Effectively motivating undergraduate students is paramount to the success of our educational system. In my recent years of teaching I have applied to students techniques I have used for motivating individuals in the workplace during my 20 years of management consulting and hotel operation. Techniques that proved very effective when implemented in the undergraduate business […]

“Professor Heller, that’s voodoo math” was one of the funniest student comments I ever received after going through an in-class exercise in a college course.  The topic I was addressing was how much time students should expect to spend completing assignments and reading preparation materials for class during a non-testing week (weekly homework). My classroom exercise […]

Motivating students to attend class involves a combination of techniques. Focusing class time on the application, versus content, of academic topics through real-world exercises engages committed, high-tier students and makes them eager to attend. Students should want to attend lectures to take advantage of the unique learning opportunity provided by their professors, but the reality […]

Creating an effective classroom environment is vital to achieving course motivation and productivity as well as the respect you deserve as a professor.  The slide I use during my first lecture to create an expectation that our classroom environment will parallel a small business meeting, is provided as a FREE Attachment. I cover up the four points […]

For many upper-level courses, it has often been difficult to find the right traditional textbook and until Electronic Textbooks (ETs) became an option, compromising has been commonplace. Professors have often been forced to choose between the lesser of two evils or assemble numerous articles and distribute a packet to each student. ETs are a terrific […]

Should college be about who can take the best notes while a professor lectures? (No) Does industry place a high importance on a work professional’s ability to take copious notes while someone is speaking for a straight hour? (No) Then the logical conclusion is that undergraduate business schools should advocate to their faculty to provide […]

Determining whether assignments should be completed individually or in small groups is a major decision for business school faculty. There are various considerations behind making this important decision. In some situations, group work is appropriate at the undergraduate level; however, there is an overabundance of group work and for the wrong reason. Candidly, the real […]

I encourage students to refer to me as Coach Heller instead of Professor Heller. I have coached sports for decades and have realized that the word associations with Coach align well with what a progressive and reachable teacher can accomplish with his or her students. These typical word associations for Coach and Professor show how […]

It is September 12th and you assign a month-long project due on October 12th, giving students over four weeks to complete the work.  Because you are giving the students an entire month, you are expecting a great deal of both quality and quantity of work effort involved.  After all, it counts a full 25% of […]