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eLearning Newsletter
Issue # 15, Summer 2012
Helpful Links
Getting Started With eLearning
For all of your UT Dallas online learning news and information.
- eLearning Team
- Featured Online Student
- Jindal School of Management
- School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences
eLearning Team
The fall semester takes us into our second (and final) pilot with the new eLearning system. I am happy to report that the transition has gone quite well to date. We have gotten some great feedback from students and faculty on the new system, and look forward to incorporating many of the suggestions we have received. In the spring, you will see all of your courses on the new eLearning system.
As our focus is on the end user experience, we want to make sure we are serving you the very best we can. Last semester’s survey focused on accessing courses on mobile devices. We received 170 responses, with 27% (46) stating that they currently use mobile devices to access their courses.
When asked how important having the ability to complete an online course on a mobile device is, you answered:
Mobile technology seems to be the next logical step as it is becoming increasingly more affordable and reliable.
Out of 46 respondents (multiple selections could be made), the mobile devices you reported using are:
*Other included Windows smartphones and Kindle Fire.
While there are more students using mobile devices for coursework, generally speaking a relatively small percentage of that work is being completed on these devices. When asked, “What percentage of your studies are done on a mobile device?”, 46 of you said:
There are some challenges that we face as we move toward becoming mobile friendly – the ability for students to view Flash-based lectures on Apple products in particular. This issue is one that we are systematically addressing. All newly produced course materials will be designed to work with iPads/iPhones. Existing lectures will be converted to Apple-friendly versions in the future. This is a huge undertaking, but we will get there.
This semester’s survey focuses on how you want to be notified about things that happen inside your course.
| Course Notification Survey |
Thank you and have a great semester!
-Darren Crone, Ed.D., eLearning Director
Featured Online Student
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Scott Church, MBA Student |
The eLearning Team invites you to meet our students by viewing a different profile each newsletter. This semester's featured student is Scott Church.
- Where do you work?
Insight
- What is your position?
Account Executive
- How long have you been there?
I recently transitioned from Army active duty on May 26, 2012 following my 5 year West Point service commitment and began working at Insight.
- What do you want to do after you finish your degree?
At Insight, I have the opportunity to draw on my business acumen to help companies develop IT solutions to meet their business challenges.
- How many online courses have you taken?
I took 18 online courses over a continuous 3 semester period in order to complete my degree in Decmeber of 2011.
- Why did you decide to take online courses?
I wanted to continue my coursework while deployed. I took classes while stationed in Qatar from February 2010 to February 2011.
- How is the online experience different from the traditional classroom?
Online courses are definitely different. It requires more dedication and self-control to make sure that you finish your work on time since it is easier to get distracted. Time management skills are critical. I do miss the interaction with the professors and other students in a non-virtual setting, but today's technologies provide plenty of opportunities to interact and collaborate. - What makes an online course effective?
Online courses provide many of the same benefits as a traditional classroom setting; however, students are not restricted to attending lectures at a certain time. All of my instructors are only an email or phone call away to answer any questions. Group work can be accomplished via conference calls, emails, or chat rooms and work can be divided across time zones and even countries. Working in this manner teaches students skills that will be necessary to operate in today's globally connected business environment.
- Who was your favorite professor and why?
My favorite teacher may be biased by my affinity for Finance, but Professor Day's FIN 6301 was my favorite couse. I felt that Professor Day showed great interest in each of his students and was always quick to respond to questions and provide feedback on problem sets. Even from overseas I felt like I got the same quality of instruction I would have received in a classroom setting.
- Is there any advice you can give to other online students?
My strategy has been to treat online classes the same as I would any other class in a non-online environment. I set a specific routine for myself and deadlines for when I am going to complete my work. It really boils down to makina a commitment to stay current, plan ahead, and seek help if there is something you don't understand. All of my instructors have been more than willing to offer guidance. I try to put in as much effort as possible and find the old adage holds true, "you get out, what you put in".
Jindal School of Management
Academic Advising
With the new website enhancements, the registration and online course offerings pages have been relocated. You will be able to find them by going to jindal.utdallas.edu, selecting MBA from the top menu, then PMBA Online Program on the left-hand side. If you then hover over “PMBA Online Program,” you will be able to view the “Registration” and “Online Courses” links. Within these pages, you will find helpful instructions on how to register for each semester, as well as, online course resources such as obtaining textbooks, preparing for your online course(s), and proctored exam information. Additionally, on the Online Courses page, you will get a better idea on what online courses are coming up each semester.
All the best,
-Corina Cantua, Assistant Director
JSOM Academic Advising
corina.cantua@utdallas.edu
972-883-5963
| Teaching Award Nomination for Online Courses |
Online MBA Program
Announcement for new fall online course.
BPS 6311 Strategy Implementation will be offered online for the first time in the fall of 2012. BPS 6311 focuses on how to effectively implement the concepts learned in strategy courses. The main objective of the course is to use innovation techniques to analyze and solve business problems. Since this is the first time this course is being offered, the normal prerequisite of BPS 6310 will be waived.
The course will use the popular and low cost Harvard Press book “The Innovator’s Solution” by Clayton Christensen plus a reprint of two innovation chapters from the Dess strategy textbook. The course syllabus can be seen on UTD's coursebook.
The course will be taught by Professor Larry Chasteen who is the director of the UT Dallas Online MBA Program. Professor Chasteen was a program manager at Texas Instruments for 20 years before becoming a professor at UT Dallas and will use his practical business experience in this course.
For more information, contact Professor Chasteen at chasteen@utdallas.edu. Hope to see some of you in the course.
Meet Our Faculty
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John P. Barden has been a member of the faculty at the Naveen Jindal School of Management since September 2006 and is actively involved in student development. He was promoted to Director of Undergraduate Accounting in June 2010. Professor Barden Chair's the Undergraduate Accounting Curriculum Committee. He has been teaching on-line courses at UTD since September 2007. He also served as the faculty advisor to the national winner of the American Institute Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Case Competition in NYC in January 2011 and winners of Third Place in Washington D.C. in January 2012.
Professor Barden is a Certified Public Accountant in New York State and a Certified Fraud Examiner with over 15 years of Public/corporate accounting experience working with Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, Gulf & Western and Azon Corporation. Professor Barden has made Accounting-related presentations at the following organizations:
He serves as an advisor to Excelsior College in Albany, New York. Professor Barden is a strong promoter of on-line education.
School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences
Meet Our Faculty
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Sarah Maxwell, Ph.D. School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences |
Dr. Sarah Maxwell, Associate Professor, School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences holds a Ph.D. in public policy from George Mason University. Dr. Maxwell teaches courses on public policy, public management, nonprofit management, bureaucracy, human service implementation and crime policy. She also served as the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education. She is currently the Principal Investigator for C-CORE, a U.S. Department of Justice funded program to provide academic and career-focused mentoring to youth. As an active member of the UTD community, Dr. Maxwell works with the McDermott Scholars Program, as well as UT PACT, a collaborative initiative between UT Southwestern Medical School and UT Dallas that enhances the training of health care professionals.
In addition to her academic career, Dr. Maxwell worked for a large nonprofit, managing federal and state grants in the youth offender and employment fields. During this time, she organized a joint task force between the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Department of Justice to study promising employment practices for court-involved youth. She also worked as a management and subject matter consultant to nonprofits and federal contractors in the juvenile justice and youth development fields. Dr. Maxwell is the co-author on numerous government and foundation reports and more recently, a book on the women’s movement, titled “Success and Solitude: Fifty years after the Feminine Mystique.”
Prior to joining the faculty at UT Dallas, Dr. Maxwell served as a clinical faculty member in the School of Public Administration and Policy, Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona where she taught courses in public policy, bureaucracy, public management, nonprofit management, and human services. She also taught in the Administration of Justice Program, Department of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University.
Online Master of Science in Justice Administration and Leadership
The Executive Master of Science in Justice Administration and Leadership (MS-JAL) provides students with a coherent and intellectually challenging degree that prepares a new generation of leaders to manage and administer justice and other social service organizations. The program delivers an innovative and integrated curriculum that connects such key components of leadership and administration as organizational behavior, organizational change, policy analysis, decision-making, and conflict resolution to prepare students for supervisory and executive positions.
In the fall, Dr. Maxwell will be teaching Crime and Policy in the JAL program. This class explores the foundations of the policy-making process at the federal, state, and local levels. The course also considers broad theoretical applications pertaining to public opinion, national culture, and comparative analyses among western democracies and their differing approaches to crime. Understanding public policy is imperative for public managers, as they must comprehend the complex nature of public laws, rulemaking, and the implementation of public programs before becoming effective managers. This course will require students to become subject matter experts, researching evidence-based programs in all facets of criminal justice. Students will then write an in-depth case analysis, tracing the development of one public law from issue identification through the adoption and rulemaking processes, and finally through implementation, evaluation, and unintended consequences. The course is held online, and requires intensive participation from JAL students, most of whom already have extensive experience in the public administration and criminal justice fields.Newsletter edited by Rita Cubie, Administrative Assistant, UT Dallas eLearning Team
