Tag: Dr. Bogdan Bichescu

Guest Post: Using “Clickers” at U. Tennessee to Draw in OM Students

This Guest Post comes from Dr. Bogdan Bichescu, Assistant Professor of Management Science in the University of Tennessee’s College of Business Administration. Bogdan teaches very large OM classes and has blogged for us before about his experiences in that environment.

Attempting to improve student participation, this semester I decided to tie grade curving to class attendance and participation in my large introductory operations class. I suggested that students who attend classes and participate regularly would receive a bonus of up to 1% of their final grade. To avoid the operational challenges of collecting and grading paper attendance quizzes typical of large classes, I decided to experiment with personal response systems, i.e., “clickers”. More than 80% of the students enrolled already had a clicker registered on their name. The rest could sign up for an online account and participate via smartphones, tablets, or laptops for a small fee.

Initially intended for tracking attendance, the clickers have gradually evolved into a mechanism for evaluating content retention and promoting student engagement. I was compelled to rethink my approach to class delivery and plan more carefully for student engagement. I include clicker questions throughout my class notes to engage students at several points during class. I sometimes include questions from homework assignments or from exams. I encourage students to work in groups to answer clicker questions and I may re-poll the students on a certain concept or technique that is particularly challenging. I give credit for incorrect answers and include questions that ask for students’ opinions.

While clickers have not resulted in higher class attendance (due to the small grade contribution), I feel that classes are now more fun and engaging. The questions have generated more animated discussions, student competition (I can track which major, or group has better attendance or scores; students often go “yeah!” when they answer correctly a difficult question), and a somewhat better exam performance for the more active students (but more data analysis is needed). Student feedback has been positive and I am thus encouraged to use clickers in the future, potentially increasing the contribution of clicker questions and quizzes to about 10% -15% of the final grade.

Guest Post: Teaching Operations at the University of Tennessee

Dr. Bogdan C. Bichescu is Assistant Professor of Management Science in the College of Business Administration at the University of Tennessee. He teaches OM in very large classes and shares his experiences with us. Click here to see his syllabus.

The introductory Operations class at the University of  Tennessee often exceeds 600 students a semester. It  meets as a single section and is required for all business majors. Therefore, the topics included aim to be relevant to a wide audience of majors. The class features concepts (such as Theory of Constraints,  lean manufacturing, and waiting line management) that  demonstrate  principles useful in the streamlining of processes in different services environments. Additional topics, such as decision analysis and project management, seek to develop students’ organizational skills and decision-making abilities. Students report finding these topics interesting and practical. 

An early format for the class included a lab component, in addition to the weekly lecture. The labs offered the opportunity to cover several different HBR cases (e.g., Manzana Insurance, National Cranberry Cooperative) and experiential simulations (e.g., variations of the Dice Game, Project Simulation) to  illustrate the concepts discussed in the lecture. Student teams were assigned various case questions and had to deliver an oral presentation of their findings. TAs were responsible for teaching the labs and grading student presentations. Overall, students enjoyed working on cases and welcomed the opportunity for interaction in the labs. 

The current format removes the labs from the structure of the class. The lecture-only format eliminates the challenge of coordinating 6-7 teaching assistants and allows for more consistent grading. However, this format makes the inclusion of cases and simulations more difficult and revives the challenge of engaging the students. To address these limitations, I made The Goal, by Eli Goldratt, a required class reading (the book never fails to generate a lively class discussion) and I created an online discussion board where students ask questions and discuss class material. Bonus points are awarded to the most active board participants. MyOMLab also helps engage students through weekly assignments which comprise a combination of quantitative problems, readings, and cases.