Running head: FINAL REFLECTION PAPER FOR MBA 500 Final Reflection Paper for MBA 500 Leanna Nalley American Sentinel University 1 FINAL REFLECTION PAPER FOR MBA 500 2 Final Reflection Paper for MBA 500 This final reflection paper is intended to explain my reaction to the MBA 500 course which is newly designed for the MBA program at American Sentinel University. To be truthful I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from the MBA 500 course. I’d been sent an email regarding my interest in it, which I didn’t see and then was subsequently contacted by Ms. Nightengale, who resent the message. There was information in the email about the program, but not specifically much on this particular course; it seemed so foreign that I was really going in somewhat unaware of the expectations. I think that the other students that are employed by American Sentinel University understood more fully the objectives and expectations than I may have. Positives and Recommendations One of the things I liked about the course was the experiential learning. I was able to apply my new knowledge to my project, changing to a Common Review Date, and to my everyday work. For example, even if I wasn’t the person involved in a project at work, I was able to identify that Business Intelligence tools were being used. This provided me with a new awareness of how co-workers go about doing their jobs and how decisions are made. It’s encouraged me to wonder about what else is available to help us do our jobs better and more efficiently. In addition, no one was looking at the cost savings side of the conversion to a Common Review Date. Once I started using the Excel tool and thinking about things differently I was able to show these cost savings. Probably my favorite tool is the Canvas used to brainstorm ideas. It assisted with getting all thoughts down in a logical format and it was easy to use and allowed for revision. I will use FINAL REFLECTION PAPER FOR MBA 500 3 this often for many different projects. Plus, it just looks so cool when it’s all completed. I also really like making Rocket Pitches on VoiceThread. I’d never used anything where I could add voice, and I see that video is also possible, so this was an exciting new tool. In addition, the book Business Model Generation, which was required for the course, was a great resource, easy to read and very applicable to the subject matter. (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010) While meeting on-line with Go-to-Meeting was a great feature I can see where this may not be possible for some students depending upon the type of position they are in and the hours they work. I was able to put this meeting on my calendar and only had one date where there was a conflict and I thought I was going to miss the meeting. Fortunately for me the work meeting was cancelled. If the meetings are taped that helps, but participation is what makes it interactive and that is what I liked about it. Even though on-line written discussions are fine, they aren’t as interactive as meeting in a format like this. You get a sense of knowing the other students this way. I do recommend that the first time you use this in the next class that you tell everyone how to mute their phones and how to send messages. I didn’t see that I could send a message until around the 6th week when Devon Cancilla remarked on how nice Cheryl Ayres ePortfiolo was during one of the meetings. After that I used it to comment on her ePortfolio and as a result she and I got together one evening so she could provide me with some help. I also privately mentioned to Devin Neves that he could purchase the Perrla program to help with the APA format of papers and to ask Kathleen Ives about something she’d said about grading papers and recommendations for the format. I wish I’d known about it sooner. I spent a lot of time on this course, possibly more than other MBA courses, but I was never asked to track my time so I’m unsure. I had to spend more time some weeks than others and often it was time spent learning to use the tools, like the canvas, the spreadsheet, FINAL REFLECTION PAPER FOR MBA 500 4 VoiceThread and ePortfolio. ePortfiolio took me an especially long time to get comfortable with. Even after the explanation I wasn’t able to understand what its intent was until I saw a good complete example. But it’s not an easy thing to learn how to do when you’ve never created a webpage. And, some features, like moving something around within the page is impossible unless you download software, which when you click on it, isn’t available anymore. I also got confused with the new terminology, was it an ePortfolio or a myWiki page? I’m still not sure. I did have a bit of frustration in keeping up some weeks with the reading and assignments, along with the learning curve of using the new technology. I just wanted to know it and some of it, like ePortfolio just wasn’t intuitive for me. I don’t think the workload for the course was too intense; it’s kind of expected in a Masters level course, especially when you are completing it in eight weeks. There were times I was stressed, but that was mostly because it was new material or tools that I was using and I was outside of my comfort zone. How else do you grow and learn? I ended up understanding the tools ultimately and believe all of those utilized in the course are useful for the course and in the workplace. Moving forward, if the rest of the MBA program is structured surrounding the use of these types of tools I believe it will be beneficial. Previously, my MBA courses at American Sentinel were very structured: 1) read material 2) discuss material 3) reply to others discussion 4) go into Moodle so many times per week for discussion 5) turn in your assignment by Sunday no later than …. The content and number of replies to discussions were important, but if you missed the required number of days going into Moodle to discuss, it counted against you. That’s kind of ridiculous and this is coming from someone who likes some structure. There were times I thought the directions in Moodle could have been a bit clearer regarding what we were supposed to do for various assignments during the week. I don’t know FINAL REFLECTION PAPER FOR MBA 500 5 if others felt the same way or not. Perhaps because so many worked together they could talk about it and figure it out, whereas I was feeling like I was just missing something in the instructions and would review them over and over again. I sometimes even had to email one of the Professors for clarification. For instance, I don’t think it was clear that we were required to respond by going into discussions or VoiceThreads a week after they were due when students were late getting their assignments in. I was already working on the next week’s assignments and not checking whether or not other students had turned anything in. Deadline dates for submission would be helpful. I like to know what is expected and when it is expected. If there’s some leeway then that’s okay, but I would like to know that as well. Conclusion Overall I enjoyed the class. I liked learning and using new tools that I could use in the course and at work, as well as, learning about the various Business Intelligence that is available to help businesses. I liked the fact that I could work on a project since I am not planning on opening a business, but I think that some of the tools, like the Excel spreadsheet, work better for those types of projects. I do not feel that I have formed a good idea for the degree challenge because my project will be completed prior to me finishing my MBA degree, so I will need to come up with something else. However, I do believe I am prepared to move forward in the degree program after taking this course and can anticipate some of the changes in the program having taken the MBA 500. I have to say, while I do have recommendations, this is still the best business class I’ve ever taken. It is knowledge and experience I can use now and that’s what it’s all about. FINAL REFLECTION PAPER FOR MBA 500 References Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business model generation. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 6