went by, but it was definitely a learning curve,” said Kang. “Her challenges helped me understand the real issues my students were facing on the other side of the screen and reinforced the need to be flexible.”

This year lecturer Gerald Knesek, Ed.D., worked on making his onIine classes more dynamic. He regularly consulted with ODE to find ways of integrating new technology with his existing content.

“Online courses are a lot more work to design and teach, but new technology is creating wonderful opportunities for virtual education. My biggest challenge is to get comfortable with this changing technology. I make mistakes, but students are forgiving because they know I am trying to create a better online learning experience for them.”

Another course significantly impacted by the pandemic was the study abroad class taught by Gregory A. Laurence, Ph.D., professor of management and chair of the Department of Management and Marketing. The course, listed as Business of Japanese Culture (INB 480/INB 580 and INT 394), can be selected by undergraduate students toward BBA requirements or as a general education global studies course; it is also open to graduate students.

Gregory A. Laurence, Ph.D., professor of management and chair of the Department of Management and Marketing

The study abroad course was cancelled in 2020, and SOM worried that cancelling again in 2021 would be problematic for some students. The international business major, for example, requires either study abroad or some other international experience.

As director of UM-Flint’s International and Global Studies Program, Laurence was involved in conversations on campus that focused on different approaches to global education when travel is not possible. He recommended that SOM try a “virtual” study abroad course as a way of keeping momentum around study abroad offerings. The course attracted 27 students—more than SOM has taken on a study abroad course that does involve travel.

“Some of that was pent up demand after not offering study abroad last year, of course, but some is likely connected to an opportunity to do a deep dive into how business and culture interact in a country like Japan,” said Laurence.

“I wanted students to get a sense of Japan and how its culture interacts with various aspects of business that can help them to assess the same issues here in the US. Like anything, businesses are artifacts of culture and are culturally bounded. We generally don’t think about that fact because it’s all around us all of the time. I think it’s easier to reflect on how this works in your own culture after thinking about it in the context of a foreign culture.”

In addition to assigned readings, Laurence asked students to watch films (short-form and long-form videos from YouTube as well as documentaries), read (fiction in the form of manga), and listen (old and new pop music forms) to different source material from what you might find in traditional business courses. While some of the content was clearly focused on business in Japan, other content required students to consider the media form itself as business and how the creation and consumption of the content was indicative and reflective of Japanese business practices. He organized live/synchronous sessions with people in Japan, some of which offered opportunities for students to “tour” places of interest, and he organized a synchronous group meal at the end of the semester to complement discussion about Japanese food businesses.

“Certainly, planning for this class has helped me to consider how non-reading sources can be used in various courses,” said Laurence. “Often, I think, we (faculty but also students) are tied to the paradigm of the textbook in higher education. Certainly, textbooks have advantages— nobody would use them if they didn’t—but there is an awful lot of interesting, high quality, educational material available through other media. Preparing for this class has forced me to consider how some of these might be useful and relevant to the content I use to engage my students. I like to think my ‘regular’ courses are fairly innovative in terms of assignments and content, but experimenting in the interest of continuous improvement is always a good idea.”

While the shift toward online learning was necessary this past year and often preferred, some students appreciate

having the option to choose. Many freshmen completed the 2020/2021 semesters of their first year of college completely online. Most had not stepped foot in a traditional classroom since the middle of their senior year of high school and were eager to return to “in-person” classes.

Over the summer, SOM built a hyperflex classroom to allow students to choose between in-person and online synchronous modalities for certain courses. The space features a 360-degree camera and large screen on the wall for Zoom participants.

To accommodate student choice, SOM anticipates offering more courses in a hyperflex format. This format gives students the option to take a class in the classroom, online synchronously (participating live virtually during class), or asynchronously (viewing recorded class meetings)—providing utmost flexibility. Over the summer, SOM built a hyperflex classroom with a 360-degree camera and large screen on the wall to give presence to Zoom participants. They also designated three study areas for students who are on campus and taking classes online.