COURSE REDESIGN

MANAGERIAL FINANCEDr. Shannon Donovan, Professor, Accounting and Finance, Bridgewater State Universitys1donovan@bridgew.edu

Back on Myself and BSU I have been teaching Finance for 21 years, been at BSU

for 15 years Part of the Umass System, largest state university about

11,000 students – 8000 undergrad and 1700 in SoB Average combined SAT 1050 and avg GPA 3.0 Higher than average first generation college student, 95% in state and 75% within 50 miles Basic first year Financial management – required by for

all business major and prereq for all upper level finance courses

I have taught at least one section of this course every semester for past 21 years

Used same book, similar exams and grading policies

Problems in Course increase the % of students passing the

course (18% failing), increase grades of students in course, and decrease the withdrawals (almost 30%)

bring the course online Have students be more prepared for

class, so can spend more time on meaningful, engaged discussions and less time on lectures and quizzes

Traditional vs. Redesigned Course

1. Class Participation and homework (occasional collected/mostly not graded) 10%2. Problems/ Cases 20%3. Quizzes (4) 20%4. Exams (2) 20%5. Comprehensive Final 30%

1. Class/ Blackboard Participation 5%2. On line homework 12%3. Cases/Spreadsheet Projects 20%4. On line Quizzes (10)13%5. Midterm 20%6. Comprehensive Final 30%

Traditional Course:

Redesigned Course:

Redesigned Course: What I did?

What did I stop?

Stopped collecting any homework – saved me about 5 hr/ per class/ per semester

Stopped giving in-class quizzes – saved me about 10 hr/ per class/ per semester and gave me 3 more hours of class time to teach

Stopped giving 2 exams and a final in class and went to only a midterm and final – saved me 10 hr/per class/per semester and gave me another 2 hours of class time to teach.

Saved about 25hr/ per class/ per semester and gained 5 hours of teaching time in class!

Redesigned Course: What I did?What I added?

Added Required Homework and Quizzes for every chapter on MFL – After initial setup, add about 5 hours/ per class/ per semester spent analyzing homework and quizzes for class preparation 

Added different cases and projects– Added about 5 hrs/per class/per semester preparing, working with students and correcting

Added discussion board to Blackboard – adds a 10 hours per class/ per semester for onsite and probably about 30 hours/ per class/ per semester for the online class where there is required topic discuss (but no class meeting)

Redesigned Course: What I did?

What I added? (cont.)

Added videos to help students with computational issues, especially with the calculator and Excel, as they occur, (sample problems, sample exams, podcasts of study guides) – adds about 5 hr/per class/ per semester but have for future use

Added clickers in class presentations to see if class with me – initial set up time minimal.

Added summary outlines of what students should do to help them organize material

Redesigned Course: What I did?

What I added with extra class time?

More time doing the problems in class students were struggling with

More discussion of current issues and finance

More class time to work on projects

Notes on Homework & Quizzes Review use of MFL day one & again & again Same due dates Homework - # times, # problems, after due

date Quiz - # times, amount of time, after due date Excuses – My neighbor turned off their internet “I didn’t sign up for an online course” Cheating Computer issues

Item Analysis

Item Analysis

Item Analysis MFL breaks the assignment or quiz down by problem giving the #correct, #

partially correct, #wrong, # didn’t try and how long the students spend on each problem. (Can also break down by student)

Before class I check the latest homework assignment or quiz. I know which types of problems my students were having trouble with and which they are not.

If I wait for questions, many too afraid to ask or only hear from same people.   Once every couple of week, I actually do the problem in MFL. Just to keep

reinforcing all the ways MFL can help them and point out rounding directions, etc.

If a student comes for office hours, I can see what they are having trouble with and how much time they are spending on the problems

  Now that the homework counts for their grade, the student seek me out for

questions to understand how to do the problems. Using MFL has increase the number of questions in class, on BB, and in my office tremendously.

Learning outcomes:(Started using MFL in 2006 and using ever since)

Quantitative Learning Outcomes:

Cut withdrawal rate by about a third, and failure rate down from 18% to 11%.

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 20130.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%%withdraw

%withdraw

Learning outcomes:Quantitative Learning Outcomes: Increase # passing course and increase

grades:

Students are doing their homework and improving their grades.

% A, B & C on final course grade

0.560.71

% students getting C or better on final course grade

Before MFL After MFL

Learning outcomes:Quantitative Learning Outcomes: Increase # passing course and increase

grades:

Students are doing their homework and improving their grades.

% A, B & C on final exam

0.54

0.73

% students getting C or better on final exam

Before MFL After MFL

Learning outcomes:Quantitative Learning Outcomes: Increase # passing course and increase

grades:

Students are doing their homework and improving their grades.

Learning outcomes:Quantitative Learning outcomes: Brought course online in 2007 and there has been at least two

online classes per year ever since, always completely filled More Finance Majors each year in program and more graduating Qualitative Learning Outcomes:  More prepared and engaged students asking questions More class time to do directed problems students need More interesting projects and cases More time spent on discussion of concepts and current events  

Comments of Past Students: I am glad Dr. Donovan requires us to complete

assignments on MFL because it has helped me so much in understanding and remembering how to complete the material. It's a great program and I especially like the instant feedback on my progress.

This was my first experience with online quizzes and homework.  I definitely liked the instant feedback provided by the online homework.  The ability to view examples and get help solving problems is a great feature.

It forced me to sit down and actually attempt the homework, and having the feature to show the steps on how to do the problem was invaluable. 

The "Help me with this problem" is a great addition that helps the student understand even complicated problems.

Where go from here? Now courses 4 courses at BSU using

MFL: Managerial Finance, Personal Finance, Investments, and Capital Budgeting

Standardize – get all Finance faculty and adjunct faculty on board to standardize material and grading of course - assure student get what they need for upper level courses.