Using team based process as an educational medium for an undergraduate production and operations management course

Abstract

Summary form only given. The author describes how, when he was asked to teach an undergraduate Production and Operations Management course at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA, he decided to employ a variety of instructional techniques with the ultimate goal of customer (student) satisfaction. Another important factor was interim evaluation. Since this course was a condensed 7 1/2 week program, he was only able to conduct one interim evaluation. If the course had been offered in the traditional 15-week semester, he would have conducted additional interim evaluations. The problem with the existing system of university instructor evaluations are that they occur at the end of the semester, which is too late to be responsive to student's needs. From the author's experience, students are not likely to give feedback to a professor, especially if it is in disagreement with the professor' s point of view. Finally, he divided the class into arbitrary teams. The purpose was to allow the students to get a feel for what it may be like to work in teams when they work for a company. The reason he formed the teams was because, in real life, one does not get to choose one's team members.