Business 492 Senior Experience Regina Eisenbach, Ph.D. Jim Hamerly, Ph.D.

Business 492 Senior Experience

Regina Eisenbach, Ph.D.Jim Hamerly, Ph.D.

The numbers…

This semester we expect to:• engage ~220 students• complete ~49 projects

• The program over 14 years:• Over 1000 projects• Over 4000 students

492 Grade Components

• Weekly quizzes (10% each) 30%

• CSU Business Assessment Test 10%

• Team Contract 10%

• Web CT Discussion Board 10%

• Company & Industry Research Report 30%

• Final Letter of Engagement 10%

(Up from 20%, dropped in class Project Plan)

Matching Companies, Faculty,

and Teams

Matching Companies & Faculty

Company A

Company Candidates

Company A

Selected Companies

Faculty Candidates

Faculty expertise and preferences used to match companies

Appropriatedifficulty leveland relevance usedto select companies

Matching Individuals into Teams

Students self-select into Teams

Matching Companies, Faculty, Teams

Company A

Selected Companies

Matched Faculty

Student Preferences &expertise used to match companies

Bus492 & 493 Timelines

BUS 492/493 TimelinePho

tos

due

Mo

n 1

/14

Tu

es 1

/22

Team

Pro

ject

Pre

fere

nces

due

Th

ur

1/24

Team

Con

tract

due

Fri

2/1

Compa

ny/In

dust

ry R

epor

t &

D

raft

Lette

r of E

ngag

emen

t due

To

day

Fri

1/2

5Pro

ject

s M

ATCHED

one weekto complete

Company/Industry Report

Fri

2/1

5Fi

nal L

ette

r of E

ngag

emen

t due

Mo

n 2

/4Fi

rst m

eetin

g w

ith C

ompa

ny

492 493Te

ams

form

ed

Cla

ss 1

Cla

ss 2

Cla

ss 3

BUS 493 Suggested Timeline

9 weeksto define & complete

research

Mo

n 2

/4Fi

rst m

eetin

g w

ith C

ompa

ny

2/11

8 w

eeks

left

2/18

7 w

eeks

left

2/25

6 w

eeks

left

3/3

5 w

eeks

left

3/10

4 w

eeks

left

3/17

3 w

eeks

left

3/24

2 w

eeks

left

3/31

1 w

eek

left

4/7

2 w

eeks

unt

il re

port

due

4/14

1 w

eek

until

repo

rt du

e

4/21

Draft

repo

rt du

e

2 weeksto complete

report

4/28

5/5

Fin

al R

epor

t &

p

reso

s M

on-T

hurs

5/15

trade

show

2 weeksFor preso &

report

Final

Let

ter o

f Eng

agem

ent d

ue

Key Dates

Friday January 25th • Student teams assigned, Student Team Contracts dueFriday February 1• Company and Industry Report due• Draft Letter of Engagement dueMonday February 4• Students instructed to set up first company meeting

during this weekFriday February 15: Final Letter of Engagement due

493 Grade Components

• Draft Report 20%

• Final Report 15%

• Team Presentation 15%

• Web CT Discussion Board 10%

• Progress Reports 10%

• Peer evaluation 40%

Faculty & Student RatingsSenior Experience Fall 2007

A series of questions was asked of faculty and students who had recently completing a Senior Experience Project. They were asked to rate their agreement or disagreement with a series of statements regarding preparation, abilities,project difficulty, communications, etc.

Example: Students are able to plan effectively[rate from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree]

Limitations: Self-selection bias, non-uniform response, limited sample size [nf = 20, ns = 20]

20071215 v0.65 The works included here are Copyleft by Jim Hamerly, free for use, and requiring that all modified versions of content to be free as well.

My team was able to plan effectively

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

Stronglydisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Stronglyagree

faculty

students

Students have adequate writing skills

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

Stronglydisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Stronglyagree

faculty

students

Students possess the needed critical thinking skills

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

Stronglydisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Stronglyagree

faculty

students

Faculty - Student Ratings

-1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5

The sponsoring company contact communicates effectively with the faculty

The sponsoring company provides adequate support to the team

The sponsoring company contact communicates effectively with the team

Projects are sufficiently defined when I first see them

Project proposals are at an appropriate level of difficulty

The final project definition approximately matches the initial project definition

Students have adequate pre-requisite knowledge

Students are able to adequately manage their team

Students are able to adequately manage the project

Students possess the needed critical thinking skills

Students have adequate writing skills

Students are able to plan effectivelyFaculty agreed less than students to statements

in the red areas

Students agreed less than faculty to statements

in the blue areas

Student “Good Practices”At the start of the project:• Ensure that your team, faculty adviser, and company contact all have the same

understanding of the projects' definition and objectives.• Decide upon a dominant communication mechanism with your team mates (face-

to-face, WebCT, email, blog, IM, phone, etc.).• Recognize that the bulk of the project must be completed in ~8 wks, not 16.Throughout the project:• Expect communication problems, misunderstandings, and missed commitments

and deal with them immediately. A delayed response is the germination of problems to come.

• Meet weekly with your faculty adviser. Always prepare an agenda for every meeting, in advance of the meeting. Issue meeting minutes immediately afterwards.

• Communicate weekly with your company sponsor through your designated team contact.

Faculty “Good Practices”At the start of the project:• Meet on-site with the sponsor contact before the start of BUS 492, to be clear on

roles and expectations. • Meet with the team in advance of the first meeting with the sponsor contact, also

to be clear on roles and expectations.• Go with the team to the company for the first meeting. This is largely to help the

team leave that meeting with reasonable goals and objectives, so that the team does not over-promise.

• Immediately following the initial meeting with the sponsor contact, meet with the team for another half-hour to debrief and ensure that everyone shares a common understanding of what happened and what are next steps.

Throughout the project:• Meet weekly with the team members.• Speak at least monthly with the company contact.• Encourage student team to apply "Student Best Practices".

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