Friday, February 3, 2017

Essayons! Org Behavior taught with Open Education Philosophy

This semester I have decided to adopt an open education philosophy toward my org behavior course. The course syllabus is here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10WkZnIvPgZpJrcCZJaaX7QeE6VGCvc4RQxsz3Z6vC64/edit?usp=sharing

In a nutshell, the course will operate like this: I have explained to the students that within a broad framework, they will run the class. The will organize the lecture periods, and they will collectively decide on what is covered in class.

The ultimate goal of the class, and the final, group deliverable, is to produce a primer (text book) on organizational behavior and leadership aimed at early careerist healthcare leaders - i.e., people like them.

They are also required to document their journey by creating an individual portfolio. Most of them have chosen to create a blog as the backbone of the portfolio (my suggestion). I am hoping they branch out into multi-media as well, but we'll see.

I have not left them hanging, though. I have recruited a cadre of volunteer mentors from students I taught in MHA and MBA programs before I arrived at UNH. All of these mentors are now healthcare executives with advanced degrees in management, and in some cases, advanced degrees in other subjects as well. Each student has selected a mentor and is required to have three synchronous conferences with their assigned mentor over the course of the semester, one at each turning point in the course. The course is organized into three parts based on general subject theme - the individual, the interpersonal, and the organizational. They have been instructed to consult with their mentor on what the mentor would recommend they study for each part to be successful as a healthcare executive.

Of course, I am available to the students throughout, and more than happy to give them ideas and resources. But what they do is going to be up to them.

As of Wednesday, our third class meeting, the students have begun to take charge. I am extremely pleased with the progress they made in that class. They re-wrote the schedule, and divided it up.

They have all begun blogging. You can see their blogs here:


http://ermhmp722.blogspot.com/
http://hmp722elk.blogspot.com/
http://hmp722jl.blogspot.com/
http://carlybarber.blogspot.com/
http://hmp722cs.blogspot.com/
http://hmp722sm.blogspot.com/
http://reganjudge.blogspot.com/
https://traitsandbehavior.blogspot.com/
http://jessfuccihmp722.blogspot.com/
http://healthcaremanagementideas.blogspot.com/
http://meghanpinkham.blogspot.com/
http://hmp722unh.blogspot.com/
http://mgmt722.blogspot.com/
http://letmemakeableg.blogspot.com/

They are in the process of having their first meetings with their mentors, and next week they will finalize topics for the first round of classes.

I have the College of Health and Human Services librarian coming next week to give a brief overview of how to access the databases in the library so that they have her as a mentor as well.

In a world where they have more information in their pocket (in the form of a smartphone) than any other human beings who walked the earth since the beginning of time, what's the point of me lecturing them? The most important thing to learn from an OB class is how to work with and lead others. You can read about that, but if you don't do it, you aren't really going to learn it.

I gave them the French word, Essayons! as a theme for this course. It is the motto of the Army Corps of Engineers, and it means, Let us Try! 

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