In This Issue

You can obtain electronic access to the past issues of DSJIE at: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/dsji

In this Issue for Vol. 6, No. 2, July 2008

AACSB is very aware of the importance of pedagogy and learning research, listing it as one of the three research outputs expected of faculty members in Colleges of Business across the nation.  DSJIE contributes to this effort by publishing empirical articles, case study research articles, conceptual articles, and teaching briefs. 

In this issue, I have selected articles and teaching briefs that address different aspects of specific themes and assembled them into coherent groups, allowing readers to study empirical articles and cases related to a theme and then discover how instructors have implemented the concepts associated with the theme in their classrooms through the teaching briefs.

Theme 1: Homework and Assignments: The article that serves as the foundation for this theme, “A Study of the Effectiveness of Web-Based Homework in Teaching Undergraduate Business Statistics” by Palocsay and Stevens, reveals that student performance depends significantly upon teacher experience and student academic competence.  Once these factors are controlled for, however, the technique used to deliver homework appears to makes little difference in student success.  This empirical article is complemented by a set of teaching briefs that discuss:

1. weaving a common thread of assignments through introductory Operations Management classes,
2. using modified mastery assignments to increase learning in business statistics,
3. engaging students in statistics through self-reported questionnaires,
4. developing students’ understanding of process by analyzing a snack bar, and
5. creating a learning environment for RFID Education by laboratory exercises.

Theme 2: Use of Games: The case study that anchors the next theme, “Cola Game: An Innovative Approach to Teaching Inventory Management in a Supply Chain” by Dhumal, Sundararaghavan, and Nandkeolyar, uses a game as a tool to educate students and managers on the issues involved in supply chain inventory management and present an integer linear programming (ILP) model to evaluate the performance of the teams.  This case is complemented by teaching briefs that discuss:

1. a supply chain game to effect problem-based learning,
2. introducing international issues using a game-oriented activity designed to invoke student interest and involvement in learning, and
3. teaching variation in a process by adapting the game of pitching pennies.

Theme 3: Use of Simulation: The article that introduces this theme, “Trade-offs, Biases, and Uncertainty in Project Planning and Execution: A Problem-Based Simulation Exercise” by the husband and wife team of Dwight and Vicki Smith-Daniels, demonstrates the benefits of adopting a balanced approach to setting project time, cost and performance objectives using a goal-based simulation exercise.  Results for 124 project teams illustrate the tendency to ignore this balanced approach, resulting in reduced project performance, even among experienced project managers.  This empirical article is supported by a series of teaching briefs that discuss:

1. simulation software for illustrating the performance impact of process variation and workstation dependency,
2. Trikes, Cars, and the Theory of Constraints (TOC): a web-based interactive exercise,
3. The Global Sourcing & Logistics Exercise, a pencil-and-paper simulation, and
4. spreadsheet modeling of the number of equipment acquisition plan.

Theme 4: Assessment of Faculty and Students: This theme is composed of a series of articles, opening with “An Evaluation of Factors Regarding Students’ Assessment of Faculty in a Business School” by Peterson, Berenson, Misra, and Radosevich, which questions the validity of the evaluation instruments currently used in universities and discusses the need for a mentoring role by the department and colleges in order to enhance the teaching performance of instructors.  The next article, “Student Perceptions of Social Loafing in Undergraduate Business Classroom Teams” by Jassawalla, Malshe, and Sashittal, reveals that students do not confront loafers nor attempt to alleviate the problem as it occurs.  Instead, they seek post priori justice from instructors, and prefer grades that reflect their individual performance based on their self-reports.  The final article included in this theme, “Investigating Academic Success Factors for Undergraduate Business Students” by Kaighobadi and Allen, shows that the strongest predictors of overall academic success are the grades the students receive in core knowledge courses that are typically taken in the earlier semesters of business students’ plans of study.

Theme 5: Providing a more engaging and involving experience: The article that opens this theme, “Capturing Flow in the Business Classroom” by Guo and Ro, shows that during a learning activity, students engaged in learning exhibited high concentration, sense of control, and enjoyment.  This is supported by an article entitled “The use of Student Consulting Projects as an Active Learning Pedagogy: A Case Study in a Production/ Operations Management Course” by Heriot, Cook, Jones, and Simpson, which shows that these projects provide viable forms of active learning.  These articles are supplemented by eight teaching briefs that discuss:

1. the use of simultaneous reports as a reliable method to stimulate class discussion,
2. incorporating the topic of ethics in introductory statistics courses using case studies,
3. developing undergraduate research experiences in Operations Management through projects,
4. enhancing performance and motivation by careful choice of Capstone project teams,
5. integrating curriculum across courses in the same semester and across semesters using a service learning project,
6. Beyond central tendency: Helping students understand the concept of variation using examples from sports and investment,
7. using student video presentations in an online course, and
8. using projects as an effective methodology to teach lean production concepts.

This issue of DSJIE contains eight research articles and twenty teaching briefs. I anticipate that our readers, by implementing some of the practices described in these articles, will be able to develop the leadership skills and attitudes of business students, with particular reference to areas such as communication skills, team work, hands-on experience, innovative capacity, inventiveness and drive, the ability to share, access, and interpret large volumes of information, and interdisciplinary focus.  I also expect the articles will motivate you to conduct new research studies on learning and pedagogy, thus furthering knowledge in the field, and hope that you will continue to contribute to the literature by writing empirical articles and teaching briefs for DSJIE. 

Chetan S. Sankar
Editor