Guest Post: Build It and They Will Learn–Introducing OM at DePaul U.

Dr. Lori Cook is Associate Professor of Management at DePaul University’s School of Business. In her Guest Blog, she describes how important  experiential learning is to her Operations Management classes. You can see her syllabus by clicking here.

I absolutely love the first day of my OM class! As my students enter the classroom, sometimes dreading the start of a new term, I can feel the nervous energy in the air.  After teaching thousands of students, I know with certainty that from day one I need to grab my students’ attention and immediately get them to understand why OM is key to understanding business environments.

On the first day, I use the Paper Puppet activity (see Games and Exercises for Operations Management, by Heineke and Meile, Prentice Hall) to help set the stage.  Upon completion of this exercise, students have an experience they can directly relate to the challenges operations managers are forced to struggle with everyday. It can also be directly linked to the 10 critical decisions of operations introduced in the Heizer and Render OM text. Without the use of the Paper Puppet activity, the majority of the lecture would cover only the basic levels of knowledge. 

Throughout the term, I use a variety of experiential learning activities to simulate “real world” applications of OM.  Research has shown that actively involving students in demonstrations enhances their fundamental understanding of the concepts. My activities tend to level the playing field by providing students with a common understanding of the subject matter.  Each exercise is designed to either introduce or reinforce the lecture topic with the goal of enhancing overall student learning.  If you are looking for experiential activities, I would encourage you to explore the teaching briefs in the Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education. 

The classroom environment is a fundamental building block in the learning process. It is critical to create a classroom experience which is both engaging and enjoyable.  It must be an environment that provides motivation to assist the students in grasping the real world relevance of the material. To see fundamental change in your classroom environment, you will often have to change your process.  While most of us are fearful of change, the long-term rewards far outweigh the short-term costs.