Abstract:

A vast majority of Business Administration (BBA) programs include a core curriculum with at least one course in Operations Management. The purpose of this compulsory core in Operations is to develop business knowledge and technical skills to organize the production and delivery of goods and services. Theses courses usually present a broad perspective of several operations areas, some qualitative in nature and some quantitative. A great deal of focus is on efficiency and effectiveness of processes. Therefore, operations management often includes substantial measurement and analysis of internal processes. Ultimately, this course prepares students for an increasing complex workplace where functional areas do not live in isolation.

Bishop's University is a small, predominantly residential, undergraduate university that praises personal contact between students and professors. We have been using an array of Learning Management Systems (LMS) ranging from simple file sharing system to fully functional commercial implementations like WebCt and Moodle. Blended learning is often used, combining traditional classroom face-to-face lectures, self-paced learning using LMS, hands-on practical training, and group laboratory work.

In this paper we present the results obtained in a compulsory undergraduate course in Operations Management. A blended setup was designed for two sections of the same course. Students were required to prepare and/or participate in 10 different activities along the semester, six of them using a LMS; students were allowed to work in groups for the assignments and they were asked to participate in on-line asynchronous forums. The blend of activities and assignments requested was geared to motivate different kind of learners, using the Kolb‘s Learning Style Inventory. Based on these results, we present whether learning styles affect both LMS students’ usage and students’ performance in the different activities, exams and final grades. We also present the students’ evaluation of each course component.

Keywords:

experiential learning model, blended courses with lms, e forums.