2019 UW MBA Consortium Faculty Meeting
Posted: March 6th, 2019
Forty faculty and administrative staff from across all the Consortium partner campuses gathered for the 3rd Annual UW MBA Consortium Faculty Meeting on January 17-18, 2019 at the Kalahari Resort and Convention Center in Wisconsin Dells. Each year, attendees come together to participate in strategic planning activities as well as professional development. During this year's meeting, faculty completed "missions" to learn best practices for teaching their online courses in Canvas, our new learning management system. Faculty also completed a SWOT analysis of the UW MBA Consortium program to continuously evaluate how to best serve the needs of our students and remain competitive in the growing field of online MBA programs.
Faculty Present Results of SWOT Analysis
Mark Wehde, a 2018 UW MBA graduate and recipient of the 2018 Outstanding Graduate award, attended this year's meeting for the first time as he begins in his new role with the program among the faculty. "The retreat was held at the Wisconsin Dells in January, at which time its greatest resemblance is to a scene from an apocalypse," said Wehde, who leads a team of bioengineers at Mayo by day and teaches business communication courses for the Consortium by night. "I looked out of my hotel window and could see the concrete jungle of a water park looking like it had been abandoned for years. There was no water, no sun, no people-only desolation. Yet inside, the busy work of humans went on. Kids ran around the indoor pools in swimsuits, and we, being dedicated to the cause, spent our days in retreat working to continue to ensure the quality and success of what is now the 9th best online MBA program in the nation."
Canvas Panel Presentation on Friday
Pictured left to right: Ashaun Adler, Suresh Chalasani, Julia Lehman Caldwell, Jill Attaway, John Muraski
In addition to this work, the faculty and staff also enjoy some unstructured time to network and share online teaching experiences with each other. "I appreciate the downtime to network with colleagues," said Dr. Nese Nasif, Assistant Professor of Marketing from UW-La Crosse. Nasif has been teaching Module 3 since 2016. "In particular, I received some useful advice from a couple of the veteran instructors on providing assignment feedback in a way that balances criticism and motivation in the message. It's also valuable for commitment and motivation to have a role in the strategic planning of the direction of the program."
Dr. Peter Knight, Associate Professor of Marketing from UW-Parkside also attended this year's meeting, where he was honored as a finalist for the 2018 Outstanding Faculty Awards. Read more about the 2018 UW MBA Consortium Outstanding Faculty Awards. "We have a great group of accomplished and engaged faculty that collaborated well to come up with excellent recommendations to improve an already best in class program," said Knight, who has taught with the Consortium program since 2007. He added, "I wish all meetings were that productive!"
The next UW MBA Consortium Faculty meeting is scheduled for January 16-17, 2020.
Following the 3rd Annual Faculty Meeting, UW MBA Consortium Executive Committee members met in February to continue to help in the strategic planning process. The Executive Committee consists of College of Business Deans and MBA Program Directors from each partner campus, plus Consortium administration. The group discussed the SWOT analysis completed by the faculty in January and began to discuss plans for program enhancements which could take place over the next few years.
Finalists for 2018 Outstanding Faculty Awards
Pictured left to right: Paula Lentz, Rebecca Wyland, Kelly Berry, John Muraski, Bob Erffmeyer, Peter Knight |
