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The University of Delaware
Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics
Level of Course:
Graduate (MBA)
Instructor:
Jack Baroudi
Course Subject:
Positive Leadership and Building Emotional Intelligence and Critical Thinking
Number of community participants:
52
"In the course I teach, a positive leadership course, a lot of people are trying to figure out how to be better managers and leaders. And they always walk away with skills that they feel like has really changed the way they view leadership, because positive leadership is really a new paradigm for leaders. Since it is scientifically based, research based...and there's a new way to view things and a new way to approach things. And that to me is exciting. My students find it exciting."
The courses that Baroudi teaches are a part of the University of Delaware's online MBA program. Their MBA program has been recognized by the US News and World Report top Online MBA list as drastically increasing their student engagement. This jump in engagement led to a 15 spot increase in their ranking on the list, up to 32. In this MBA program, one course that he teaches is 4 weeks, and another one course is 7 weeks. Both are fully asynchronous with 1 hour per week of a synchronous video meeting that is recorded and optional. The course titles are: Positive Leadership and Building Emotional Intelligence and Critical Thinking. In this case study all of the statistics will be referencing Baroudi's 2021 Spring Building Emotional Intelligence and Critical Thinking course.
By The Numbers
185
Posts
972
Comments
5.25
Conversation Ratio
Results
After finding out about Yellowdig, Baroudi shared, “we experimented in two of our classes, where it was really considered quite a success. And then we made it available to all of our classes in the online MBA program. So we limited it initially to the online MBA program.” Given that UD’s focus on student engagement was spurred by student feedback, the reaction from students about their student engagement efforts with Yellowdig was a key indicator of their success. The key to online student engagement is really simple - give students the space to share about course content, ask questions, and create connections. This is especially critical for adult learners who often have upwards of 10 years of lived work experience to make connections to, and share about in the context of the course’s material.
The Network Graph in Dr. Baroudi's Yellowdig community, showing the deep level of interconnectedness
An up-to-date class is sought out by all MBA seekers. Nobody is getting an MBA to learn what was important in business last year — they want the most up-and-coming methods and information. Baroudi shared how his students in Yellowdig help him refresh his course content every semester. “They're posting articles, they're posting videos, and what I've discovered is I will take a lot of the content that they post, and I'll end up using it when I revise my course. Because what'll happen is they'll find new material, they'll find material that contradicts something that I have in the course, that might be a more recent discovery. And so I'm always taking that material, looking at it, and then making some decisions of how I want to change, the next time I roll the course out. And that helps me keep things very current, and also helps students know that because I tell them ‘this is a really good article, I'm going to assign this in the next class.’ So they know they're having an impact in terms of the future participants in the class.”
The overall number of posts and comments in Dr. Baroudi's community, showing numerically high levels of engagement
As Baroudi emphasized, “It is all about the student.” So, an approach to improving education that is focused on getting students involved more deeply in their own education is a clear path to increasing student success, satisfaction, and although not the ultimate goal, boost external rankings. That explains their success with the student engagement platform Yellowdig, and why they plan to expand various student engagement programs in the future.
Overall, Baroudi was able to increase student engagement in his 100% remote course by using Yellowdig. For a completely online MBA, student engagement is a critical aspect for course designers to focus on because the students will not naturally have a way to engage with their peers. Yellowdig is the perfect bridge for students to feel connected to their classmates no matter if they are learning from down the street or across the ocean.
I think they find that Yellowdig, even though it's asynchronous, does replicate to some extent, the in person, in course, kind of conversations you would get if you were holding a class in session. So I really like that part of it.
~
Jack Baroudi, Senior Associate Dean of Academic Partnerships
About the Instructor
Jack Baroudi
Ph.D., M Phil. (New York University), BSBA in MIS & quantitative methods (Boston University)
Senior Associate Dean of Academic Programs for the University of Delaware's Lerner College of Business and Economics
Baroudi is a well-respected faculty member at the University of Delaware. He has received awards such as the Excellence in Teaching Award from UD and NYU, Designated a Highly-Cited Reseaercher by the Institute of Scientific Information and much more. He has had business experience as an organizational consultant, Director of Deutsche Bank, Principal at Morgan Stanley to name a few. He is critical to the Online MBA program's continued success.
About the Institution
The University of Delaware
The University of Delaware is committed to excellence in undergraduate and graduate education, research and service. From its roots as a private academy in 1743, the institution today is a research-intensive, technologically advanced university with global impact (https://www.udel.edu/about/). The Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics delivers inspirational education and pioneering scholarship, building an inclusive community that beneficially transforms business and society (https://lerner.udel.edu/why-lerner/mission/).
