Contact Us   Archive   Sitemap

  

Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education Course Development Grant Proposal
MGMT 225 Fundamental Managerial Statistics
Purdue University

Abstract

From an experimental few courses three years ago, Purdue University Calumet presently offers more than 65 sections of courses that are either distance learning or internet enhanced sections. The most substantial number of distance and internet enhanced courses are offered by the School of Management and the Information Systems and Computer Programming Department. Introductory Managerial Statistics is a first course in statistical methods utilized by both the Management and Information Systems programs. The needs of these programs have motivated this proposal.

The focus of this proposal is on the design of this course over the internet, rather than on developing the technology to deliver the course. The purposes of this project are
(1) to develop and offer effectively Introductory Managerial Statistics to meet the needs of distance learning students and (2) by developing a common set of course materials, shared by all sections of the course, improve the delivery and consistency of all sections of the course. The intent is to develop a "story-dwelling" rather than "storytelling" homepage where students will be encouraged to return to the page to learn more about statistics. The methodology and strategy developed in the managerial statistics course can be adapted to other courses, specifically accounting and economics courses, offered by the School of Management.

A grant of $5500 is requested for specialized computer software, a student assistant, travel and time for this faculty member to develop this project during the spring academic term of the year 2000 for implementation in the fall term of the year 2000.

1. The Need for the Course
The programs in the School of Management and in the Information Systems and Computer Programming Department (ISCP) of the School of Technology are among the most rapidly growing in the University. Accompanying this overall growth is an expanded number of course sections and students enrolled in distance learning sections and at remote or satellite sites. Fundamental Managerial Statistics is required of students pursuing Bachelor's degrees in Management and of students in Associate and Bachelor's degree programs in ISCP. In addition, students in technical and engineering programs select this course as an elective and students from other Purdue campuses seek this course to fulfill a program requirement.

The School of Management currently offers five sections of this course with more than 150 students enrolled. Because of resource constraints, the School of Management is unlikely to offer additional sections of this course at strategically convenient times. New course offerings would likely be offered in the evenings. Distance learning is a strategically sound way to address this need and provides an opportunity to enhance traditional sections of the course at the same time.

2. Learners to be Served
The expansion of enrollment at satellite sites, the growing number of students preferring distance learning sections, and the intent of the ISCP department to offer the associate degree entirely through distance learning courses provide substantial constituencies to be served by distance learning. These students reside in the geographic region, are working, commuting, raising families, and have difficulty meeting regularly scheduled classes. They would benefit from the flexibility of a distance learning course.

3. Rationale for Choice of This Course and Technologies to be Used
Fundamental Managerial Statistics is a first course in business statistics. It is a problem solving course that focuses on decision making in business situations. The School has been apprehensive about offering an analytical course as a distance learning course based on our experience with a pilot section. Student feedback and personal experience teaching this course indicated that an analytical course requires substantial support material and teaching resource support when delivered via the internet. A thoughtful effort in planning, design, and delivery that alleviates student apprehension with mathematical material and encourages students to return to the internet resources is essential.

The course design and internet materials developed will also serve as a resource for the traditional classroom sections. The internet section will be designed according to the syllabus for all sections of this course, but the development of course and support materials on the internet will serve to standardize the sequence, depth of coverage and emphasis in all sections, when utilized by traditional as well as distance learning instructors. This quality issue is viewed as an external benefit derived from this project.

There are three specific technical enhancements required for this project:

  1. Web Course in a Box - the University is committed to the utilization of this software and the current version offers important interactive capabilities including forums for general discussion among students and instructor, a white board and chat room for regular weekly discussions, and the ability to offer self-help quizzes and links to challenge students to perform.
  2. Adobe Acrobat - text presentation on the internet is often difficult to follow given the limited screen view and scrolling, and students prefer to download problems and cases rather than rely on screen views. Acrobat provides high quality views and printing, particularly where equations and formulae are involved.
  3. Realpresenter by Real Networks - this software will be utilized to compress Powerpoint presentations so that presentations with narrative and animations can be efficiently downloaded and viewed.

Utilizing Web Course in a Box eliminates the need for software and technical skills to develop java script, cookies, and CGI interactive applications. Test Pilot, currently utilized by the University, provides a sophisticated testing capability. The Faculty Instructional Technologies Services within the University provides excellent technical support for the development of internet materials. What is needed is the instructional design and delivery of the analytical material on the internet. This will be developed with conventional authoring software such as FrontPage 2000.

4. Institutional Commitment
Purdue University Calumet has one of the most advanced small university computing environments in the United States, with more than 200 computer workstations and modem access to computer facilities 24 hours a day. All students are issued e-mail accounts on a University server. The University is currently offering more than 40 sections of distance learning or internet enhanced courses and the University has expert support staff through the Faculty Instructional Technologies Services lab offering expertise, resources and experience in developing and offering internet courses.

5. Instructional Design and Delivery
Students will contact the instructor during the week prior to the beginning of classes for orientation and to assure proper internet communication.

Experience suggests that continual contact and extensive support materials such as notes and problems are essential. Forums will be developed with each topic area to encourage student interaction.

6. How Instructional Design Serves Audience Needs

Most students enrolled in this course will be convenience distance learners unable to meet at regularly scheduled times. Students will rely on e-mail correspondence with the instructor and will be encouraged to communicate with other students via forums. Students will be able to meet with the instructor during regular office hours. A weekly chat session will be arranged to provide an alternate form of access to the instructor other than e-mail. Students are assured that the course content is the same as the traditional sections of the course. The tradeoff is convenience for regular personal contact and involvement in the course.

7. Course Evaluation
Four approaches will be employed in evaluating the performance in this course:

  1. The performance of students in the internet course will be compared with the
    performance of students in the traditional sections in terms of test performance and
    consistency of performance.
  2. Student course evaluations will be solicited and compared with course evaluations of
    the traditional sections of the course.
  3. Evaluations will be solicited from faculty teaching the traditional sections, after
    examining course records, materials, and e-mail correspondence.
  4. Students will be tracked into the next level of courses and their performance in the
    following semester will be examined.

8. Quality Plans and Strategies

A goal of this project is the development of course materials for the internet course section that will complement all sections whether offered traditionally our via the internet. Although course goals and content are uniform across all sections, the delivery, emphasis, and pace varies. It is expected that this common resource will reduce the variability, improving overall consistency. Therefore, all faculty teaching Fundamental Managerial Statistics will have input into the development of this common body of information, the course structure and instructional materials in future semesters.

9. How the Course Relates to Other Indiana Efforts.

This course may serve as a model for other quantitative courses offered via the internet at Purdue-Calumet. The process of developing the implementing this course will be shared with other faculty through the continuing program efforts of the Faculty Instructional Technologies Services Lab. The documentation and support materials developed in this project will influence the development and offering of all sections of the course, whether delivered via the internet or in traditional classrooms.

10. Marketing Plan
Since this course is designed primarily for students in programs at Purdue University Calumet, the course will be marketed through the same channels that other distance learning courses are marketed, which includes a listing of the course with IHETS.

11. Project Schedule

Experimentation and development of course materials was initiated during the Fall session 1999 at Purdue University Calumet. The greatest challenges regarding this course have to do with the refinements in delivery and materials, as it is anticipated that an analytical course such as this will provide challenges in these areas. The proposed schedule is:

Now Until January 2000:

January 2000:

May 2000:

12. Development Personnel

The project will be directed by Jonathan M. Furdek, Ph.D. Dr. Furdek is an associate professor in the School of Management and has taught quantitative methods course and operations management at both the undergraduate and graduate level for more than twenty years. He has taught the Fundamental Managerial Statistics course for more than ten years and coordinated the various sections of this course. He is technically capable to develop internet materials having designed and developed the Management homepage as well as web related materials for three other courses. He will design and implement the course with student assistance.

Projected Expenses and Budget

The proposed budget for this project involves a quarter time release for the project director and student consulting assistance to design and develop web pages approximately twenty hours per week over the duration of the project.

The project director will attend at least one conference or workshop on web course development and presentation.

The project requires two specific software packages: an authoring package such as FrontPage 2000 and Realpresenter for PowerPoint presentation enhancement.

Appendix

The lead presenter for this project is Dr. Jonathan M. Furdek. Dr. Furdek is an associate professor in the School of Management. He has been a member of the Management faculty since 1974. He has taught quantitative methods, production management, and economics at both the undergraduate and graduate level. He teaches the course involved in this proposal and coordinates the several sections of the course.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Dr. Furdek is the Coordinator for Student Services within the School of Management. Within the framework of the School of Management, there are three Coordinators who serve under the Head of the School in capacities intended to improve the quality of services offered to the general public, to its students, and in the programs and courses it offers. Dr. Furdek's responsibilities involve advising, student organizations, a new student mentoring program, and other activities in the School that relate to student satisfaction and student expectations with the programs offered through the School of Management.



Last updated: June 21, 2006