Teaching Activities - Paul McAfee - Experiential and Applied Learning

Education at a Crossroads

8/16/2020

As an instructor in higher education, I have experience teaching seated, hybrid (online and seated), and online only courses. With online courses, I have taught asynchronous and synchronous classes. The difference is that synchronous online classes meet live and offer students the opportunity (if taught well) to interact with their instructors. Asynchronous courses do not meet live. Students watch videos, read posted links and materials, and take assessments. Give me a choice, and I will teach students in a classroom where we can truly interact. Currently, our choices as instructors are severely limited.

The coronavirus pandemic has brought higher education to a crossroads. The New York Times article linked below explains the challenges educators face. My personal view is that the changes that occur over the next year will affect the way we teach permanently, and importantly, the financial situation of colleges and universities. To reduce tuition for online courses will require dramatic reductions in fixed costs and ongoing operating costs. I teach capstone Strategic Management courses at several universities. This is the year when the effective application of Strategic Management principles will be critical to the survival of our higher education systems.

Here is the New York Times article:

As Colleges Move Classes Online, Families Rebel Against the Cost

"Schools face rising demands for tuition rebates, increased aid and leaves of absence as students ask if college is becoming 'glorified Skype.'"

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/15/us/covid-college-tuition.html

#highereducation #onlineeducation #tuition #educationcosts

Image Source New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/15/us/covid-college-tuition.html

"ICE: Foreign Students Must Leave The U.S. If Their Colleges Go Online-Only This Fall" (NPR)

7/7/2020

This newly implemented requirement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may be one more financial nail in the coffin of many colleges and universities, at least if foreign students decide to drop out of their U.S. schools because they are not allowed to remain in the U.S. This could be an added financial stressor for schools.

To the extent that students leave American campuses to return to their countries, this also will hurt the economies surrounding those campuses - lost rent, grocery spends, and incidental purchases.

https://www.npr.org/…/ice-foreign-students-must-leave-the-u…

#education #highereducation #foreignstudents #college #university

Source Getty Images, downloaded from https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/07/06/888026874/ice-foreign-students-must-leave-the-u-s-if-their-colleges-go-online-only-this-fa

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced a new set of rules for foreign students in light of the coronavirus pandemic. International students cannot enter or stay in the U.S. if their college offers courses only online in the fall semester.
Eva Hambach/AFP via Getty Images

A Problem for College in the Fall: Reluctant Professors - NY Times

7/3/2020

Thank you to the MOBTS (Management and Organizational Behavior Teaching Society - https://mobts.org/) team - and to the many presenters - for organizing a week that was both enlightening and exhausting. I learned so much about teaching through the selfless sharing of the presenters and the other participants. This conference represented a community of practice.

My focus during the workshops was on developing the most effective possible teaching methods for fully online classes. My fall courses all will be online. My students deserve an effective "educative" experience, to use one of Dewey's terms. We lose much of the social aspect of learning, at least the face-to-face aspect, with fully online courses. I received wonderful ideas from the MOBTS conference that will guide me toward delivering a psychologically safe and rich educative experience this fall.

This NY Times article illustrates a concern I have for the fall. Some professors may refuse to teach in classrooms. They will clash with university policies requiring seated classes. On many campuses, I suspect that the start of the fall semester will be chaotic. I am better prepared now than I was a week ago. Thank you MOBTS.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/03/us/coronavirus-college-professors.html

#highereducation #covid19 #sociallearning #health #mobts

More about Academic Integrity in Our Changed World

6/15/2020

Please take two minutes to read the article at this link from a Singapore newspaper:

"NUS students get zero marks for cheating on take-home exam"

As students take more college courses online, either fully or in a hybrid seated+online configuration, getting the students to maintain academic integrity increases dramatically. It simply is too easy for a student to cheat if they are taking an exam or writing a paper online with no oversight -- i.e., without proctoring. Why does this matter to me? Two simple reasons:

Students who study to learn the material feel cheated by students who collaborate or plagiarize on exams.

Some students -- think nurses, accountants, engineers, doctors, and other professional practitioners -- will be expected to have actually learned what they studied when they start to practice medicine, design buildings and bridges, or handle corporate and personal accounts.
In a recent year, partway through a semester in a capstone strategic management course I taught in Singapore, I was talking with my students about academic integrity. One student raised his hand and I called on him. He said, and this is a verbatim quote: "Professor, it isn't cheating if you don't get caught." This actually happened!

After discovering that exam scores were significantly higher -- i.e., 20% or more higher -- with online multiple-choice question (MCQ) exams, I did an experiment in one of these capstone courses. I put a low-stakes MCQ exam online, scheduling it to be open for 30 minutes during a regular seated class session. The exam was intended to be taken independently, not collaboratively. The students had ten minutes to complete the exam during the 30-minute window. They started in the classroom, and then could go wherever they wanted to complete the exam during that 30-minute window.

I gave the students a countdown to the start of the exam, and the second the exam window opened, about 75% of the students ran out of the classroom to the tables in the hallways to form groups to take the exam together. The remaining 25% of the students stayed in the classroom. I had told everyone that they should take the exam the way the normally would, so they did. One group at a large table had a single student take the exam during the first 10-minute block and watched that student, advising him if he was unsure of the answer. When he finished they regrouped into three smaller groups and then watched and advised the one student in their smaller group has he or she took the exam. Finally, the remaining students went to their computers to take the exam in the last 10-minute block, with the students who had completed the exam watching and helping.

I knew this behavior existed from a few years back, when I discovered extremely high scores on a Masters-level online exam that -- are you ready for this -- nursing students were taking. Eventually, one of the students in the class complained. To her -- she had studied hard for the exam and had taken it by herself as instructed -- it was unfair that other students had high grades without actually learning the material. She had observed students in her class taking the exam in teams at computers in the library.

Many of my friends feel it is unfair to use plagiarism checking tools, or online exam monitoring tools. We would proctor the exam in the classroom. Why should we not proctor it online? And how do we treat the students who learn the material who feel cheated by the students who do not learn but plagiarize or get help during online exams?

Of course, we could stop giving MCQ exams. But students can cheat in online essays or open-ended question exams just as easily. I use the MCQ exams only to confirm that the students are reading and understanding the course material. I even give the students the subject of every question on the exam a week ahead. These exams account for a relatively small portion of the final grade. If I catch a student cheating on one of these, the student most likely will fail the course. But I need the monitoring tools for online exams to catch the cheating. (And yes, I use question pools and random question delivery to limit cheating. I've had a student answer a write-in question that wasn't on his delivered online exam because someone else had told him the question that the other student had received and this student gave the answer to that question.)

I use Project-Based-Learning methods with students working together all semester in teams. We could just give team-based grades. But if you teach, you know there are a lot of social loafers who expect the other team members to do the work, but expect the same grades as their team members.

I hate online exam monitoring. We must use it; out of fairness to students who try to learn the material, and because students will be expected to know what we teach when they start their careers.

This article, about online cheating in an Engineering program at the National University of Singapore (NUS), illustrates the problem. Congratulations to NUS both for giving the students zero grades, and noted their academic integrity failure in their permanent records. If we sanction students for cheating, and have ways to identify cheating, we may be able to reduce the "It isn't cheating if you don't get caught" mentality.

#college #highereducation #academicintegrity #integrity #honesty #onlineeducation #onlineexam

"Our education system is losing relevance. Here's how to unleash its potential"

4/17/2020

The headline is from this article at the World Economic Forum:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/our-education-system-is-losing-relevance-heres-how-to-update-it/

The 2020 coronavirus pandemic instantly changed the ways we teach and the ways students learn. Except for those of us who already were teaching fully online courses, this was hugely disruptive. In my case, I was teaching a Master's-level fully online course for students at Daemen College, Buffalo, NY, and three fully seated undergraduate courses for University of North Carolina Asheville (UNC Asheville).

The online students had established their pace and were doing fine before Daemen College halted all seated classes. Nevertheless, I realized that some of those students would have had seated classes abruptly converted to online. I had to think about how this might affect them - not to mention how the stress, economic impact, and fear, caused by the pandemic was affecting their lives. The semester is ongoing, and the students seem to be OK. The end-of-semester student evaluations of my teaching will give me some ideas for improvement. We might have to teach fully online during the fall 2020 semester, and the feedback can help me adjust my methods to improve the students' learning experiences.

The fully seated students in my three UNC Asheville courses had the biggest shock - the shock millions of students in the U.S.A. and other countries experienced when their school shut the classrooms (and dormitories) and everything went virtual. Because I use team-based project-based-learning methods, the students were able to continue working in teams using whatever collaboration methods (i.e., Google Hangouts, Zoom, FaceTime, etc.) worked for them. I meet with these students weekly in 20-30 live online meetings. After a full-class live session, we break into team groups on Zoom and I meet with each group. To my surprise, I am having more direct interaction with my students in these courses than I had before we moved to online education. They are comfortable talking one-on-one and in small groups online - much more than in the classroom.

This is the time for us as educators to think seriously about how we teach and how students learn. The World Economic Forum article provides ideas to start our reflection.

#daemencollege #uncasheville #highereducation #experientiallearning #onlinelearning #pedagogy

Photo by Paul McAfee @ UNC Asheville with the students and a guest speaker, 2020.

SUNY University at Buffalo Moves to Optional S/U Grading for Current Semester

3/21/2020

The Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at the University at Buffalo (State University of New York) just announced the option for students to convert from A-F grades to Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U). The details for doing this went out in an email to students and faculty.

This is a verbatim excerpt from a longer and more detailed email, but covering the conversion to S/U for undergraduates (separate information for graduate students).

From SUNY University at Buffalo Email:

We have also made a number of changes to satisfactory/unsatisfactory (S/U) grading policy:

The deadline for students to elect this option is extended through the last day of the spring 2020 examinations.
Spring 2020 courses graded S/U are excluded from the maximum 25 percent of S/U credits allowed towards a degree.

For undergraduate students:

Courses taken for S/U grades during spring 2020 will count towards UB Curriculum general education requirements, major requirements and electives.

Some degree programs may require you to recover letter grades in major courses and pre-requisites in the future. To date these include Nursing, Accounting, Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy.

Undergraduate students may find information on how to Request an S/U Grade on the Office of the Registrar website at: https://registrar.buffalo.edu/forms/su-grade.php

#universityatbuffalo #suny #stateuniversityofnewyork #ub #grading #highereducation

"All SUNY, CUNY schools shifting to online learning to combat coronavirus"

3/11/2020

My observation: The Wuhan Coronavirus and its Covid-19 illness are creating a watershed moment in how people meet, conduct business, and learn. I doubt we will return fully to prior behaviors after this settles.

Breaking News (from The Buffalo News)

"All state university campuses will shut down on March 19 to try to reduce density levels of students who could spread the novel coronavirus among people on and off college grounds.

"The remaining weeks of the spring semester for the 64-campus State University of New York will be offered through online course work, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said Wednesday afternoon.

"'That will be a way to reduce density and that’s a good thing,' Cuomo said.

"The order will also affect the City University of New York system."

https://buffalonews.com/2020/03/11/all-suny-cuny-schools-shifting-to-online-learning-to-combat-coronavirus/

#covid-19 #coronavirus #education #businessmeetings #travel #socialchange #onlinelearning #elearning

Your Next Career Might be in Higher Education

12/20/2019

Delivering an experiential learning seminar at the University of Science in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 2018.

If you are like me and have had a great multi-decade career in professional roles, and you are not ready to settle into a quiet retirement, then consider teaching. Although I have not explored teaching in K-12 programs recently, that could be an option. A few years ago, I applied to Teach for America, went through hours of interviews, to the very last one-on-one interview, and then was not selected. I suspect age is the reason. I decided not to bother with K-12 after that, as I already had a couple years of higher education teaching experience in China, Vietnam, and the U.S.A. Stick with me here and I'll share an excellent resource at the end of this post.

My point here is that you should have better chance in higher education. This is especially so if you have years of senior leadership experience in your field, had at least a Master's degree, and want to help the next generation by teaching what you know, and sharing your experiences. My secondary point is that ageism is real. I've experienced it first-hand. In one instance, sitting in a final face-to-face interview for a government agency, I was told a couple times that, and I quote, "You are over experienced for this position." The fact that I drove 10 hours to attend the interview, was interested in the position, and had all of the skills required to do the job, meant nothing.

In another instance, after another 10 hour drive to the final face-to-face interview, the exact words, which I heard three times from the hiring manager, were, "This is a developmental position." Once again, I was fully qualified, interested, and could have been a perfect candidate for the role. But that hiring manager, and the previous one, clearly wanted someone younger in their positions. Neither of these were teaching positions.

Age is less of an issue for adjunct instructors in higher education. In some cases, the experience you have had will help you get the position. Adjuncts are underpaid, but if you aren't in it for the money, the satisfaction of helping a new generation of professionals develop more than offsets the low pay. It is possible that an adjunct role could lead you to a full-time position. What you might find difficult, as I have, and where ageism may come into play, is when or if you apply for tenure track positions. While I haven't had the blatant comments like the ones above, I perceive the difficulty in getting hired into a tenure-track position due to my age as real, and I've basically stopped trying.

I like and enjoy my contract teaching roles. They have taken me to China, Singapore, Vietnam. I've taught for three schools in Buffalo, NY. Currently, I'm halfway through a one-year contract with the University of North Carolina in Asheville, a beautiful - and quirky - mountain city. If your professional career is over - if you aren't ready to settle too much - and if you like helping younger people develop -consider teaching in higher education. Here is a website with tips for older people who want to teach. It addresses the ageism issue directly in its recommendations.

From the Higher Education Recruitment Consortion:

https://www.hercjobs.org/higher-education-job-search-tips-for-older-employees/

Preparing for Behavioral Event Interviews

8/30/2019

Lisa Mann, from the UNC Asheville Career Center, visited both capstone Strategy classes this week to help the students develop the skill of story telling for their future career searches.

This was an experiential process. The students wrote a story that might be relevant in a behavioral event job interview in the Situation - Action - Result (SAR) format. They then shared their stories with students in the class that they didn't know well to get feedback.

Lisa also had them write a story about a time they failed in the SAR format, and share that story with a friend in the room.

All of this is to help them when they graduate, which most will do in December or next May, and in their future careers.

Link to UNC Asheville Career Center: https://www.unca.edu/success/career-center/

Link to Neil Bearden video about story telling: https://vimeo.com/354629176

Link to my LinkedIn article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/preparing-behavioral-event-interviews-paul-mcafee-mba-phd-abd

"Why Managers Need to Know Transgender Terminology" (AOM)

7/2/2019

Recently, I shared an article here about non-binary gender pronouns. The following new article from Academy of Management (AOM) explains why managers (and of course, teachers) need to know transgender terminology. If this subject interests you, follow the link to the article. There is a detailed glossary of terms that you can save for reference.

Link to AOM article:
https://journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/amle.2015.0355.summary

The following are the first three paragraphs of the article:

Learning terminology related to transgender issues is one of the first steps toward creating a respectful work culture for transgender employees, according to Michael J. Robinson of Case Western Reserve University, coauthor of an Academy of Management Learning & Education article.

“People who don’t understand the language automatically have a really negative predisposition to something,” said Robinson, who coauthored, “Bringing Transgender Issues Into Management Education: A Call to Action,” with Chantal van Esch of California State Polytechnic University in Pomona and Diana Bilimoria of Case Western Reserve University. “That’s part of the reason you’ll hear people say, ‘She thinks she’s a woman,’ when they’re talking about trans women, or, ‘She calls herself a woman, but she’s really a man.’”

U.S. managers who do not know how to interact respectfully with transgender employees, or how to build workplace cultures in which coworkers interact respectfully, face fines from the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or financial penalties or settlements in civil courts. Organizational reputations can also take a hit, according to the article.

Retrieved online from https://journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/amle.2015.0355.summary

Paul McAfee

My experiential learning Activities blog includes examples from my international teaching experiences. The Research blog includes studies I have read and comments on others' research, as well as my own.

Read about examples from my teaching college business courses in China, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam, relating to both experiential learning and project-based learning.

Please share your questions and thoughts here.

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