MIS2901 – An Experiement in Teaching and Learning

1. Everyone is responsible for completing all of the required reading for the week.  Trust me, not completing all of the required reading will be a big mistake.
2. We will first create teams of two or “prep partners”.  If there is someone else in the class that you would like to work with please let me know and we will make you “prep partners”.  In addition, we will split the class in half creating two teams of “prep partners”.  The names of the teams are “cherry” and “white”.
3. Each week we will cover a new module.  I will post the slide deck for the module to this site.  The slide deck will include the material from the required reading which I feel is most important.  The cherry team will be responsible for one half of the module; the white team will be responsible for the other.
4. Working closely with your prep partner and small groups from your team, you will review the material from your half of the module in detail.  You and your prep partner will come to class prepared to teach this material to a pair of students from the other team.  I encourage you to collaborate with other members of your team to split up work and share thoughts and ideas.  Please use this site as a forum for collaboration when preparing for class. 
5. Every team member will be required to create and/or comment on four blog entries from this site as you prepare for class each week. At least two of these will need to be “substantive” entries which do two things.  First, a “substantive” entry is a blog entry which briefly summarizes your understanding of a particular part of the material along with your thoughts on the material.  Second, a “substantive” entry also includes a well throughout multiple choice question which you may actually see on an upcoming exam which can be answered fairly easily if you have a good understanding of the material which you just summarized.  The remaining blog entries need to be entries where you are following up on and providing feedback on “substantive” entries posted by other students in the class.
6. While team may split up material and collaborate on their understanding of the material, every set of prep partners must come to class on Tuesdays prepared to teach their half of the module to a pair of students from the other team.
7. A set of prep partners from the cherry team and a set of prep partners from the white team will be partnered up at random in class on Tuesdays.  During the first half of the class the two members of the cherry team will teach the material they learned to the white team.  In the second half of the class the teams will swap roles.  I will walk around during class, observe, and comment where appropriate.
8. Laptops will be provided in class so everyone will have access to this site and the information that has been generated by the class.  You will be able to look through the slides, the substantive posts, the possible exam questions, and the follow-up comments from your classmates as you cover this material.
9. On Thursday we will skim through the slide deck.  We will not cover the basic material which you will have already covered with each other in class; instead we will discuss why this information is important to business professionals and how business professionals create value using these tools and technology every day.

Please remember that this is an experiment.  We will learn from our experiences and adapt this process as we see fit to best achieve our learning objectives.