The material included below provides insights into my teaching philosophy and the way that it manifests itself in my courses with specific examples. This section also includes sample course projects and exercises (which demonstrate student success), letters of support from faculty and community partners, sample syllabi, evidence of advising, and student references.
Teaching Philosophy
The ultimate goal of the educational experience is to help students acquire skills (tools), experiences, and perspectives that will help them lead...
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Meaningful education takes dedication and hard work on the part of the student and the teacher. We need to create an environment, that challenges students to do more than they know they can do, in a way that is both fun and interesting. The teacher must be willing to learn from students as well. We all have so much more to gain by establishing a collaborative partnership with educational excellence as the objective.
Teaching Philosophy In Practice
BA 498, Business Policy & Strategy, is the capstone for undergraduate business students, and is a course that I’ve taught for many years, at several different universities.
The goal of the capstone is to bring together everything that students have learned from their degree program – accounting, finance, marketing, management, operations, and more. We do this on two different levels. First, students are required to cover the core business policy and strategy curriculum presented in the textbook – augmented with current examples/readings. This includes readings, class discussions, and online exams to help evaluate progress.
Students are also required to complete a real-world group consulting project with a community partner. The projects chosen benefit the community in some way, but they also give the students the opportunity to apply their skills in a practical fashion. The projects also have enough substance that they can be used on the students resume and they also have the opportunity to build professional contacts that could help in the future.
Now to specific classes
BA 498, Business Policy & Strategy, is the capstone for undergraduate business students, and is a course that I’ve taught for many years, at several different universities.
The goal of the capstone is to bring together everything that students have learned from their degree program – accounting, finance, marketing, management, operations, and more. We do this on two different levels. First, students are required to cover the core business policy and strategy curriculum presented in the textbook – augmented with current examples/readings. This includes readings, class discussions, and online exams to help evaluate progress.
Students are also required to complete a real-world group consulting project with a community partner. The projects chosen benefit the community in some way, but they also give the students the opportunity to apply their skills in a practical fashion. The projects also have enough substance that they can be used on the students resume and they also have the opportunity to build professional contacts that could help in the future.
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2021 Economic Outlook, Kruse Way Economic Forum, April 21, 2021
Beyond the capstone
BA 464, Promotion Strategy, and BA 465, Consumer Behavior, are two areas of marketing where we spend time learning more about target markets, buying behavior, building awareness, and driving sales. The last time this course was offered we built promotional plans for two local businesses – West Side Bakery and Yia Yia Nikke’s. Students visited both businesses, talked with the owners, learned more about how they operate, and made an effort to understand their vision. Students then owned the task of defining the missing elements of the marketing mix (5 P’s) and producing a promotional plan the owners could execute with a total budget of less than $5,000.
We finished up the term with a coffee hour and a student presentation. The business owners spent one hour sharing samples of their food with all College of Business students and answering questions. Then students presented their promotional plans (in class) and answered questions. The ultimate goals of this exercise was for students to learn while doing, to forge a tighter relationship between EOU and the community, and to help two small cash-starved businesses be successful. Both the students and the business owners reported that this exercise was a success.
Institutional Records and Descriptive Information
A complete list of all the courses that I’ve taught since coming to EOU included below. The grade distribution for these classes is also included.
As discussed earlier, BA 498 classes require students to complete a consulting engagement with a community partner. This is summarized above and examples are provided. In addition, most of my upper level courses require the students to complete a group project. Whenever possible, we engage with a community partner, and solve real world problems.
In 2015 I performed an analysis of the marketing curriculum offered by other regional universities in our area, we discussed this material as a marketing faculty, and then made the recommendation to retain our marketing concentration. You will find a diagram below that outlines our offerings in marketing and shows how they relate to each other and to the topic. In addition to teaching the marketing core (BA 312), and most of the our marketing electives, I also teach Entrepreneurship (BA 260, BA 460), Finance (BA 313), and Business Policy and Strategy (BA 498 – the capstone).
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2021 Economic Outlook, Kruse Way Economic Forum, April 21, 2021
| Course Load | Credits | New Preps |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 - 2016 detailed view | 60 | 8 |
| 2015 - 2016 detailed view | 60 | 8 |
| 2015 - 2016 detailed view | 60 | 8 |
| 2015 - 2016 detailed view | 60 | 8 |
Classroom Observations
Dean Mielke (retired), College of Business and Education visited two of my classes (one on campus and one online) in 2017. Dean Henninger, College of Business, visited two of my classes this term and reviewed my online course materials. Peter Maille and Bill Grigsby, both tenure faculty, performed classroom observations and reviewed my online course shells. Classroom observations were previously performed by tenure faculty members Gary Keller and Shari Carpenter. Links to the formal class evaluations can be found on the right.
Scott McConnell, Steve Clements (retired), Doug Briney, and Peter Maille (tenure faculty) have all attended my classes for student presentations and/or exercises. Luke Aldrich also attended a recent class and provided an informal review (right).
As discussed earlier, we have frequent class visitors (speakers), and we present projects to community partners. We have had the opportunity to welcome many people into our class to participate. A representative (not exhaustive) list would include: Tom Insko (EOU President), Tim Seydel (VP, University Advancement), Ben Welch (EOU Track Coach), Steve Clements (Mayor of La Grande), Jack Howard (Union County Commissioner), Scott Fairley (OR Governor’s Office), Randy Jones (OR DEQ), Troy Little (Division Manager, Boise Cascade), Steve Lyon (Human Resources Manager, Grande Ronde Hospital), and many more.
Alumni
The names of twelve reference students are included below. This sample stretches across my time at EOU, with nine undergraduate alumni, and three current/past MBA students. In addition there are reference letters from former students at Concordia University and Portland State University. There are also several letters from past/present students on the right.