Best Practices: A Cure for the New Prep Headache ?

1. Best Practices:A Cure for the New Prep Headache? Alan T. Burns Terry A. Steinbach School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems DePaul University Chicago, IL 60604 Send inquiries to aburns@cs.depaul.edu

2. Outline Goals of IS education research The trouble with new preps Best practices defined Best practices: a cure? Questions Burns, Steinbach Best Practices: Cure for New Prep Headache?

3. 4 Goals of IS Education Research Effectiveness: Goal attainment / Quality / Ratio of actual outcome to an ideal outcome Efficiency: Resource utilization / Ratio of output to input Burns, Steinbach Best practices: Cure for new prep headache?

4. A question for the audience What comes to mind when I say NEW PREP ? e.g. “We’re assigning you 2 new preps next quarter” Burns, Steinbach Best practices: Cure for the new prep headache?

5. Definition of a “New Prep” • A course already developed, but being taught by an instructor for the first time • The instructor can be either experienced or a novice • The course could also be new (never developed) Burns, Steinbach Best practices: Cure for the new prep headache?

6. The trouble with new preps (Extremely) Time consuming to prepare (Long) Learning curve: They may take several iterations to ‘get it right’ Feedback from students may not be helpful, since they cannot articulate why they don’t understand Time pressures make matters worse Perhaps the most inefficient activity we perform Burns, Steinbach Best practices: Cure for the new prep headache?

7. What are best practices? • The term “best practice” refers to a superior internal practice within the organization that provides better results than any known alternatives (Szulanski, 2000). • We may not know why the practice is “best”. • The scope of a best practice can vary widely (a one sentence tip to an entire set of manuals) • Best practices are best suited to discrete but nontrivial tasks • In this case the task is a new prep transfer. Burns, Steinbach Best practices: Cure for the new prep headache?

8. Modeling best practices • Best practices are typically modeled in terms of communication theory (Shannon & Weaver, 1949) as a form of knowledge transfer. • Communication theory • Knowledgeable source • Encodes a message • Sent across a channel • Message decoded by • A willing recipient Burns, Steinbach Best practices: Cure for the new prep headache?

9. The New Prep Transfer Burns, Janicki A Case for PKM

10. Why communication theory? • It helps us identify and isolate potential (and very different) problems of transfer. • Why might knowledge be successfully transferred? • Source (lacks motivation, lacks credibility) • Recipient (lacks motivation, lacks absorptive capacity) • Context (distant relationships, lack of incentives) • Message (“sticky” knowledge) • Sticky: difficult to articulate (encode), and therefore hard to transfer to the recipient Burns, Steinbach Best practices: Cure for the new prep headache?

11. Best practices: A cure for the new prep headache? • How to make course preps easier to share? • Over the last 2 years, we have been developing a model for sharing best practices for teaching • So far, 3 courses studied (2 u/g, 1 grad) • Two components to our proposed model • A central BP document • A repository of content • Our paper discusses features of our model, and the anticipated knowledge transfer barriers they seek to overcome Burns, Steinbach Best practices: Cure for the new prep headache?

12. Features: Central BP document • Formality • A formal, attractive document increases the credibility of the source document. • Disclaimer • Our best practices are suggestions, not mandatory rules for adoption • This keeps the instructor in control of the course configuration Burns, Steinbach Best practices: Cure for the new prep headache?

13. Features: Central BP document • Weekly schedule(s) • Overcome one “sticky” knowledge problem • It’s difficult for the source instructor to explain why topics are sequenced a particular way • Schedules help articulate this knowledge • Classroom response system questions • e.g. for iClickers • Sometimes it is difficult for a source instructor to describe how a class discussion should flow • Articulating questions can help Burns, Steinbach Best practices: Cure for the new prep headache?

14. Features: Repository • Drag-drop-deliver model • A course is broken down into many sessions (modules) • Each session is driven by specific course learning goals • Each session ideally has a conceptual component, as well as a “learning by doing” component (homework, in class exercise, etc.) • Sessions are assumed to last about 60 to 90 minutes Burns, Steinbach Best practices: Cure for the new prep headache?

15. Features: Repository • Drag-drop-deliver model (cont.) • Organizing course content • 1 folder per ~90 min. session (module) • High cohesion • Folders are self-contained units • Low coupling • Folders are independent of one another • Instructors pick and choose modules as they wish • Drag from the server, drop onto their desktop, and deliver to the class (in a perfect world) Burns, Steinbach Best practices: Cure for the new prep headache?

16. Features: Repository • Inside a module (folder) • Instructor notes on the module/session • All files needed for the session • Conceptual component (readings, PPT) • Learning by doing component (assignment, in-class exercise) Burns, Steinbach Best practices: Cure for the new prep headache?

17. A look inside the model 1) A central Best Practices document for teaching a course 2) A repository of content Burns, Steinbach Best practices: Cure for the new prep headache?

18. Future directions Seminal paper? Which parts of the Best Practice document and repository are perceived as being most useful to recipient instructors? Which parts improve the rate and quality of knowledge transfer? How to measure benefits? E.g. how much instructor time and effort is saved compared to the traditional method of new prep transfer? Burns, Steinbach Best practices: Cure for the new prep headache?

19. Future directions Do best practices improve student learning? Is a modular approach to course design more transferrable compared to more traditional approaches of course design What barriers exist in the new prep transfer process, and how might they be overcome? What are the barriers and issues associated with transfer of new preps across faculty from different universities? Burns, Steinbach Best practices: Cure for the new prep headache?

20. Questions Burns, Steinbach Best practices: Cure for the new prep headache?