Tag: teaching OM

MyOMLab: New Features with the 14th Edition

 We recently announced that our 14th edition has just been published and noted some of the new text features. In addition, the accompanying MyOMLab package has some great new content we can share with you today. For instance:

*Our Test Bank, with thousands of questions and problems, has a new feature. We took over 200 of the “numeric”  multiple-choice problems and converted them  from “static” (where each student receives the same data), to “algorithmic” (where each student has different data–in most cases 100 different versions of the problem with different answers for each). This is a major step toward test integrity, and creates a broad new selection of problems to assign.

*We added scores of new problems from the text that are now algorithmic.

*There are now 30 case studies in MyOMLab (at least one per chapter) that have four multiple choice questions each. This allows cases to be assigned online with automatic grading.

*There are new current “OM in the News” articles in each chapter (from the Wall Street Journal and other sources), each with four multiple choice questions that can be assigned.

*We filmed four new videos featuring Nautique Boat Company: these also include four  multiple choice questions in MyOMLab.

*We created 12 new videos called “Creating Your Own Spreadsheets” to help students advance their Excel analytic skills. Each video (1) reviews an example problem from a chapter and briefly describes the tools needed to solve it; (2) provides several spreadsheet design principles; (3) maps out a plan for the spreadsheet; and (4) finally builds the spreadsheet to analyze the problem.

*We added and revised revised hundreds of the widely used “Concept Questions” that test student qualitative understanding of the course content.

*As in previous editions, every video case in the book has four assignable multiple-choice questions. Also, students can view 12 videos from recent graduates describing how they use operations management on the job. Each of these has assignable multiple-choice questions in MyOMLab.

*New and updated are our five OM simulations and two new mini-sims that give students hands-on experience with real-world business challenges. They also help them develop decision-making skills and apply course concepts.

We really hope you find all these new MyOMLab options useful in your Fall 2022 course.

To order a desk copy of the new edition, just click here.

 

Teaching Tip: Join Jay, Barry, and Chuck for a Teaching Webinar on Tuesday March 1st

Please join us next Tuesday, March 1st, at 3 pm EST for 1/2 hour as we dive into resources to help Operations Management students not only analyze data to make decisions, but to also understand the importance of these skills in their future careers.

We will discuss the challenges of guiding students on the path to critical thinking, the need for lifelong skills and connecting to the real world to make them hirable.

And for those of you unfamiliar with our package of over 1,000 algorithmic homework problems, our virtual office hours, company videos, simulations, and new “Creating Your Own Excel Videos,” this is a chance for us to highlight some really helpful tools to bring to your course.

Our 20 minute presentation will allow for 10 minutes of Q&A.

Registration is free and all you need to do is click on this link:

https://www.pearson.com/us/about/news-events/events/2022/03/digital-tools-to-help-operations-management-students-succeed.html

The 14th Edition of Operations Management Has Arrived!

Jay, Chuck, and I are excited to announce that the 14th edition of our Operations Management text is now available! (To order your desk copy, click here). There are many changes that we hope you will be pleased to incorporate into your course that I will detail in a few blogs over the coming weeks.

New Coverage and Examples
Here are two new topics we are discussing in the 14th edition:
◆ Industry 4.0, (the Fourth Industrial Revolution), with extensive digitalization and pervasive impact on OM, is now introduced throughout the text via discussion, photos, and cases.
◆ COVID-19 had, of course, a major impact of lives, education, work habits, and global supply chains. Not every aspect of business will return to normal immediately, and we address the fallouts throughout the text and in two new case studies.

Video Cases—Nautique Boat Company. As with each prior edition, we offer integrated Video Cases as a valuable teaching tool for students. These 46 short videos help students see and understand operations in action within a variety of industries. With this edition, we are pleased to take you behind the scenes of Nautique Boat Company, maker of the iconic Ski Nautique and other premium pleasure boats. Our four new video cases explore operations strategy (Ch. 2), product design (Ch.5), supply chain issues (Supp. 11), and inventory (Ch. 12). In addition, we continue to offer our previous Video Cases that cover Celebrity Cruises, Alaska Airlines, the Orlando Magic basketball team, Frito-Lay, Darden/Red Lobster Restaurants, Hard Rock Cafe, Arnold Palmer Hospital, and Wheeled Coach Ambulances. If you choose to assign the video cases as homework on-line, there are 4 multiple choice questions for each in MyOMLab.

New Videos to Help Students Build Their Own Excel Spreadsheets
Excel use in the OM course is more and more important. Instructors often ask their students to develop their own Excel spreadsheet models. We include “Creating Your Own Excel Spreadsheets” examples toward the end of numerous chapters to illustrate how students can build their own spreadsheets to solve OM problems, and in this edition, we’ve created 12 new step-by-step videos to accompany these examples.

More Homework Problems—Quantity, Algorithmic, and Conceptual
We know that a vast selection of quality homework problems, ranging from easy to challenging, is critical for both instructors and students. Instructors need a broad selection of problems to choose from for homework, quizzes, and exams—without reusing the same set from semester to semester. We take pride in having more problems—by far, with 850—than any other OM text. For this edition, we have added scores of new algorithmic problems and concept questions in MyOMLab.

Algorithmic Test Bank Questions
About 200 numerical multiple choice test bank questions have been converted to algorithmic so that every student sees different numbers and a different set of answers for these questions.

For those of you using our Principles of OM (11th ed.) version, note that with the explosion of etexts, we have merged the book with our longer OM text (which includes 7 business analytics modules). In effect, students will have access to a broader range of topics without paying a higher price.

Teaching Tip: How to Answer Student Questions in Your OM Class

We get asked a lot of questions when we are teaching. Having taught for 40 years, I am now (finally) pretty comfortable with most that come my way. But that wasn’t the case in my first few years in academia. Some questions were scary smart and I am not sure I handled them with comfort and confidence. Faculty Focus (Nov. 1, 2021)  suggests these 5 strategies for mastering the art of answering questions in class.

1. Smile-Breathe-Think-Talk. Begin by smiling. The smile is not really for the class (although it may help us connect), but allows us to calm down, and to view the Q&A interaction more positively. Then breathe. This allows provides a pause so that we do not rush into an answer to the question. After considering our answer, we relay our carefully considered answer.

2. Validate and thank the questioner. It is easy to forget that students asking us questions may be anxious about doing so in public. So first genuinely thank the student. Then validate the question as interesting and important. This will let students know that we want to hear their thoughts and questions.

3. Be aware of your body language. Making eye contact with the student who asked the question, turning your body toward them, taking a small step toward them, and/or smiling can let the student know that we are listening and respect the question. If we break eye contact, cross our arms, turn or walk away, or frown, we convey that we are uncomfortable with the question.

4. Say “I Don’t Know” in productive ways.  In reality, if our students have good questions, we may not always know the answers. But we can still demonstrate our thoughtfulness and knowledge to the class. We can say that while we do not know the answer in that moment, we will find and relay the answer to them later (and then do that). Taking a moment to write the question down conveys that the question is important to us. Another strategy is to brainstorm and crowdsource the answer, suggesting we use research resources.

5. Embrace questions. If we are asked questions while we are teaching, our students are using their voices to gather more information, to show investment in our content, and to pay us a compliment. These questions allow us to teach better by allowing us to fill in gaps in our lecture, re-explain confusing material, or extend the content in ways that are interesting and relevant.

Teaching Tip: Assigning Case Studies through MyOMLab

With close to 100 short  (1/2 -1 1/2 page) case studies in our text and on MyOMLab, Jay, Chuck, and I are big believers in the benefit of cases for both undergrad and MBA students. They bring a real world sense to the classroom and encourage students to analyze OM issues on a deeper level than that in homework problems. But, of course, grading case study solutions in a large class is an onerous task that may detract from the advantages of assigning them. So, for fall semester, we propose a solution. We have selected 1-2 case studies in each chapter and created four multiple choice MyLab questions for each case. The questions are not trivial and require a thoughtful analysis before responding. The idea is to provide you with more pedagogical options. And if you like the idea, please email us (or comment below) and we will add this feature to all of the text’s cases. Here is a list of the MyLab coded cases available by chapter:

Ch 1 Zychol Chemical

Ch 2 Rapid-Lube

Ch 3 Southwestern University: (A)

Ch 4 Southwestern University: (B)

Ch 5 DeMar’s Product Strategy

Ch 6 Southwestern University: (C) and Westover Wire

Supp. 6 Bayfield Mud Co.

Ch 7 Rochester Manufacturing’s Process Decision

Supp. 7 Southwestern University: (D)

Ch 8 Southern Recreational Vehicle

Ch 9 State Automobile License Renewals

Ch 10 Jackson Manufacturing

Ch 11 Premier Bicycle’s COVID Problem

Supp. 11 JIT after a Catastrophe

Ch 12 Zhou Bicycle Co.

Ch 13 Andrew-Carter

Ch 14 Hill’s Automotive

Ch 15 Old Oregon Wood Store

Ch 16 Mutual Insurance

Ch 17 Worldwide Chemical

Module A Tom Thompson’s Liver Transplant

Module B Coastal States Chemicals

Module C Custom Vans

Module D New England Foundry

Module E SMT Negotiation with IBM

Module F Alabama Airlines’ Call Center

Teaching Tip: Ethics and Chinese Suppliers

Each of the 17 chapters in our OM text ends with an “Ethical Dilemma” made for classroom discussion.  In these days of “woke” campuses, we tread lightly, but still believe students need to be prepared to face some unpleasant realities in the world. For example, in Chapter 1, we note how the U.S. sends many batteries to Mexico for the dirty job of recycling. In Chapter 6, it is a coffee spill lawsuit at McDonalds. In Chapter 7, it’s pig slaughtering.

So the headlines about Chinese factories that supply Apple, Nike, and other products now shunning Uyghur workers from Xinjiang provide another example of difficult decisions facing operations managers. The issue, writes The Wall Street Journal (July 21, 2021), is that Western countries are increasing scrutiny of forced labor from the remote region where Beijing has been accused of committing genocide against local ethnic minorities.

Chinese PPE mask producer Hubei Haixin no longer employs laborers from Xinjiang. Lens Technology, a Chinese maker of smartphone touch screens for Apple, is phasing out Uyghur factory workers transferred from Xinjiang.

The about-face by Chinese suppliers that have collectively hired thousands of Xinjiang workers through government-backed labor programs highlights the growing pressure that firms face as Western governments push multinationals to eliminate forced labor from their supply chains in China. Rights groups have accused Xinjiang authorities of mass internment and exploiting what the Chinese government calls “labor transfer” programs to force Uyghurs and other Muslims from the region to work at factories around the country. Former detainees of Xinjiang internment camps are also sometimes funneled to factories around the region in the name of poverty alleviation.

A bill in Congress would ban goods produced by Xinjiang workers in state-run programs unless importers prove otherwise.  Companies with suppliers in the region face a difficult choice. They can risk being associated with forced labor or take steps to ensure that their supply chains are relying on other sources.

It is not just the U.S. firms under the gun. France opened a “crimes against humanity” probe into four well-known fashion brands including Uniqlo and Zara. Roughly 84% of Chinese cotton production comes from Xinjiang, and is known as being among the world’s best. Transferring supply chains is no easy task, given that other major cotton producing regions such as Uzbekistan have a checkered past with human rights issues.

To retaliate against foreign pressures, many Chinese are now boycotting Western manufacturers such as H&M and Adidas that have spoken publicly.

Classroom discussion questions:

  1. As head of manufacturing, summarize the situation for your CEO  and advise a strategy.
  2. How can firms like Apple control their 2nd and 3rd tier suppliers?

Guest Post: Online vs. Face-to-Face OM in Fall

Our Guest Post today comes from Dr. Lynn A. Fish, who is Professor of Management in the School of Business at Canisius College

lynn-fish

The pandemic has led higher education to use online education more. It’s important for instructors to understand and develop student expectations for our classes and modes of teaching. With the change to online classes, do instructors and students have the same perceptions of online versus face-to-face education?

Forthcoming research completed at an AACSB Jesuit, Catholic University with a strong focus on teaching face-to-face classes revealed that during the pandemic with instruction mainly online, instructors and students still prefer face-to face instruction on most individual factors (specific to the student or instructor) and program factors (decisions that the instructor makes in developing the course) studied.

However, the instructor and business student perspectives differ on many factors. In general, both groups are more positive toward face-to-face education. Contrastingly, instructors and students who have not experienced online were very homogenous in their perspectives on all factors. In post-pandemic education, as instructors we need to address student expectations versus our own and use online components that may complement our classrooms in ways that we may not have understood prior to the pandemic. For example, in my operations management classes during the pandemic, over 80% of students rated the MyOMLab homework experience positively. Students are interested in keeping the pandemic instructor-developed video lectures available for review. However, they are frustrated with online testing and wish to return to traditional pencil-and-paper.

Future course offering will adjust accordingly to meet their expectations. However, not all institutions are the same and the key is to understand and manage these expectations at your institution after the pandemic. As instructors, it’s important to define and meet student perceptions as we enter the post-pandemic education world.

Teaching Tip: Online OM

As an OM instructor, you teach complex concepts. And you’re maintaining situational awareness of a classroom of dozens, if not hundreds, of students. (As of last year, you’re trying to do all of this through a tiny Zoom screen). That’s a lot to handle. Teaching OM class synchronously means you carry an extraneous load including the following:

  • Remembering students’ names and calling patterns
  • Reading online chat windows
  • Keeping track of time
  • Maintaining eye contact and body language

The key is to focus on what’s intrinsically valuable, writes the Harvard Business School Faculty Lounge (May 11, 2021). Here are some tips for how to do that:

online

 Before Class
  • Create a teaching plan with an adequate level of detail. Give yourself as much structure as you need to feel comfortable, knowing there’s something you can refer to if you do get sidetracked
  • Develop and sort call lists ahead of time. Come to class with a general sense of which students you’re going to call on.
  • Clear your workspace of distraction. Even small distractions can really affect your ability to pay attention.
    • Ensure a clock is visible; Have a pen and notepad ready; Eliminate background noise; Fix sightline distractions, such as a computer light
  • Block 15–30 minutes before class. Take this time to review your teaching plan, remember where you are in the syllabus, and just generally focus on the class ahead of you.
 During Class
  • Ask clear, concise questions. If your students aren’t clear on what you’re asking, then you will end up expending time on the confusion rather than on the topic.
  • Encourage follow-up questions. Challenge and build on student comments, and have your students do the same.
  • Accept cognitive “gifts”—unprompted, unexpected insights from students that help tie together the lesson.
  • Acknowledge when you’re feeling overloaded. There will be times when your working memory runs out and you need to stop and process.. For example, say, “I want to put you in groups. I just need a minute to think about how to structure them productively.

Finally, learn to let go of perfection. Have empathy for yourself. Just do the best you can with where you are in the moment.

Teaching Tip: Videos May Improve Student Learning

Jay, Chuck, and I have long been proponents of using videos to supplement classroom teaching and on-line lectures. Our free learning package includes 46 company videos that we created to specifically match our text. We have also filmed about eighty 4-20 minute mini lectures, one for each Solved Problem in the book, that walk students through the steps to solve problems similar to the ones they will tackle for homework. In addition, we have added a dozen video interviews with recent grads who each talk about their OM careers and provide advice to future grads. Our upcoming 14th edition will include 10 Excel model-building videos.

video2

So we were not surprised by a new research study (in Review of Educational Research) that concludes that supplementing existing content with videos can raise student scores. When students got videos in addition to their existing classes, the effect was strong– moving students from a B to an A.

Videos were found to be more effective for skills development, like our Solved Problem videos, than for knowledge transmission. On a skills assessment, they improved student scores by about five points out of 100. For learning knowledge, videos were about as good as existing teaching methods, increasing student scores by about two points. “Shifting the ‘explaining’ bits to videos allows the rich, interactive work to take up more of the precious face-to-face time with students” state the authors.

Videos might be more effective than face-to-face classes because students are able to engage at their own pace and in their own time. The results were robust across different teaching methods (such as lectures, tutorials, and homework) and types of video (such as case demonstrations and recorded lectures). The authors also believe that videos are effective for teaching skills development because videos often show situations more authentically than lectures can, by providing real-life demonstrations instead of artificial class presentations.

“Even after the pandemic ends, college instructors will find value in incorporating videos into their teaching,” says the report. “Ensuring that those videos are of high quality will provide significant long-term benefits.”

Teaching Tip: Must-Dos Before Teaching Your Next Online OM Class

 While new campus lockdowns and delayed school openings haven’t marked an ideal start to the year, they have reinforced what we likely all knew: online teaching is here to stay. As you reconnect your webcam and ready yourself for the upcoming months of teaching to faces in Zoom boxes, Jay, Chuck, and I want to share an online teaching framework and helpful tips from Harvard B School’s Faculty Lounge (Jan. 18, 2021) called REMOTE. It stands for Reactions, Eye contact, Manageable, Organized, Thoughtful, and Engagement —all critical facets of ensuring a successful online class.

Reactions: Encourage students to use facial expressions or gestures to indicate whether they agree or disagree with what is being said in class. If students can’t access their video, they can use chat functions, polls, or emojis to share their reactions.

Eye Contact: Prioritize personal connections. Have the video of the student who is speaking right in front of you. That way, students feel like you’re looking and talking right to them.

Manageable: Keep your setup simple and practice, practice, practice.  Do what makes you best able to credibly deliver the value that you are used to delivering.
Organized: Plan for less and be prepared. Have everything nearby, all queued up and ready to go before class: the specific agenda for the class, any materials—slides, polls, etc.—that you want to use, and a list of students you plan to call on.
Thoughtful: Be considerate of your students’ needs. Online, we need to be more thoughtful about every action we take and how our students are experiencing it.
Engagement: Keep things exciting—but don’t overdo it. Be sure to mix things up. You don’t need fancy pyrotechnics in every single session, and you don’t need to fill every moment of an online course with something new and exciting. For example, one day you might use a PowerPoint slide as your online board and the next day you may use an iPad or a flipchart because you plan to sketch a more complex idea.

 

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Teaching Tip: 10 Core Practices of Teaching OM Online

Even before COVID, higher education was becoming increasingly virtual. Once the pandemic took hold, we quickly transitioned to online delivery, and began looking for simple solutions to make OM classes more engaging. Research in AACSB’s BizEd (Nov. 2, 2020) suggests 10 core practices:

No. 1: Provide a variety of relevant and timely feedback. This includes mechanisms that foster student-to-student feedback. Students need to focus on their own learning, believe the feedback is credible, and stay motivated.

No. 2: Keep students informed with regular communication. Send communications on a predictable basis using a standard medium. This promotes consistency and efficiency in the course, enables students to be proactive, increases confidence, and reduces stress.

No. 3: Curate content that is accessible to all students. Provide content, including lectures, in mixed media forms that allow students to read, listen, view, and engage with the material.

No 4: Coordinate all activities and due dates though a central calendar. This helps students manage their own time, take responsibility for their learning, and be accountable for their coursework.

5. Create a 2-way conversation with students. Meet with students both synchronously during live activities and asynchronously in forums. This creates a sense of connection, increases your presence within the class, and builds a trusting relationship.

6. Ensure the students’ user experience is friendly and strong. Provide an easy-to-navigate online structure and setup for the course. This encourages students to leverage LMS features that save time, while reducing errors.

7. Protect the academic honesty and integrity of the course. Create valid and reliable assessment procedures, like MyOMLab, that mitigate cheating. This ensures the course is fair.

8. Build a learning scaffold of activities that require the use of course content. Develop a set of tasks in which assignments build on each other.

9. Facilitate an engaging collaborative learning community. Create activities in which students engage with each other. This encourages peer-to-peer support, reduces confusion, and increases student commitment for the course.

10. Frame the learning outcomes in ways that are meaningful. Explain how the outcomes connect to all elements of the course, as well as to students’ professional aims.

Teaching Tip: Teaching Covid and OM

We think that when you review your lecture outlines on supply chains and OM this semester and in Spring, you may find the need for some reworking. As a matter of fact, “the disruption of the pandemic in 2020, coming on top of the uncertainties surrounding trade wars, has helped turn OM/SCM into a theme of growing concern for businesses, business schools and wider society,” reports Financial Times (Oct. 8, 2020). 

Shortage of bikes at Walmart during the pandemic

Cross-border trade comprised just 5% of GDP in the mid-20th century but today it is closer to 50%. That has been accompanied by a rapid extension of global supply chains with products and their components often manufactured in numerous countries, driven by cheap labor and easier transport and communication.

London Business School Prof. Jeremie Gallien states: “supply chain management used to be perceived as a ‘somewhat niche component’ of the business education curriculum. In the aftermath of the first Covid wave, many firms found themselves either fighting for survival or realizing the importance of increasing their resilience to reduce the costs they will incur during the next disruption It is harder to get student interest if one teaches supply chain concepts without being able to relate to Covid-19.”

Jay, Chuck, and I agree. And as authors of the top selling OM text in U.S. and global markets, we are here to help make your lectures more timely and relevant. We hope you will incorporate Table 11.3 (“Supply Chain Risks and Tactics”) in Ch. 11 (p. 450) and the section called “Evaluating Disaster Risk in the Supply Chain” in Supp. 11 (p.472-3) into your syllabus.

And to bring more currency into case discussions, we have just written a new case called Premier Bicycle’s COVID Problem. This case will appear in MyOMLab’s Spring edition, but here is the link should you want to preview the case or teach it this term.

 

Teaching Tip: Preparing Your Online OM Course

Just a few days ago, I received an email from an OM colleague who will be teaching his first online course–and seeking advise. Both instructor and student have concerns: assignment quality/rigor, technology, the course management system, course design, the expected workload. One of the greatest concerns, though, is the instructor’s presence on the course, writes Faculty Focus (Sept. 16, 2019). Online instructors should view themselves as crucial as the technology they are using.

Just as people weave their digital experiences, the student is performing the same process in the online educational environment. Based on a student’s digital behavior on the course, the instructor may better tailor assignments (such as how long it takes to read items the student has posted), adjust activities according to student assignment interaction, or make changes based on the student’s “digital record.”

Email, texting, chat apps, social media, and video encompass faster and immediate communication, and educators can implement these into their own online learning environment. Students are accustomed to immediate responses, so this conditioned behavior is expected within an online course. The instructor can provide a personalized experience for the student through prompt response time to emails, video chats, virtual office hours, audios to explain assignments, blogs, and a personal introduction video. These approaches communicate with the student fast and efficiently, contributing greater presence of the instructor in the online environment.

How online educators present themselves to the student, or how they frame themselves (talking about pets, hobbies, etc.), impacts positive behaviors on the course, opens the lines of communication, and affects student perception of the course in general. By providing a strong online presence, the educator has facilitated student engagement and encouraged active learning.

But one should be aware of the time the course will take. Time must be spent when developing audios for assignment, which may change from semester to semester. Video chats can sometimes turn into hour long conversations and writing an immediate individual assignment response may take time from other responsibilities.

Teaching Tip: Two Cool Tech Tools for the Digital Classroom

It is important that we OM teachers find new ways to incorporate technology to stay current, enhance students’ educational experience, and support teaching and learning. Here are two tools from Faculty Focus (May 6, 2019) that may help:

Adobe Spark Adobe Spark is a web and mobile based tool that allows users to design visual content in the form of posts, videos, and web pages. It has three components: spark post, spark video, and spark page. Spark post creates a visual storyboard that represents what the user is desiring to convey. With spark video you can use images, video clips, and symbols to create a one-of-a-kind learning tool. The spark page allows you to insert pictures, videos, and text to curate content that reflects their unique perspective. Go to https://spark.adobe.com/ and sign up for a free account or download the mobile application via the iOS app store.

Remind A recent study examined the effects texting had on college students. Findings showed that students who received text message nudges from their instructors perform better than students who didn’t receive text message nudges. One tool/application that allows educators to communicate with students via text is Remind. Once you creates a course, students can sign up, send and receive messages by text, app, web, and e-mail. It is an excellent way of keeping students on track, even with a Learning Management System such as Blackboard, Canvas or Desire2Learn. Remind: (1) provides a way of communicating with students for any reason; (2) provides a method of communication to you and the students when life events happen; (3) is a great way of sending friendly reminders about assignments; (4) establishes a healthy student-to-teacher interaction regardless of whether the course is totally online or is a traditional face-to-face course. To get started go to https://www.remind.com and sign up for a free account.

Teaching Tip: Cue-Do-Review in Your OM Class

Cue-Do-Review is one way, writes Faculty Focus (April 8, 2019), to help ensure OM classroom instruction time is used effectively and efficiently. Targeting your behaviors at the beginning, middle, and end of a class session, students are more likely to connect with and remember content.

Quality instruction begins with an opening that engages students in the lesson’s purpose and processes. A critical element in the beginning of a lesson is linking new information to prior knowledge. The opening minutes of class offer a rich opportunity to capture students’ attention and get them prepared to learn. It is really useful for instructors to begin class with deliberate efforts to bring their focus to the lesson of the day.

Cueing whets student’s appetite for what is to come. You inform students what will be taught, how the instruction will be carried out, give an explanation regarding how the teaching process will help students learn, and identify your expectations.  Cueing can take as little as a few minutes and serves to focus attention on how the lesson will transpire.

In the Do phase, you lead the learning activities while eliciting responses from students regarding their understanding of content and concepts presented. The “Do” phase asks questions and helps students evaluate the information they are learning. This phase is the main course of the lesson. Although most time is spent here, the likelihood that information will be assimilated and applied effectively is largely dependent on the degree to which the lesson was initiated with a “cue”.

Finally, in the Review phase, you reinforce learning, and ask students how the teaching approach guided their learning. Critical content from the lesson is discussed and reviewed. During the last few minutes of class, many instructors try to cram in additional information, make added points, or issue reminders as students are packing up and ready to go. Not only are these last-minute bits of information largely ignored, but faculty miss opportunities to collect learner feedback.