Decision Sciences-Journal of Innovative Education最新文献

Microsoft Excel and Access are widely used in introductory courses designed to teach the fundamentals of spreadsheet and relational database modeling skills in various disciplines. To achieve the targeted learning outcomes, instructors of these courses strive to provide students with guided, frequent, and incrementally fruitful practice with the software. Instructors often can facilitate such practice using the actual software or by employing a virtually simulated version of the software integrated into a learning management system. This article presents the results of a study that compared the effectiveness of using actual versus simulated Excel and Access environments as alternative or complementary instructional platforms in an introductory undergraduate course in information systems. The underlying study distinguished between instructor-led guidance using the actual software and autonomous self-paced instructions provided in the simulated environment while using multiple objective and subjective learning assessment tools. The mixed impacts of these scenarios promote a hybrid learning approach that uses both strategies to most effectively enhance students’ competency in Excel and Access.

Compared to more complex personality assessments, Wired That Way by Marita Littauer, presents four personality types that students find easy to understand and internalize: Popular Sanguine, Powerful Choleric, Perfect Melancholy, and Peaceful Phlegmatic. Students’ awareness of their own and their peers’ classification in this comprehensive personality plan can be useful in the administration of group projects and other classroom activities. The understanding and application of the innate strengths and weaknesses of each personality type in a group setting provides tools and language that enable students to navigate challenges. This Teaching Brief presents the benefits and process of incorporating Wired That Way into the administration of group projects. Recommendations are based on analyzing the outcomes of a group project over 6 years for 402 students in 125 groups in 18 sections of an upper-division undergraduate Business Administration course in Tourism and Hospitality Management. Analysis results demonstrate that the personality makeup of individuals in a group can influence project component grades, most notably how the personalities in each group influence creativity, group cohesion, and overall project performance.

Many management information systems (MIS) faculty have adopted a project-oriented approach in their systems analysis and design courses. In these courses, students use a software development methodology to create a web or mobile application project, which can be based on a predefined case or developed for an external stakeholder. Because most information systems programs emphasize cybersecurity, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI), traditional systems analysis and design courses for web applications may seem one-dimensional in comparison. To address this limitation, we developed and implemented a project based on Merrill's Pebble-in-the-Pond instructional design. In this project, students were required to build an application with two key components: a chatbot and a dashboard, both integrated with the same database. These components cater to multiple user groups, allowing us to combine perspectives from analytics and AI within a single project. Drawing from our experience and feedback from students, we have compiled a set of recommendations for successfully implementing such a project.

Traditionally, academic institutions have relied on interviews with industry representatives and alumni surveys to gauge market demand, an approach that often results in dated and limited information. In this article, we show that using real-time data from job postings in professional sites provides more direct, rich, and timely insights regarding the current demand and skill requirements. We propose a novel machine-learning based framework for detecting the skillsets for positions requiring Master of Business and Administration (MBA). Utilizing LinkedIn job-posting data in the US state of Pennsylvania, our analysis reveals 20 distinct functional areas. While some of these functional areas (e.g., people management) are predictable, others (e.g., supply chain project management) were not anticipated to be high in demand in the given market. Our results also identify the most sought-after skillsets (e.g., resource allocation). Most importantly, we observe that the top skillsets span multiple functional areas. Taken together, our results can help business school program directors update and customize curricula to meet market demand.

Business analytics is a fast-growing field that requires a combination of technical, analytical, and communication skills. This article aims to identify the most sought after skills for business analytics jobs based on a content analysis of over 2600 online job postings. The results show that the top skills include analytics, communication, visualization, data science, business requirements, and problem-solving. The article also discusses the implications of these findings for curriculum design and career development. Aside from the standard battery of statistics classes, we argue that every analytics curriculum should contain components teaching statistical communication, visualization, databases, and programming as well as include a capstone project.

Inventory management and the ability to make data-driven decisions under uncertainty are two critical components of supply chain management. This brief describes how an Excel-based Monte Carlo simulation of fuel and lottery purchases can be used to teach students to analyze a system with randomness. This exercise can serve as a group or individual assignment to demonstrate the ability of Monte Carlo simulation to estimate solutions involving uncertainty and to teach undergraduate business students how to implement a basic multiperiod fixed-interval inventory policy with order-up-to-levels. The important concepts of cycle service levels and confidence intervals are emphasized as are the proper implementation of one-tailed and two-tailed critical values. Students are encouraged to compare algebraic solutions to their simulation results.

Capstone classes can help MBA programs achieve student learning goals and meet accreditation standards. However, such programs often fail to build the skills they are intended to develop. Technology transfer projects can be an effective way to build these skills while creating a positive economic impact. This article describes Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College's MBA program's integrative capstone experience that partners with NASA to allow student teams to commercialize unused or underutilized NASA patents to develop new products and create business startups using a 4Ps model. First, students examine Patents for intellectual property that could be transferred to new applications with commercial potential. Next, they develop a knowledge network of Partners who could assist them to commercialize the technology. Then, students identify Prospects for the proposed commercial use of the technology. Finally, they Package a newly developed, market-ready product with strategy, financial, sales and marketing plans, and pitch these to angel investors who might fund the startup and assist them in starting the business. This article details the 20 steps in the 4Ps model and discusses student outcomes, as well as the business focus of the 29 teams that have completed the course since 2012. Benefits, challenges, and advice for delivering the 4Ps model are discussed.

Lean production (“Lean”) is a topic frequently taught in undergraduate and graduate operations/supply chain management courses. Lean's “pull system” is a common component of the instruction, and several useful simulations have been developed that allow students to experience a pull system firsthand. While existing simulations focus on the mechanics of a pull system, the Brawny Brackets simulation focuses on improving “flow”—that is, framing a pull system in the context of layout design and batch sizing, and the waste associated with jumbled flow patterns. The robust and flexible simulation allows instructors to expand or contract the topics taught to match the course objectives and teaching time available.

Brawny Brackets is a useful tool to help students learn how to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness. As this article demonstrates, the Brawny Brackets simulation can enhance student learning in operations and supply chain management courses in both undergraduate and graduate courses.