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GM 105 Strategic Management

Engaging, Interactive, Chat

Reflection on Instructional Change:

This was my first ACUE course. Overall, I appreciated the importance of creating an inclusive and supportive learning environment that reduces mid-level distractions. Strategic management involves case study pedagogy. Students prepare by reading a 30-40 page case study before class and then come to class prepared to discuss the case. During the pandemic, all students would record their case discussions. I valued hearing from every student. Upon returning to in-person teaching, I noticed that the class dynamic had changed. Students reverted to a typical pattern where some spoke regularly in class, and others were sporadic participants. Because of the ACUE training, I recognized that this pattern was a low-level distraction.

One technique I considered implementing is to distract the distractor. If I can work more to increase their engagement, they will be less likely to draw other learners into their distracting behaviors. One way to address this is to give the distractor a question that is easy to answer to draw them back into the discussion. I took this step further by utilizing the new chat function in Canvas to have learners engage in the chat function during Case discussion so that they could see everyone responding rather than a select few and stay engaged with the class discussion.

Implementing this practice had students generally respond positively. They liked having time to process the question and type their response in the chat before sharing out loud. They also liked reading their peers' responses rather than hearing from the same students. It allowed me to call on a student with a question I knew they were prepared to answer. One difficulty I had was that some students didn't bring a device to access Canvas to class. They felt left out of the discussion, so I asked them individually for their response while others engaged in the chat. Another issue I had is that some students had difficulty accessing campus Wi-Fi during class discussions.

The ACUE course activity that influenced me the most was the demonstration videos. I appreciated the modeling of the teaching strategies as well as seeing less effective implementations of the strategy. I found the discussion forum useful in evaluating the less effective implementations.

My biggest aha moment from the Observe and Analyze session involved a takeaway about the type of question prompts I used for the chat. I received more unique responses from the class with broad, open-ended questions rather than narrower concept-specific ones.

Evidence of Instructional Change

Presentation image from observe and analyze session
Observe and Analyze Presentation	Canvas Chat Discussion	ACUE Microcredential

Practice and Reflect on: Civil Learning Environment

Course Syllabus: GM 105 Fall 2022 IN PERSON-1.docx

Faculty Bio

Biography
	Darcy Fudge Kamal (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at the College of Business Administration at Sacramento State. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include how trust, strategic alliances, and buyer-supplier relationships improve firm performance. The LA Times and APM’s Marketplace quoted her knowledge of the Thoroughbred horse industry. Darcy has published in prestigious journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Strategic Organization, PLoS One, and the Journal of Business Logistics. She primarily teaches strategic management courses for undergraduate, MBA, and executive programs.

Funding
	This work was supported by: National Science Foundation Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEM Zone DUE 1832335 CSU Office of the Chancellor Academic Affairs grant for Faculty Professional Development US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEM4Equity P031C210012 *Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the US Department of Education.