In respect to Paul Hewitt, and the Georgia Tech Basketball program, I have waited to share my February, 2009 direct interaction with him until now, after his release. Up until this last 2010-2011 season I was a five year GA  Tech basketball season ticket holder of five tickets through a local alumni I know. After five seasons of watching horrendous under performance and ludicrous coaching tactics, I couldn’t take it any longer and I decided not to renew my season tickets. With his dismissal finally, I look forward to again enjoying ACC basketball in Atlanta.

On February 6, 2009 I wrote Paul Hewitt a letter challenging his coaching in six areas:

• Over rotation/substitution of players
• Wasteful player energy expended back court
• Fast break: not keeping the ball in middle of court long enough
• Offensive approach identical despite different capabilities of your players
• Giving offense confidence

The above letter can be seen in completion at the end of this posting for which I also copied [and physically mailed to] Dan Radakovich, who happens to reside in my high school district and I tangentially know through some mutual friends.

Paul Hewitt responded in a handwritten note on official Georgia Tech Basketball stationery within a few weeks.  See his actual hand written note, Paul Hewitt Handwritten Note on Official GT Stationery.

With all due respect I’m not sure you know what you are trying to say in your two page letter. I have always made it a personal policy not to comment on a team unless I attend practices and know the personalities involved. I’m sure you are a fine basketball coach. Best of luck to you in the future, Paul.

Paul Hewitt Critique: The Guy Is Clueless and Arrogant

Let’s address each sentence of his response as it clearly evidences his lack of basketball knowledge and ignorance to acknowledge another person’s perspective even if he was not in agreement:

I Don’t Know What I’m Talking About?

First Sentence: “With all due respect I’m not sure you know what you are trying to say in your two page letter.”

I do understand basketball. If you read the two page letter I sent him I think you will appreciate that I know my Xs and Os. I coached tournament middle school and high school basketball in conjunction with my three sons. I coached alongside numerous dad’s who played Division I and II college basketball, most notably Dave Bucklin who played Division II basketball and is Tom Izzo‘s brother-in-law. Dave each summer works with Tom at his summer basketball camps in Lansing. Many of you know that Tom Izzo is considered “Mr.March” with his top winning percentage in NCCA tournament play.

For Paul Hewitt to say “I’m not sure what you are talking about” shows both (i) his ignorance for the technical  and philosophical elements of the game and (ii)  his arrogance  to think he can’t take seriously any input from a seemingly knowledgeable source.

I Don’t Have The Right To Critique His Team Without Attending His Practices?

Second Sentence: “I have always made it a personal policy not to comment on a team unless I attend practices & know the personalities involved.”

How ludicrous is this statement. I operated hotels for 20+ years. The analogy of his comment is that my hotel guests should not be allowed to comment on their experience satisfaction without attending internal training sessions and knowing the personalities of the employees. In any public business we are involved in, management is responsible for delivering a quality product and should welcome feedback. Through openness and feedback we all get better. It is obvious that Paul Hewitt feels he is different than everyone else who delivers a product in the marketplace.

************

I look forward to a new chapter in Georgia Tech basketball !!

*******************************************************************

Paul Hewitt Letter I Sent Him February, 2009 and Copied Athletic Director

February 6, 2009

To:       Paul Hewitt, Georgia Tech Basketball, Head CoachCc: Dan Radakovich, Georgia Tech Athletic DirectorFrom:  Paul Heller, Cell: (xxx) xxx-xxxx and xxxxxxxx@xxx.com

RE:     You Are A Great RECRUITER But I Can Not Understand Certain Elements Of Your

Coaching Style/Approach

I have been an avid Georgia Tech Basketball season ticket holder for now 5 years.  Starting this Fall, 2009 I will also become an Adjunct Professor at the College of Management at Georgia Tech teaching two sections of Marketing Management at the undergraduate level.

You are an incredible recruiter no doubt.    However I have come to doubt certain coaching patterns/philosophies of yours over the years.  You have had terrific talent to work with, but it does not translate to court performance.  The year you had Javaris Crittendon, Thaddeus Young, Anthony Morrow and Ra’Sean Dickey was incredible talent but Georgia Tech had a very disappointing season.  I have come to be very critical of certain elements of your coaching style, especially now seeing what Anthony Morrow is accomplishing with Golden State. Anthony Morrow was one of college’s best pure shooters he was unable to realize his potential under your direction at Georgia Tech.  I also think Ra’Sean Dickey with effective coaching could have contributed so much more.  I believe Dickey was one of the top low-post players in the country during his tenure at Georgia Tech.  I remember him scoring (I believe) the first 10pts at home versus Duke.

I have coached AAU youth basketball for 8+ years along side fellow fathers that have played Division I and II basketball in college.   One of these fathers I coached with for years was Tom Izzo’s brother-in law (Dave Bucklin) who played Division II basketball.   He regularly assists Tom each summer in his summer camps, and is considered one of the best volunteer middle school coaches in Atlanta.   He is a volunteer coach as he has a full-time management information systems position.

 

What I can not understand about your coaching approach:

1.. Over Rotation/Substitution of Players.

I understand that you are trying to rotate players based on maximizing their offensive and defensive talents.   However I think this is a BIG mistake as players need continuous, steady minutes to get into to the flow of the game and have OFFENSIVE continuity.  Constantly removing players from the game interferes especially with their ability to contribute offensively.  Part of this “interference” is getting into the flow of the game, and part of it is hindering their offensive “confidence”.   So much of OFFENSIVE success of players is having “confidence”.

I have been totally astounded that regardless of whether a player has made a couple of three’s, etc. you will constantly make substitutions.   We all know that basketball shooting often runs in streaks and to take out a player when they are HOT is criminal [even if it is for 45 seconds and they are coming back/possibly].

2.. Wasteful Player Energy Expended Back Court:

Pressing backcourt can be very effective if you have your 3 and 4 players positioned in the passing lanes to steal the pass of the trapped backcourt player/guard.   Throughout most of the game you trap the ball handler with two players, but never have your 3 and 4 players up in the passing lanes for a potential steal.    This results in the following problems:

• Maybe you use up a couple ticks of the clock; but you end up consuming/wasting a lot of defensive energy that takes away from player’s energy available on the OFFENSIVE END.

• Quite often teams find easy baskets because they have a 4-3 advantage at the beginning of almost every offensive set as your two trapping players are out of position.

You have the athletic talent to effectively full-court press in either a bona-fide Diamond or 2-2-1 approach; but you need to either not press at all; or legitimately press with FOUR, not only two players involved.

I find college teams very vulnerable to bona-fide full court presses.  I think if you had your 3 and 4 players cover the passing lanes that Georgia Tech could have numerous steals.

Having a combination of the 2-2-1 and Diamond presses can really confuse teams, even at the Division I college level.

3.. Fast Break:  Not Keeping The Ball In Middle Of Court Long Enough

Time and time again your fast breaks, “break-down” as the point guards pass the ball up court to the far sides instead of keeping it in the middle until farther up the court.  Once you pass to the far sides it take less defensive players to cover the court and you have cut-off the important triple options of staying in the middle of the court.

4.. Offensive Approach Identical Despite Different Capabilities Of Your Players.

Offensive talent comes in different abilities as recruited players and lineups change year after year.  However, it seems you have the SAME offensive approach regardless of the player talent you have.   Ra’Sean Dickey was a tremendous low-post player.  Anthony Morrow was one of the best pure shooters in college basketball.   Unfortunately your same “pass it around the arc and screen offense” didn’t exploit their talents.

Georgia Tech doesn’t get the ball in low-post and immediately get the ball back out to the arc for open three point shoots (what Duke does so effectively).  Too, too often the low-post player has multiple players collapsing on them and either takes a forced shot, or creates a turnover.

5.. Giving Offensive Confidence

Whether its Anthony Morrow, Lewis Clinch , Iman Shumpert these talented outside shooters need two things to score BIG for Georgia Tech:

• Continuous Playing Time (not being constantly rotated out for defensive purposes)

• Encouragement to shoot and keep shooting even if they miss multiple shoots. Your focus on defense (which is of course important) I think drags the attitude of some of your incredible offensive players down.  Not everyone is the best defensive player.

I would welcome the opportunity to get together and discuss basketball.

Returned car Fuel Gauge level at Richmond airport 2/28/11 that mutliple Avis Budget Group employees insisted not returned full.

Avis Budget Group Rental Fuel Scam and Environmental Dangers

Avis Budget Group Rental Car is scamming the public by charging inflated prices ($7.98 per gallon in our situation) and upon car return insisting to customers that fuel level is not totally full. The car is brought back and refueled to “top-off” level and customer charged for up to two more gallons (1.75 gallons in our situation).

Not only is this bad business but environmentally this is unsafe. The Healthy Air Campaign in Oregon states:

Each time a car is topped off, the space at the top of the tank that contains harmful fumes is filled with gasoline and the fumes are pushed into the air. Those fumes contain benzene, which has been linked to cancer and more specifically leukemia. There is no evidence that a safe level of exposure to benzene is possible. Any exposure is a danger!

Also see the United States EPA “Don’t Top Off Your Gas Tank”

Lessons/Takeaways to be Learned from Unbelievable Episode

Having been in the hospitality industry as an owner-operator of hotels for 25 years and now an undergraduate business school educator having taught Service Marketing and Marketing Management, I am totally dumbfounded by this occurence for reasons including:

• Successful High Performing Organizations [especially in a service industry] create mission, vision and value  statements to create a “culture” whereby customer concern and strong ethics are paramount. The treatment and practice of what my wife and I encountered is in total contradiction to Avis Budget Groups’ statements available online.
• The national customer service call center protocol of a huge Fortune 500 company (#411 in 2010) will not respond and appears to have both  little empathy and empowerment to make an unsatisfied customer “whole” again.
• Avis Budget Group is being “penny-wise, dollar-foolish” knowing that creating animosity for a few additional dollars among customers can (i) have huge long-term detrimental impacts especially in today’s social media climate, (ii) ”Bad News” travels 10 times faster than good news traditionally, and (iii) in breaking down a service encounter into its “Moments of Truth,” creating a positive experience in the last interaction (i.e.car return/billing) is a vital step in assuring repeat business and loyalty.            

Disrespect, Obnoxious Attitudes and Total Defiance

My wife and I had one of our worst travel experiences ever with the Avis Budget Group yesterday. We returned a car with a full tank of gas (needle clearly on full line) at Budget/Avis in the Richmond, VA airport location [see photo]. Both the employee processing returned cars and City Manager, Leo Castro, insisted that it was not returned full and that they were going to need to take the car back and refuel to determine what was owed.  The charge per gallon was $7.98 on 2/28/11 [picture below]. Additional pictures are provided within this post of (i) the fuel tank needle [above], City Manager refusing to have picture taken [below], and the $13.99 fuel charge on final bill [below].

National Customer Service Totally Unresponsive

I called Customer service (800-621-2844) and have gotten even more negativity and unresponsiveness. I called on Monday, February 28 in the  afternoon after returning to Atlanta and talked to Kenya in the Oklahoma City based national customer center (complaint #901094). I explained the situation and focused more on the mistreatment and disrespect than the $14 fuel charge. I asked to talk to a supervisor. After being put on hold Kenya came back and informed me that no-one was available as the supervisors were all busy. I asked to hold but I was told that I couldn’t hold, as a supervisor would call me back. That was Monday afternoon, and now it is Tuesday morning and no-one has called me back. There was essentially no empathy, responsiveness and no one is empowered to do anything. [Ultimately 46 hours later I finally received a call back from a supervisor from Avis Budget customer call center in Oklahoma City.]

Avis Budget Group Fuel Scam - Fuel Price at Richmond Airport 2/28/11

City Manager Operations, Leo Castro, that insisted fuel not returned fuel and unwilling to allow picture, Richmond airport 2/28/11

$13.99 Fuel Charge on Avis Budget Group Bill for Richmond Airport, 2/28/11

• Communicate high expectations directly and apply the sandwich principle
• Award high achievers with assignment grades near and above 100
• Provide high levels of structure and frequent assignments for students who typically don’t care

Classroom Management Motivation Techniques: Communicate High Expectations

Professors need to be very candid with students about their expectations, and show examples of excellent and poor submissions with student names concealed. By directly showing them what is excellent work and what is shoddy work, the majority of students instantly become motivated to produce far superior work. Professors can raise the bar by effectively applying candidness and the sandwich principle.

A good example of applying these techniques occurred while teaching Marketing Management. On the second weekly mini-case assignment I was extremely disappointed by the lack of effort, creativity, strategy and resourcefulness put forth by the vast majority of 200 students. A portion of the assignment was to construct a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) for Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC). Students were to evaluate Atlanta against the other top five convention destination cities including New York, Las Vegas, Orlando and Chicago. As a starting point I gave them relevant information on hotel capacities, historical annual convention show figures and four articles from the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Atlanta Business Chronicle, rich with strategic issues. Students were also told to continue to research these two newspapers for additional articles. In class we developed a very sophisticated example of a SWOT Analysis example for Starbuck’s Coffee, see premium attachment.

Student submissions reflected inadequate levels of resourcefulness as they obviously failed to read the four articles provided as well research additional articles on their own. Creativity and applied strategy were also grossly missing. Many students put a lot of things down to create the illusion of an extensive job; however, when we read the responses many were meaningless to the point of being silly. One student had developed some quality bullet points but then diluted them with meaningless points that collectively made the submission of poor quality. Some of these senseless bullet points are shown below. The entire submission can be seen at GWCC SWOT Analysis.

Strengths

• Two full service FedEx-Kinkos within the GWCC.  (Very, very minor issue.)
• First state-owned and operated convention center in the US. (History not relevant to strategy)

Opportunities

• Heavily recruit [this university’s] students to apply their technology-based thoughts and ideas to revamp the GWCC. (Inexperienced students are going to make immediate impact?)
• Ranked fourth  best city for jobs in 2008-extremely useful statistic for recruiting. (No relevance ?)

Weaknesses

• Consumes 50 million kilowatts of energy per year – enough to power more than 3,000 homes.(No relevance?)

During class I projected samples of poor quality submissions including the one reference above and also provided a recommended answer key that can be seen at GWCC SWOT Analysis Answer Key. I was very direct with the students by communicating the following:

• I would not tolerate their not being resourceful, and I would hold them responsible for reasonable levels of research.
• Their responses were being read, not just skimmed or looked at for length by those grading. “Filler” and senseless inclusions would severely reduce overall grade. Quality not quantity was required.
• Strategy and creativity needed to be exerted and just throwing down poorly developed content would result in low grades.

Now it was time to apply the sandwich principle in motivating people. After creating this higher expectation, I challenged the students to “step it up.” Next I communicated with great confidence that I knew they were capable of achieving this. (Note that this school has an average freshman SAT score of typically around 1,250.

After this motivational lecture, the vast majority of assignment submissions drastically improved for the duration of the semester. To recognize this I gave out nearly 200 miniature Nestle 100 Grand bars with custom stickers reading “GRAND JOB…WAY TO STEP IT UP!”

Motivation and Learning Through Sharing Student’s Assignments: Inferior as well as Superior

Showing inferior as well as excellent student submissions is very effective; however; students many times are initially adverse to this and you need to have adequate faculty oversight support. Students often learn as much from “poor examples” as well as “superior” submissions. The names of students whose assignments you project in front of the class are not revealed. It is necessary to reinforce that students should not take this personally, it is to benefit everyone. I received feedback from a student that supports this very effective teaching technique:

“You’re very funny, love the magic, love the enthusiasm in general. LIKE going over homework (student submissions) with entire class – keeps us accountable and helps us to learn from each other’s successes/mistakes.”

Motivation Elevated with Assignment Grades Near and Above 100

Many professors avoid giving students grades near or at 100 as this reflects a “perfect” submission. This approach is very demotivating. The only time I got involved in my son’s college education with faculty was when he was penalized for attending an optional speaker (with an associated assignment) because he had traveled out of state unexpectedly to his grandmother’s funeral. I composed a grade appeal for him. The professor’s response to the department head explained that my son’s grade didn’t matter. To influence his grade my son would have needed a 100 on the assignment. Getting a 100 on an assignment “was impossible” as this professor never gave out scores of 100.

Assignments should be developed so that students are capable of succeeding. Students feel a great deal of satisfaction from receiving a high grade and this motivates them to exert high levels of effort on future assignments. Rewarding students with grades near or at 100 is highly motivating.

Taken to even a different level, I strongly believe in rewarding students with grades above 100 if their submission reflects elevated levels of effort in conjunction with displaying problem solving that is creative, strategic and resourceful. You can see how motivating it is for students to get grades above 100 from reading a portion of an email I received from a Marketing Management student:

“One of the primary motivation techniques in Heller’s course was his grading system.  On the weekly assignments, it was not uncommon to receive 5-15 points of extra credit if one went above and beyond the scope of the assignment.  The first time I received a 110, I was so motivated to do even better on the next assignment.  Each Thursday, I looked forward to getting my assignments back to see what grade I received and read the positive comments.”

Motivating Students Who Don’t Care (Initially)

The keys to motivating students who don’t care include frequent graded assignments, unannounced quizzes and individual versus group assignments. I challenge myself to motivate not only the high achieving students, but also the unmotivated students who would ordinarily not learn much. To motivate those who don’t care requires high levels of structure and techniques that truly push them.

• Increase assignment frequency from a few times a semester to weekly graded assignments  to force students to constantly complete assignments each week  except leading up to testing periods. Unfortunately, assigning a few long-term projects results in procrastination by the majority of students with drastically less time allocated than professors expect. See posting entitled, “The Benefits of Weekly Assignments versus Major Long-Term Projects.”
• Use unannounced quizzes to assure that students are coming prepared to class having read the assigned materials. See posting entitled, “Application versus Content in Conjunction with Unannounced Quizzes.”
• Eliminate the vast majority of group work which often dilutes quality time effort of the weaker students in group.  The exception to this is if the business school has elevated admission requirements. See posting entitled, “The Unfortunate Motivation Behind Assigning Group Work.”
• Use the crib sheet testing approach which requires the students to expend a sufficient amount of quality time consolidating their set of multiple page notes allowed. See posting entitled, “Application Oriented Tests and Crib Sheets are a Winning Partnership.”

College Student Motivation Propelled Forward

Creating effective motivational techniques is best viewed as if you are the student’s coach rather than professor. You need to push your students to the next level with high expectations. Setting the expectation bar high can create a terrific learning experience.

A coach or professor always has a certain percentage of students who are not necessarily that motivated. These students can be pushed through providing effective structure by incorporating frequent assignments, unannounced quizzes, individual work and Crib Sheets.

Below are three more student testimonials emails I received from teaching Marketing Management that contain appreciative acknowledgements that project management skills were immediately used during their respective internships that same semester:

“… I recognized the value of those assignments! For example, last weekend my organization had a promotional event which was attended by over 400 people. On behalf of the promotional company I worked with the venue owner and others.  I used the RFP skills in negotiating the contract including how important it is to get everything written on the contract to make sure they don’t bait and switch. I developed a Gantt Chart to organize the event. … You were a great professor and a coach who pushed students to do better and really brought real life examples to class instead of just learning from the textbook. …

” This semester my most challenging class and rewarding class has been Marketing Manangement. The weekly assignments we were given taught me how to do many practical things in business (RFP’s and Gantt Charts) and also made me become a near expert in Excel….

“I must admit I learned a lot from you. It was difficult in the beginning, but I studied hard. You gave me the chance to actually apply many concepts that were just theoretical stories in my mind (Gantt Charts, RFPs, …). Now in my work those are things that people refer to me as the expert. I could have not achieved it without the assignments. …

Teaching Approach for  Gantt Charts and Critical Path

Gantt Charts are horizontal bar charts that depict project tasks against a calendar. They are an instrumental tool in managing projects with (i) many activities that have varying completion timeframes, and (ii) the activities have timing interdependencies. Timing interdependencies simply stated involve activities that cannot be either started or finished before another separate activity (or activities) is completed. Gantt Charts force oneself upfront to plan for the staging and sequencing of these dependent activities. Once the Gantt Chart is completed it serves as an excellent tool to oversee how a project is progressing, especially from a critical path standpoint. So many projects get delayed and over budget because critical path activities are not focused upon.

Students first complete a Gantt Chart manually to assure they are focusing on the sequencing, timing and interdependencies of the activities. Depending upon the course I may choose assignments including the following listed below:

• Hospitality: Coordinating a conference including site selection, sponsorship, speakers, various promotional activities (brochure, mailings, email)
• Management Information Systems: Coordinating a management information systems project including system requirements; RFP development; bidder identification and pre-qualification; selection and negotiation; implementation and training.

During class I may demonstrate the concepts with something as basic as coordinating a recreational baseball league that involves promoting signup, coach recruiting, selection and background checks, player tryouts, grading by independent evaluators and drafting; and season scheduling involving pre-season, practices, jerseys, trophies and playoffs.  This class exercise is a complimentary upload, Gantt Chart of Recreational Baseball Season Commissioner Responsibilities.

An example of a Gantt Chart Weekly Assignment is available as a premium attachment.  As extra credit the students can automate their manual Gantt Chart on a free, very-user friendly, online service called Viewpath. Viewpath has a very good video tutorial.

Action Plans Teaching Approach

The experience for students to construct an Action Plan, that involves a multitude of activities with timing and sequencing issues, prepares them for the workplace. Simply stated, an Action Plan is a planned series of actions, tasks or steps designed to achieve an objective or goal. An Action Plan is conceptually a sophisticated “To Do List.” Many undergraduates have not yet applied basic checklist management skills to their personal and professional experiences.

Topics with students include:

• Project oversight becomes manageable by breaking down a large-scale project into chronological activities and tasks.
• Frequent status meetings are conducted with involved parties in person or by conference calling.
• Frequently update Action Plan by eliminating completed items and updating outstanding activity  time frames and issues. Redistribute updates to project members.
• Database format allows sorting by responsibility and target completion date. These capabilities streamline the efforts of managing by critical path and responsible party.

The weekly assignment involves constructing an Action Plan on an Excel worksheet with the following columns:

• Responsibility
• Activity Description
• Further Detailed Task Description
• Start Date: Target and Actual
• Completion Date: Target and Actual
• Status and Comments

Determining an appropriate application for a student assignment is relatively easy for most business school courses. Examples for courses include:

• Management Information Systems: System requirements, bidding, selection and implementation
• Service and Quality Management: Crisis Management Plan development and implementation
• Marketing Management: New Product Development Plan

Business School Syllabus Review Eliminates Project Management Coverage?

Undergraduate business schools need to understand the importance of covering project management topics. Just this year in developing a new course syllabus I included project management topics. To my astonishment the marketing department instructed me to eliminate these three project management tools that I had integrated into the course. The determination was made without even conferring with me.

Propelling Business Degree Curriculum Forward to Incorporate Project Management                   

Dr. Malcolm Wheatley of ProjectSmart astutely summarizes the importance of project management in today’s workplace:

Project management as a management discipline underpins much economic activity. In industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals, software and aerospace, projects drive business. And in the public sector, it is effective project management that translates politicians’ promises of new roads, schools and hospitals into gleaming new constructions that improve everyday life.

Business schools can improve the productivity of its graduates as they enter the workplace by incorporating project management topics as a basic element of undergraduate curriculum.

Undergraduate business school curriculum needs to assure that all students, regardless of their major field, receive practical exposure to project management topics. Some business major fields including information systems and operations management often touch on these topics but even their coverage is seldom real-world and extensive enough.

Knowing that this valuable exposure is unlikely, Iattempt to incorporate these project management skills into every business course. For every new course I teach there always is a logical way to integrate the following tools into lecture content and weekly assignments:

• Gantt Charts and Critical Path
• Request for Proposals (RFPs)
• Action Plans

This article is the first post on the importance of integrating real-world project management skills into undergraduate business school curriculum and covers Request for Proposals.  The second post is entitled, “Business School Curriculum Needs to Incorporate Project Management: Gantt Charts and Action Plans” and covers the two other tools.

The value of students learning these skills is best acknowledged through two student emails I received after teaching a Marketing Management course:

First Student: “I cannot express how much valuable, real-world knowledge I learned in Heller’s course compared to other management classes I have taken. As a student, I work part-time at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Following our class assignments on project Gantt Charts and RFPs, I approached my boss and explained that I had acquired a new skill set that might be valuable for some of our office projects. She was immensely impressed by my knowledge and assigned me to two new projects. Students certainly value their education when they recognize that the knowledge they are acquiring is used in the business world; Heller always tried to parallel classroom knowledge to actual business applications.” 

Second Student: “RFPs are a constant fixture in professional business. Before this class, I had almost no understanding of what one even was, but I knew that I needed to learn it. I am glad that we spent time on it. That you backed up the material with personal experience, that you provided real-world examples, and that you highlighted common pitfalls….Thanks for a terrific semester and we will undoubtedly stay in touch.”

Teaching Basic Application “Manually” First to Assure Concept Retention

In developing project management lectures and assignments, it is vital to balance manual concepts with the immediate temptation to use the extensive technology available on these topics. Introducing technology products too quickly can interfere with students understanding the basic concepts. I have the students develop uncomplicated Gantt Charts and Action Plans before introducing fancy and sophisticated online applications. Students construct Gantt Charts by hand on ancient graph paper and develop Action Plans on a simple Excel worksheet for weekly assignments. As extra credit the students can automate their manual Gantt Chart on a free, very-user friendly, online service called Viewpath. Viewpath has a very good video tutorial.

Teaching Approach for Request For Proposal

Acquiring various types of products and services effectively is a vital skill in any business. Spending time exposing students to the Request for Proposal (RFP) process is very relevant. I divide the RFP process into two areas: major items and professional services.

Request For Proposals – Major Item Acquisition

Developing a consistent form for bidders to respond to is vital in being able to compare apples versus apples. Too often when purchasing numerous major items a company doesn’t specify the exact response format and it makes comparing bid submissions difficult and time consuming. By spending quality time upfront developing a very structured chart for bidders to complete, the evaluation process weeks later becomes very straightforward.  A standard chart format should be provided to bidders that have columns that typically address: item name, detailed description, unit price, quantity, extended price, shipping and delivery, availability, warranty coverage included, and additional cost plan options for both parts and labor.

The assignment I’ve typically used is to pretend that the student is the university Purchasing Director and needs to requisition a new classroom of supplies (tables, chairs, computer and projection equipment, dry-erase board, etc.).  See Premium Attachment for actual assignment.

The students develop this Classroom Items Listing including detailed specifications (dimensions, sizes, manufacturer name/SKU number, color, etc.). Except for the name, detailed description and quantity, the other columns are left open for bidders to complete. The students then draft a cover letter as if they were the Purchasing Director of the university that references the Classroom Items Listing and addresses some important issues:

• Encouraging bidders to suggest lower price alternates to specified items provided that quality is not sacrificed.  However, bidders must include prices on what is specified in addition to any alternates.
• Explanation that bidders do not necessarily have to bid on all the items. The selection process may involve multiple bidders.  
• Other issues including references, tax exempt handling as appropriate, time frame and logistics on bid submission, order placement and payment.

An example of a RFP – Major Items Weekly Assignment is available as a premium attachment.

Request For Proposals – Professional Services Acquisition

Examples of this would include hiring an outside firm to implement a computer system, conduct market research or complete a feasibility study. Professional fees with consultants, attorneys, accountants, etc. can skyrocket unless one carefully bids these services in a competitive arena. Students become knowledgeable on appropriate terminology including:

• Project scope, deliverables and exclusions/boundaries
• Payment approaches: Time and Materials versus Fixed Fee

Bidding All Phases Upfront

We cover the extreme importance of bidding all phases upfront versus allowing bidders to convince you to bid on an initial phase and submit a bid for later phases. I share actual situations and the associated financial pitfalls where bidders attempt to convince you of the following:

“It’s too difficult for our firm to bid on the entire project initially as we can’t properly price out later stages as cost effectively as we would like.  Let us bid on Phases I & II and we will provide costing on Phases III-V at completion of Phases I & II.” 

Document Structure

Students are provided a skeleton Request for Proposal that must be modified for their specific application. The structure of this RFP is as follows:

I. PROVIDED BACKGROUND

1. Your Company Background and Situation
2. Project Scope
3. Scope Confirmation and Charge Exclusions Issue Statement
4. Submission Timetable and Logistics

II. REQUESTED INFORMATION FROM BIDDER

1. Firm Background2.
2. Project Resources, Fees & Target Completion3.
3.  Professional Ending

Providing Strategic Language As Certain Topics are Very Involved

I find that the RFP topic is too involved to have students develop the entire document without major assistance. Therefore, in certain sections students are typing in portions where I have provided specific, strategic language. After numerous semesters of using this approach I have found it very effective in accomplishing the learning objectives desired. An example of this teaching approach is in the “Scope Confirmation and Charge Exclusions Issue Statements.”  Below is the assignment explanation and specific terminology provided.”

In this section you want to assure the company doesn’t “nickel and dime” you on charges that they were not upfront about. You also want bidder(s) to confirm or modify Project Scope accordingly upfront. You don’t want them providing a price, and then once engaged, explaining that Project Scope is not adequate enough and additional fees will be involved. These additional fees will be on a more expensive Time and Materials basis rather than portion of the bid price where competition existed. The following wording (appropriately applied/modified) can effectively accomplish these two issues:

Potential Project Scope Omissions and Associated Fees

“We have taken significant time to identify the appropriate Scope involved to complete this project.  However, based on your experiences you may recommend modifications to the Scope.  Be very specific to identify any Scope modifications.  Add these Scope steps to II. Requested Information From Bidder -  Project Fees with separate line items and providing cost detail consistent with schedule.

Any and All Other Potential Fees and Charges

“It is vital for bidder to disclose any other potential fees and charges that could arise associated with performing this project. Client will not consider paying any fee charges unless adequately identified in your RFP response.” 

Avoiding Bait and Switch Bidder Tactics

At times professional firms win projects based on the professional resumes and project write-ups of individuals that will have very little day-to-day involvement with the project. Many of these individuals are located outside the intended office performing the project with little intent to involve them except for upfront credibility to win the bid. Many large firms have sophisticated national databases that allow them to identify projects completed by any office where keyword relevance is found. In class we discuss the various ways bidders introduce and camouflage this practice and the appropriate safeguards to be exercised.

Propelling Business Degree Curriculum Forward to Incorporate Project Management                   

Dr. Malcolm Wheatley of ProjectSmart astutely summarizes the importance of project management: 

Project management as a management discipline underpins much economic activity. In industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals, software and aerospace, projects drive business. And in the public sector, it is effective project management that translates politicians’ promises of new roads, schools and hospitals into gleaming new constructions that improve everyday life.

Business schools can improve the productivity of its graduates as they enter the workplace by incorporating project management topics as a basic element of undergraduate curriculum.

What do the following Division IAA/Football Championship Subdivision (“FCS”) football schools all have in common?: University of Delaware, Villanova, Appalachian State, Texas Southern, Shepherd and Minnesota Duluth. NCAA playoff games were played during the final exam period.  In addition to this outright conflict, eight other schools had playoff games within two days of final exams starting.

I am a big fan of college football yet not when the December conference championship games and playoff games interfere with academic priorities. We realize how enamored the vast majority of our university students are with college football as it provides great sports excitement, school camaraderie and important socialization (partying) that may involve a major portion of the entire weekend.

Faced with a choice of attending and celebrating a conference championship game or allocating academic time to a combination of studying for upcoming final exams and completing major projects, I think we realize what happens. It takes almost insurmountable levels of maturity and discipline to turn away the lure of an exciting conference championship game that could be at home or hundreds of miles away. This is a temptation that can be avoided with proper administrative planning to preserve a productive academic environment in the important last weeks of the semester in December.

The Dilemma First Hand: Student Choices and the Unfortunate Consequences

A good example of how December college football can compromise student academic priorities occurred while teaching a Corporate Finance class. I had a student who was in the marching band for an ACC football team that had qualified to play in the conference championship in Florida on Saturday, December 5^th. The last two classes of the semester were on Monday (11/30) and Wednesday (12/2).

Final exams were scheduled between Saturday, December 5^th and Friday, December 11^th. I had scheduled an optional additional final review class on Thursday (12/3). Late in November a student approached me about taking the final exam early as the marching band was going to be performing during halftime at this ACC conference championship game. The game was at least a ten hour drive from Atlanta and the marching band buses to Florida were leaving on Friday. Consistent with the course syllabus I told the student that permission to take a final exam early was the department head’s responsibility, not mine. I did not personally advise her to take the exam early for the stated reasons below. This was of course not very popular with her. The student’s grades going into the final exam were as follows:

Test 1: 86(22%)   Test 2: 58(28%)   Homework: 84(20%) …. Weighted grade average going into the final exam of 74.

I wrote the department head an email suggesting that permission not be granted for her to take the final exam early on Thursday (12/2) for the following collective reasons:

• The last regularly scheduled class was  on Wednesday (12/2) which would involve the second class reviewing a comprehensive problem set that was representative of the final exam. This may not leave adequate studying time. Also, she would not have the opportunity to attend the optional Thursday class to answer any questions.
• Her low C grade performance going into the final should not be rewarded. Students with A’s should be rewarded with leniency and special privileges.
• A low performing student probably needed as much time possible to adequately prepare for the final knowing that the exam fell on the first day (12/5).

Contrary to my position, the department head allowed the student to take the exam early on Thursday (12/13). The result was a 45 on the cumulative final exam and a semester grade of a D. Apart from this disastrous Corporate Finance final, I would suspect that this student’s other  course grades were impacted by this decision of making December college football a priority over academics. Final exams create an important cumulative review of both course content and practice applying concepts that should not be intercepted by football games. Refer to my posting, “The Importance of Mandatory and Cumulative Final Exams.”

The Obvious Solution: Schedule Semester Accordingly

Officers in the NCAA and college administrators should be aware and concerned that both these December conference championship and FCS playoff games directly interfere with and compromise academics. The important last two weeks of the semester, as well as the final exam week itself, are when major individual and group projects may be due and serious preparation for final exams should be occurring.

Some Division I teams may play conference championship games during the first weekend in December and then participate in the 36 Bowl Games that in 2010-2011 were scheduled between December 18 – January 10. The Bowl Games do not present a problem as evidenced by the fact that all 72 schools had completed final exams prior to the football games. However many conference championship games conflict with students properly preparing for final exams and completing major projects.  UCLA, University of Florida, Auburn University, Oregon State, University of Oregon, Northern Illinois, Cincinnati, and Troy during 2010 season all had NCAA conference championship games played within two days of final exams starting.

In Division IAA there is a five week, single elimination playoff championship that in 2010-2011 began on November 27 and ran through January 7 involving 20 colleges. This resulted in six colleges having playoff games scheduled that directly conflicted with final exam period. Another eight  colleges had playoff games within two days of final exams starting.

Scheduling priorities by either the NCAA or administrators can totally eliminate this situation from arising where students are enticed to choose college football over sufficient time for academics.

The NCAA Stepping Up to the Plate

For Division I, the NCAA needs to back up the entire college football season one week for universities that have conferences that play championship games following the completion of the regular season.  These conferences are those typically with more than 10 teams including the ACC, SEC and Big Ten ( as of 2011), etc.

For Division IAA, the five week playoff system could be collapsed to a three week system that could easily occur after all final exams are completed. In 2010-2011 this could have taken place in the three week period between December 18^th – January 7^th.  These playoffs would coincide with the Division I Bowl Games. Administrators whose football teams participate in the IAA/FCS conference would need to schedule final exams within the first three weeks of December which is what usually occurs.

What is ironic is the language found in the NCAA’s “Academic Integrity in Intercollegiate Athletics:  Principles, Rules, and Best Practices,”

4.3  Season length and schedulingNCAA bylaws specify that member institutions shall limit season length and other scheduling elements to minimize interference with the academic programs of its athletes.

Why is the NCAA only concerned about the academic impact on the athletes and not the much bigger impact on the thousands of regular students attending these December football games?

College Administrators Delaying the Academic Season’s Opening Day

Division I college administrators need to start the semester up to one week later so that exams fall comfortably after a potential Saturday conference championship game. Final exams can easily start mid-week or at a time that assures that students have at least three or four days after a major college championship game to prepare academically for finals. With Division IAA colleges the playoffs need to be delayed and compressed from five to three weeks.

Complete the following multiple choice question:

Question 1: From the viewpoint of an undergraduate business school professor, who is their customer when instructing a course?

1. Students
2. Oversight faculty course coordinator and department chair
3. Parents of students
4. Future employers of students
5. Some combination of the above
6. None of these

This question and answer are of utmost importance in establishing effective policies and objectives for business schools. I believe the professor’s customer should be weighted primarily by the viewpoint of future employers, and secondarily by the viewpoint of both parents and the course coordinator/department chair. The best situation is when university administration, department heads and the professor’s academic objectives are consistent with those of the business workplace. Refer to my posting, “Enhancing Strategic, Creative and Resourceful Problem Solving.”

The viewpoint of the parent should not be overlooked as many are expending large sums of money and entrusting much of their child’s professional future to the respective business school. I would purport that parents want their children to have a rigorous, practical and real-world application-oriented education, contrary to what their children may want.

The Majority of Students Don’t Understand What’s in Their Long-Term Best Interests

What may surprise you is that I leave out the students totally in the multiple choice answer. Students are the ultimate consumer of the service, but I don’t believe professors should consider them the customer. Why? Because the vast majority of students do not have the maturity and life experiences to understand what is best for them. The objective of what is best for them should simply be delivering the highest capable students upon graduation to the business workplace.

Unfortunately most students want a course that combines liberal grading with low levels of work involved in assignments, testing and class participation. Refer to my posting, “Recreating Academic Rigor and Removing Blame from Students: A Faculty Responsibility.”

Consider the following reviews of me as a professor based on both online rating services (RateMyProfessor.com and PickaProf) and hard-copy surveys I received. The first two are from a freshman business class during the same semester and the third is a junior/senior level corporate finance course. Who do you believe?

Review 1: Don’t take this professor!! If you take him, be prepared to work hard…and be prepared  to expect lots of homework. Heller expects his students to be dedicated to his class and only his class. In his opinion, his class means everything to him. This is a useless class. It doesn’t help at all with the transition from high school to college.

Review 2: This course has been a wonderful learning experience. I have thoroughly enjoyed every portion of it. It was a lot of work, but I feel like I learned things that will be legitimately applicable to my future. Participating in your introductory business class has assured me that my future career aspirations are still to become a CPA. By taking your course, I have even decided that I might enjoy some aspects of finance as well. I’ve even considered double majoring. I would simply like to say thank you for passing your knowledge of the business world on to me. It is very much appreciated.

Review 3: Please, I beg you, steer clear away from this professor. I got a B+ on the first test so I got my hopes up…for failure. He is so unorganized, makes multiple mistakes when teaching, his appearance is not professional [Note: I wear a professional tie, pants and shirt to every class unlike many professors these days], tries to fit too much information in a small amount of time so he does not give opportunity for questions/comprehension. Just BAD!!

The fourth example of student feedback is from a freshman taking the introductory business course. She was uncharacteristically mature and compared my teaching approach to that of a parent-child relationship where you don’t understand the importance of the process until much later in life. Read on…

Hello Coach *, I hope you are having a good break. I just wanted to thank you for everything you have taught me. To be honest, I wasn’t very sure on whether the course would be useful, but ever since I have been working at this new job I have been applying it. The videos we watched were so helpful with my new job! Yes, I got the job at O’Charley’s, the one in which you helped me with the thank you note following my interview. My manager was extremely impressed with the note. I will do this for the rest of my life! Thanks for the tip and helping me redraft the letter. 

But back to the videos. When I went to the O’Charley’s orientation I observed the employees and managers as they related to the topics we learned from the videos. When I sat with my manager and he asked me if I wanted to say anything, I told him about how he and the staff related to the videos.  He was so impressed. Here is the great part. When I told him about the Disney concept of “Being On Stage” he knew all about it because he used to work for Disney! When I mentioned it his face lit up! I also told him about how Steve Jobs’ so effectively motivates his innovative employees through his bottom up management approaches. How great is that? We also talked about the advantages and disadvantages of tall/flat organizations. I never thought I would be talking about that outside of class! Everyday it seems like I am using some of the things you taught us.

You may have given a lot of work but it is like a parent to a child. When you are young you don’t understand why your parents do the things they do, but when you get older you realize it was for your benefit. You gave us a lot of work, which I dreaded, but now the concepts learned are so helpful. Thank you so much for passing on your knowledge. I will use it for the rest of my life. Out of all my fall semester classes this class was the most useful. There will never be a time when I will not use what you taught me because it is imperative to my career and my life. Thanks again and Merry Christmas. You are indeed my life coach!

* I encourage students to call me “Coach.” Refer to my posting, “The College Educator: Coach Rather than Professor Can Enhance Your Role.”

Who Should Evaluate Professor Effectiveness

Now that I have raised strong concerns whether students are mature enough to know what education process is best for them, let’s now turn to the question about the professor evaluation system. Think through this second multiple choice question:

Question 2: Who should rate a professor’s effectiveness in the areas of ability, course content and sufficient level of academic rigor?

1.  Student online numeric surveys
2. Student individual or focus group interviews
3. Departmental faculty including chairperson and/or course oversight coordinator
4. Independent evaluation services

Currently the vast majority of instructor evaluations that administrators and department heads rely on are end-of-the-semester, anonymous, online, numerical student feedback surveys. These evaluations are completed immediately prior to or during final exam week. Contrast a somewhat rigorous professor giving a challenging, mandatory and cumulative final versus a professor with an easy course load during the semester either giving no final or an optional final. The vast majority of students do not reward professors with a good evaluation based on how much they have been pushed and motivated to learn. On the contrary, most students reward professors that have easy course requirements and those that are liberal graders. This creates a detrimental incentive for professors to cater towards being popular with students and compromises the important learning experience of what is in the best interests of the ultimate customer, the future employer.

I believe that student evaluations are important in identifying red flags that may need to be covered with a professor. However, instructor evaluation needs to rely primarily on department oversight that extensively reviews course materials and observes faculty while teaching. This in-depth evaluation by departmental oversight rarely occurs. Instead the students are placed in the driver’s seat in determining who are “good” instructors through these anonymous, online surveys. These numeric survey results have a large influence on promotion, compensation and acknowledgment for tenured faculty, and whether future courses will be offered to non-tenure and part-time instructors.

Online Surveys and Bad News Travels Ten Times Faster

There are a few main websites where students can access information about courses they are about to take including RateMyProfessor.com and PickAProf.com. These sites contain very objective charts that show a professors’ prior grade distribution and then what I believe is a rather distorted collection of actual comments. Students swarm to this site to find professors that grade liberally and assign a relatively easy workload.

Why do I feel that the student comments are distorted? Service recovery principals teach us that “Bad news travels ten times faster than good news.” These professor rating websites are a major source of revenge for students who are upset by some combination of either a low grade or higher levels of academic rigor than they had wanted. The motivated and high-performing students don’t take the time to complete these online surveys because they are not upset at anyone. Comments largely reflect student complainers who become triggered by professors like me who are more rigorous. Professors with liberal grading and lax policies regarding assignments, testing, class participation and final exams are rewarded on these sites with high marks and positive comments.

One Final Student Email to Influence Your Position on Who Should be the Customer and Who Should Evaluate Professors

It is human nature to want the easy way out. Famous sports teams do not become great without dynamic coaches that rigorously push their athletes. Think of the 1980 Miracle Olympic Ice Hockey team with Herb Brooks or Green Bay Packers football teams with Vince Lombardi. Effective coaches are not judged by athletes’ anonymous surveys at the conclusion of the season. Coaches are evaluated by their results and what owners or athletic directors witness during practices and games.

Today’s business schools should be no different whereby department heads and administrators spend quality time evaluating professor effectiveness along with realizing who the real customer is for their services: future employers.

We need to stop letting immature students wanting to take the easy way out from influencing the system as evidenced by the following student email. Note that I had written him a note on one of his graded assignments that I was disappointed that his work effort had dropped significantly and that he was missing classes.

Professor Heller,

I never got a chance to fill out an evaluation so I wanted to send you one. To start off, this class has shown me that this is the major that I want to pursue. The class was full of topics that I know is used in the occupation I hope to obtain. You may not know this but I have worked at Chick-fil-A for over four and a half years and have been a manager for over a year and a half and I am one of two managers at Chick-fil-A at Lenox Mall which is one of the busiest mall locations in the South. I handle interviews as well as money and use many of the lessons that you taught throughout the semester. I would also like to let you know the reason that my work has declined purposely towards the end of the year. After receiving my second grade log, I had a B when I had busted my ass on the assignments with a 99.5 average but still had a B. After seeing this I realized there was no reason to spend the countless hours on assignments that I already practice in the real world when I am not going to be fully rewarded for my work. I definitely spent more time on work in your class than all my other classes combined, yet I have my worst grade in this class. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I strongly disagree with the way you handle your class and your grades because as a student who works an average of 25-30 hours a week and more than likely the most responsibility of any students, I can handle a full functioning business by myself and not get a measly A in your class, something just doesn’t make sense.

I grade assignments liberally to reflect effort and completeness as they are problem-solving in nature. The averages on the three examinations below were in the 76-84 range. This student concludes that even though he was finding the course relevant and worthwhile, he lost total interest because he wasn’t assured of getting the “A” he thought he deserved because he was already a Chic-fil-A manager. His grades were the following:

Test 1 Grade:               68            Test 2 Grade:              72       Final Exam Grade:      56

Should we let students like this influence education by being viewed as the professor’s customer?

Should we let students like this influence who is evaluated as an effective educator?

• Creating true engagement and interest by applying academic content to real-world application.
• Enhancing problem-solving skills to become more strategic, creative, resourceful and persistent.
  See posting entitled, “Enhancing Strategic, Creative, and Resourceful Problem Solving.”
• Enhancing written presentation skills, including effective consolidation of information using
  summary tables.
• Enhancing and reinforcing vital Excel and Word skills.

During my initial years of instructing I was constantly frustrated by the dilemma of how to handle student questions arising from my weekly mini-casework assignments:

• How much should be clarified?
• If I respond to one student’s question(s), should I distribute that question and response to all other students as not to give anyone an advantage.
• How long should I let students procrastinate and still respond to their questions?
• Are “slight” data inconsistencies and/or confusion bad or productive?

Casework should challenge students in a multitude of dimensions and not be designed to “spoon feed” them. Students need to struggle somewhat as they evaluate background information, collect relevant data, perform various analysis and develop an executive recommendation. These struggles will prepare them for the real-world challenges they will face in the workplace. Their future supervisors will typically not structure projects with clear information, objectives and end products. More often work assignments will resemble putting together a puzzle involving independently making logical interpretations and assumptions, and conducting research activities. Their supervisors will want them to check back periodically with their progress but expect them to pursue the assignment as independently as possible. The more one can run with something themselves in the workplace the more one can impress the supervisor. The ability to run with something involves developing the skill set of independent problem solving that many undergraduate business school curricula may fall short on creating among its graduates.

UVA McIntyre School of Commerce had the Answer: “Make an Executive Decision”

During a visit with my son who is attending the University of Virginia, I was conversing on various business school teaching topics with some of his friends at their McIntyre School of Commerce. I shared my dilemma regarding student questions on casework including both how time consuming it was fielding these questions, and how many were unreasonable and ridiculous. They told me that all the McIntyre instructors have a consistent answer, “Make an Executive Decision.”

This “Make an Executive Decision” response is brilliant because it steadily prepares students to build the independent problem-solving skill set vital to being productive in the workplace upon graduation.

How to Practically Implement this Profound Position

I immediately began incorporating this approach in the courses I taught from that point forward. I have created this “Make an Executive Decision” policy position, yet give the students an opportunity to email me questions up to 48 hours before an assignment is due. They are aware that I may simply respond “Make an Executive Decision.” However, in some situations where I feel it is warranted, I will respond/clarify and share with all students uniformly.

Grading that Rewards the “Right Process,” not Necessarily the “Right Answer”

In supporting this “Making an Executive Decision” approach, it is vital to adopt a grading system that rewards the problem-solving process and not necessarily the right answer. At the outset of the semester the students realize that their assignment grades will reflect the amount of problem-solving creativity,
strategy and resourcefulness exhibited, not necessarily how “right” the conclusion or recommendations are. This allows the students to feel more comfortable independently attacking the assigned case without bombarding me with constant questions to “assure” they get the “right” answer.

Are “Slight” Data Inconsistencies and/or Confusion Bad or Productive?

The real-world casework assigned each semester is often newly developed due to reasons I discuss in the previously referenced posting about shorter topic-specific mini-cases. Being new and untested, there were often slight issues in the assignment write-ups and some students were overly provoked. Despite apologizing for these mistakes, I kept reinforcing that although I didn’t intentionally create confusion, it was a valuable real-world learning experience detecting inconsistencies or confusion. I would further explain that this was very typical of what they would encounter in the workplace.

Students that could identify these assignment issues had superior comprehension and analytical abilities. I had one student in a Marketing Management course that routinely would be the first to send me an email about clarifications almost like clockwork each week within a couple of days of getting the assignment. I applauded her constantly on both her astuteness and her time management abilities to be working ahead.

Propelling Forward Independent Problem-Solving Skills

I would strongly advocate undergraduate business schools adopting the “Make an Executive Decision” approach with assigned casework. This approach enhances students’ abilities to independently problem solve which is the cornerstone in preparing today’s business students to solve tomorrow’s business challenges.

Facilitating the open exchange of progressive and innovative ideas surrounding business education is vital in propelling it to higher effectiveness levels. However, currently there is very little social media activity among American business school educators regarding ideas and approaches to improve education. Blogging and LinkedIn groups are the logical social media avenues for a professional industry topic like this. The platforms and target audience characteristics of both Facebook and Twitter currently do not lend themselves to this type of professional dialogue.

In efforts to motivate and energize social media communication among business educators I will be evaluating the current state of activity of blogging and LinkedIn. In conjunction with these discussions, I share my initiatives within these platforms to motivate and energize communication among business educators.

LinkedIn Activity among Business Educators: American Scarcity

Groups on LinkedIn are an effective way to communicate with professionals within a specific interest or industry area. Groups can be established whereby the membership privilege must be accepted by the sponsor so that group integrity can be maintained. Among business school-related groups this week there are currently only two: “Professors in Management Schools” with 438 members and “Professors in B Schools” with 22 members. The sponsorship and membership of these two groups are predominately educators living in India with only a handful of members that are professors living in the United States.

The scarcity of American business school professor activity in LinkedIn groups creates an opportunity to launch a new group entitled “Progressive US Business School Educators.” The objective of this new group will be to create an active dialogue on innovative yet practical approaches in improving business school education among American business school educators.

Blogging Activity among Business Educators: Scarce

From doing a Google blog search it is easy to conclude that Google is hard-pressed to find any active and relevant blogs on this topic currently. Searching “improving undergraduate business school education” as of this week resulted in only five total listings with the following websites occupying the top three spots:

1. Goizueta Business School – Undergraduate BBA
My Comment: Entire blog consists of one posting dated September 26, 2007, with no comments.

2. Berkeley MBA Student Blogs
My Comment: This blog is a smorgasbord of MBA students’ personally motivated postings on topics including karaoke competitions, going green, “Life as a second year” and “Let’s hear it for the girls.”

3. HistorySOTL
My Comment: The website has nothing to do with business school education; it is actually the University of Indiana’s International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in History.

A broader search on Google “business school education” produces similar results whereby the blogs are again not about critiquing and improving the educational system.

1. TheBizClass – Business School, Continuing Education, and business
My Comment: The landing page of Gibbs College in Linvingston, UK designed to promote their college.

2 & 3. DeansTalk – business management education
My Comment: The blog’s content is referencing other postings that center on business school rankings and announcing various conferences. I did not see any comments to these postings which reflect the level of audience engagement.

I have launched a new blog as of August 2010 entitled “Propelling Undergraduate Business Schools Forward.” It commonly can take four to six months for the search engines to index and evaluate enough history to show up high in the organic rankings like those appearing and discussed above. An important component of gaining a high organic ranking on the search engines is responding to blogs on similar topics which can foster people creating links to your website (viral marketing). The irony is that there is essentially no blog community activity to respond to regarding improving business school education.

Blogging Activity By Non-Educators

I have found very little blogging activity by non-educators except for a very encouraging October 29, 2010, posting by Seth Godin entitled “Pushing back on mediocre professors.” Seth Godin is currently ranked the number two blogger in the world according to the Advertising Age Power 150 Rankings and he has held the number one position frequently. With his stature and large following I am hoping that his posting will bring more attention to this subject among the general public and activate business school educators. Some of his most noteworthy comments from his recent posting include:

Perhaps you could give us an assignment that actually pushes us to solve interesting problems, overcome our fear or learn something that I could learn in no other way…”
If the topic of creating more problem solving interests you, see my posting entitled, “Enhancing Strategic, Creative and Resourceful Problem Solving.”

When a professor spends hours in class going over concepts that are clearly covered in the textbook, I think you have an obligation to repeat the part about the debt and say, “perhaps you could assign this as homework and we could have an actual conversation in class…”
If the topic of teaching application versus regurgitating content interests you, see my posting entitled, “Application versus Content in Conjunction with Unannounced Quizzes.”

“Professors who rely on marketing textbooks that are advertising-based, despite the fact that virtually no professional marketers build their careers solely around advertising any longer. And most of all, about professors who treat new ideas or innovative ways of teaching with contempt.”

Seth Godin is extremely passionate about business school education as evidenced by his remarkable endeavor of self-educating MBA students. Wikipedia reports that this Stanford Business School graduate announced in December 2008 in a blog post that he would be offering a six month alternative MBA program at his office in New York. Forty-eight thousand people looked at the post and 340 applied. He invited 27 applicants to his office for a group interview. They spent two hours interviewing one another. After co-mingling, they and Godin together wrote down the names of their favorite candidates. Three weeks later the chosen nine showed up at Godin’s office. This group graduated in July 2009.

Propelling Business School Educators to Communicate Using Social Media to Improve Education

We realize investing in education is an integral part of the equation to elevate American productivity to gain a competitive advantage in the global economy. This investment needs to be as innovative and efficient as possible. Innovative ideas are fostered through communication and collaboration in which social media can play a vital role. I encourage progressive business educators to become energized in these powerful electronic formats to promote important advancements in business school education.

I am perplexed by Harvard’s position and how often final examinations are neither mandatory and/or cumulative at today’s universities. Educational theory supports the huge benefit of students reviewing course materials frequently and cumulatively. Final exams create an important cumulative review of both course content and practice applying concepts that result in:

• Revisiting concepts, approaches and terminology later in a semester. This often results in a better overall understanding. Students benefit from a perspective containing a “bigger picture” having been exposed to the entire course when going back and reviewing portions covered earlier in the semester.
• Heightening retention so that knowledge gained in a course can be applied later in the workplace. Separate from the beneficial studying process for a cumulative final exam, a student knowing that this cumulative final will take place at the end of the term heightens aggregate retention during the semester. Students have the additional motivation to retain knowledge throughout the semester that they may not otherwise. See research from Memory and Cognition, 2007 “Expectation of a Final Cumulative Test Enhances Long-term Retention.”

So why is it not automatic that all professors require students to have mandatory and cumulative final exams? Too much latitude is given by administrators and departmental oversight faculty in making this determination, which is usually the total prerogative of the professor. Although students do not like having to take cumulative final exams, it is in the students’ best academic interests to require this important learning experience. I believe the significant reduction of mandatory and cumulative finals is due to a combination of the following factors:

• Administration and grading effort reduced
• Personal interests over student academic interests
• Professors with mandatory and cumulative finals are penalized on student evaluations
• Optional finals used as an incentive for good semester performance

Administration and Grading Effort Reduced

Research, publishing, grant writing, presentations and committee work are the priorities of the vast majority of today’s undergraduate faculty and graduate students. Instructing students comes after the above priorities, which drive tenure, compensation and day-to-day departmental recognition. This imbalance of faculty priorities towards student education is further concluded from my observations during four years of departmental meetings where not once have I witnessed an acknowledgment on the teaching merits of a faculty member.

A professor has no real incentive or expectation from their department heads or university administration to incur the significant incremental time involved in developing, administering and grading a final exam. Administrative oversight needs to (i) communicate to faculty the importance of cumulative final exams from an academic learning process standpoint and (ii) make them mandatory.

Personal Interests over Student Academic Interests

One of my oversight course coordinators, who was also teaching sections in the course, explained to me his motivation for not giving final exams. It was totally based on his personal interests, not at all from a student educational perspective. Each semester he would give a third, non-cumulative test on the last, normal class of the semester; no cumulative final exam was given during the exam week. This allowed him a full additional week of time off to travel to visit his family. This situation reinforces my belief that university administrators need to dictate final exam policy as left up to the individual professor its human nature to take the easy road and short-cut the student’s academic learning experience.

Professors with Mandatory and Cumulative Finals are Penalized on Student Evaluations

Currently the vast majority of instructor evaluations that administrators and department heads rely on are end-of-the-semester, anonymous, online, numerical student feedback surveys. These evaluations are completed at the end of the semester, immediately prior or during final exam week. Contrast a professor giving a challenging, mandatory and cumulative final versus a professor either giving no final or an optional final. The vast majority of students do not reward professors with a good evaluation based on how much they have been pushed and motivated to learn. On the contrary, most students reward professors that have easy course requirements and those that are liberal graders. This creates a detrimental incentive for professors to cater towards being popular with students and compromises the important learning experience of cumulative final exams.

I did a search on Facebook on the topic of “Cumulative Finals” and immediately located what I believe is the prevailing sentiment of most college students:

Page Title: Down with the cumulative final exam!

Category: Common Interest – Beliefs & Causes

Description: For all you people who fall behind after the midterm exam and come to finals having to know not only the stuff you just barely learned after the midterm, but also the stuff from the first half of the semester…and I hate it.

Its human nature for students to desire the path of least resistance/the easy road, but this path is not in the students’ best academic interests.

Optional Finals Used as an Incentive for Good Semester Performance

I have never understood the logic of professors using optional final exams as an incentive to reward good semester performance. It is just as important for a high-achieving student to benefit from the review process of a cumulative final exam as those students with lower grades. Again, professors cater towards trying to please students, not understanding what is in the students’ best academic interests.

Assigning a Large Portion of Total Grade to the Final Exam, Otherwise Students Cruise

Unless the final exam counts a big portion of the final grade; students too often have a margin of cushion and therefore do not adequately apply themselves. The frequent enticement to cruise on the final, because it won’t affect their grade, too often robs the student of the worthwhile learning experience from exerting a quality preparation effort. Let’s use a numeric example to illustrate this issue. Assume the final exam counts only 20% of the final grade and student has an 87 average in the class going into the final. Assuming a B is 80-89 and an A is 90-100; a student can get as low as a 52 on the final and still receive a B with an 80 final average. To receive an A in the course, it would require getting a 100 on the exam which most students would assume is unlikely and therefore take the cruise option.

Another way to address this final exam cruising problem is to use plusses and minuses on grades that directly impact the overall grade point average (GPA). Using the example above, the student has a greater incentive to raise their grades to a B+ or A-, and furthermore the fear of protecting their grade from not falling to a B- or C+. At one school where I teach you can award an A+ (counts as 4.3 toward the GPA) which is terrific as this is an excellent motivation for your top students to take their final exam preparation seriously.

Students Reviewing Final Exam is a Lost Opportunity; Time Should Allow for Learning Process to Occur

It is unfortunate that once students complete their final exams the only thing they are concerned about is the grade they received. My final exams are comprised of real-world situations where students apply their acquired course knowledge. Students would benefit greatly from seeing more than just their grade. Reviewing what they understood and most importantly areas of deficiency, they could expand their understanding by seeing how exercises were intended to be solved and/or approached.

Every semester I encourage students to come to my office to review their final exams (in addition to receiving their grades online) as they will learn a lot from what they got right and wrong. With the exception of two foreign exchange students that came for this purpose, the only students that come have been displeased with their final exam and course grades.

Grade submission time frames are very tight and do not allow professors to incorporate either a required or optional incentive program to get students to review their final exams. Unfortunately students do not have the foresight to show interest in the course by meeting with the professor, perhaps not knowing that assistance in letters of recommendation, references and job-networking might be heightened.

Propelling Undergraduate Business School Administrators to Develop Necessary Policies

I advocate that college administrators at the university or departmental level address and debate the merits of cumulative and mandatory final exams. Without directly addressing the use of cumulative final exams, their existence will continue to diminish which may already be below 25% based on the Harvard University study. Once a determination has been made, consistent policy needs to adopted in order to minimize the individual prerogatives of professors which may not reflect the students’ best academic interests. Without uniform adherence, the professors waiving or providing optional cumulative final exams will come under unfair student scrutiny and receive lower course evaluations.