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Showing posts with the label college of business

Redefining the Professor’s Role in the Online World

Online classrooms have made their way onto the education scene in a big way. A considerable amount of higher education institutions have begun to understand the benefits of online coursework. Most educational theories are based within face-to-face classrooms and online classroom research is lacking. A paper by Arbaugh, et. al. (2013) discusses the need for additional research in online classroom management from a manager’s perspective. This research runs from professor management all the way to online learning theories. There is a bias by instructors against online learning even though more universities are adapting the technology. The bias comes in part from a lack of research to support online learning and the very perception professors have of their traditional academic roles.   No longer does the concept of pipe smoke filled rooms, tweed jackets and dusty books define a professor’s role. It has been replaced by a laptop and kindle.   What is an online professor? It is

Improving Business Education through Industry Connections

Business colleges have developed over the past few decades. According to Xie and Steiner (2013), not all of these changes have been for the better. The authors argue that traditional business education has damaged the overall business community and narrowed people into irrelevance. They provide some possibilities for improvement of business colleges within their paper.  They offer a couple of solutions that include connections between business and business schools, new business education models,   as well as joint creation of knowledge management. Their reasoning is that student’s knowledge should broaden perspectives beyond simple tools of management and should include the overall human elements that enhance understanding further than number crunching.  Collaboration between Business Schools and Business: In the older models, students were apprentice oriented. Business colleges should make stronger connections to the business community in order to create higher levels of

The Implementation of Critical Thinking Skills in Business Education

Research by Anderson and Reid (2013), delve into the issue of developing critical thinking skills among college students. These skills are particularly important for college of business graduates who may someday need to develop and implement their own strategies.   Such skills are also important in their daily lives as they make the hundreds of miniscule decisions that lead to career success.  Critical thinking can be defined as the use of cognitive skills or strategies that increase the likelihood of positive outcomes (Halpem, 1998). It may also be defined as the knowledge, skills and strategies that improve rational decision making, problem solving and improve creativity (Reid, 2009). Such skills afford people the opportunity think about the factors that go into making a decision and finding more rational conclusions.  A 2008 report of business colleges found that 87% had no critical thinking components (Devore, 2008). Likewise, business managers were also disappointed i

Evidence-Based Leadership as a Method of Critical Thinking

Leadership has become a hot topic in the world of business. The development of the next generation leaders requires fostering throughout their lives the proper self-image, decision making patterns, and ethical approaches that reduce personal bias and challenge improperly rooted premises. The use of evidence-based leadership offers an opportunity to create more logical thinking patterns that helps counter the natural biases that make their way into decisions that impact a great many people. Using such data is not paint-by-the-numbers type leadership but one that uses the available information in new ways that check alternatives and incorporates scientific knowledge. Evidence based leadership is the concept that leadership is based on the ability to take information from the environment and use this information to make adequate decisions that impact a large group of people. It is possible to define such a concept as, “ making decision through conscientious, explicit, and judicio