Tag: San Francisco State U.

Guest Post: Using MyOMLab at San Francisco State University

ozgur ozlukDr. Ozgur Ozluk is Associate Professor of Decision Sciences at San Francisco State University. Click here to see his syllabus, which is posted on our blog.

When I heard of MyOMLab, developed for our Heizer-Render textbook, a few years ago, I nearly jumped out of my seat. If you are teaching at a state university with no Ph.D. program (read no Teaching Assistants),  it seems impossible to stay afloat over the sea of grading during a semester. Exams, homework assignments, projects, quizzes keep piling up.

So I immediately signed up for MyOMLab. After a bit of a learning curve, it was a breeze to set up online homework assignments/quizzes for my classes. At the start, there were some painful moments, requisite with any technological adoption. But the members of support group for MyOMLab were responsive, helpful and open to constructive feedback. Once the few kinks were cleared, this online platform became an integral component of my teaching. I definitely felt less over-worked and more relaxed.

And what about the students? I can safely report that they are also satisfied with the experience. The beginning of every semester is not without its trials and tribulations, while the students are trying to feel their way through the online system. However, within a few weeks they feel at ease with using MyOMLab. They are happy to they have an assessment tool that provides them almost instantaneous feedback and helps them with their meta-cognition skills. Pairing the online platform with my office hours makes it a great learning experience. It is a win-win situation for both the teacher and the student.

myomlabIn a recent conversation with Jay and Barry at the San Antonio INFORMS meeting, I was shocked to hear that only a quarter of the instructors who use their OM textbook utilize this robust and versatile online assessment platform. If you are of this three-quarters majority and still reading, you owe it to yourself to give MyOMLab a try. You will not regret it!

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Guest Post: Not Quite Ready For On-Line OM at San Francisco State U.

ozgur_ozlukOur Guest Post today comes from Dr. Ozgur Ozluk, who is Associate Professor of Decision Sciences at San Francisco State University.

Nowadays the media is filled with discussions on online education. Writers either passionately extol the virtues of MOOCs (massive open online courses), flipped classrooms and the like, or argue with similar fervor that it is a passing fad. At SFSU, where I have been teaching OM for 10 years, the student body is diverse, with unique needs. I keep asking myself: are my students ready for online education?

As a teacher, I am constantly in search of new ways to excite my students. One semester I introduce an online simulation, another I hold virtual office hours. I firmly believe that the Internet has been providing us with revolutionary models to reach our students. However, I know for a fact that my students are not prepared for a full blown online experience. In the last 4 semesters, I have repeatedly asked my OM class how many of them would prefer to have the class online (or at least as a flipped classroom). And each semester, in a class of 50-some young faces, only a couple of hands go up hesitantly.

There are several reasons for this lack of enthusiasm. First, most of my students work to support themselves through school. Many are responsible for the care of their family, making it difficult to find the uninterrupted time at home required to learn a brand new concept.  Second, most are first generation college students;  they have had few role models to look up to for acquiring metacognition skills and experience a hard time absorbing new subjects on their own. Third, most OM topics require a fair amount of quantitative literacy. As the products of a weak K-12 system, my students are frozen when confronted with concepts such as EOQ or LP.

So it will be a while before I can have an online OM class that will be beneficial to my student population. In the meantime, I will make sure to include as much online material to my curriculum as I can to push the envelope.