Here is our 1st Guest Post. It comes from Prof. Howard Weiss at Temple U. As I mentioned in my Teaching Tip blog on 9/21, Howard has developed and maintains the software that accompanies our texts. He has been on the cutting edge of using computers to teach OM for over 2 decades.
Howard Weiss writes:
When I began using software in my OM class it was Lotus 123…remember that?! I would display the spreadsheets from the front of the classroom. But on their teaching evaluations, several students requested hands-on use of software rather than just watching me. I experimented by running half of each course in the classroom and half in the public computer lab. Recall that this was at the time when few students had PCs at home. The experiment was a success, and my departmental colleagues followed the half-time lab model. At the same time, in addition to public labs, teaching labs were being configured. Since then, roughly at the time when Windows and Excel began to become popular, all of our sections have been scheduled for half- time in the classroom and half-time in the teaching lab. We are a large school, so to make scheduling easier we have two sections of OM taught simultaneously. One section is in the classroom while the other is in the lab and vice-versa for the other lecture that week.
Changing to the alternating classroom/lab format meant a restructuring of the lectures. I try to lecture on qualitative material on the first day and then use the lab on the second day for the quantitative material rather than mixing the qualitative and quantitative material. My labs include exercises in Excel in order to build the students’ Excel skills, use of both POM for Windows and Excel OM so that the students can decide which they prefer, and use of the Active Models that accompany the Heizer/Render textbook.
Having developed POM for Windows and Excel OM, I spend a significant amount of my personal time continuously maintaining and improving these packages. I am always available to respond to any requests for help of any sort from you or your students. You can reach me at dsSoftware@prenhall.com.
If you would like to share your teaching experiences, please just email us and we will post your Guest Blog.