2021 Annual Faculty Meeting
Posted: February 2nd, 2021
Nearly 40 faculty and administrative staff from across all the UW MBA Consortium partner campuses gathered for the 5th Annual UW MBA Consortium Faculty Meeting, on Thursday and Friday, January 14–15, 2021. Usually, faculty and staff gather in Wisconsin Dells as a central meeting location, but this year, because of the pandemic, we met virtually via Zoom. On Thursday participants engaged in the valuable work of developing mission, vision, and values statements that will guide strategic planning. On Friday, participants heard from keynote speaker and diversity expert Dr. Courtney Plotts and then worked in small groups to think of ways to be more present and inclusive in their courses.
Dr. Suresh Chalasani, professor of information systems from UW-Parkside, attended the session with Dr. Plotts. “I very much enjoyed Dr. Courtney Plotts's presentation,” says Chalasani, who teaches the MBA 778: Managing Technology in Turbulent Times and MBA 781: Fundamentals of health Information Technology Management elective courses. “Her presentation and the ensuing group discussion and reflection activity opened my eyes on the need to integrate cultural competence and presence in all three dimensions -- social, teaching, and cognitive presence – of the Community of Inquiry model.”
Dr. Dan Gullifor, assistant professor of management from UW – Eau Claire, attended his first annual meeting this year. “I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect at my first Consortium faculty meeting, but I had no idea it would be such an excellent experience,” says Gullifor. “During the meeting, I got to interact with colleagues from multiple campuses that had experience ranging from first timers to people who have been doing this for years, and it was evident everyone was still striving to improve the program and the overall educational experience for the students.” Gullifor will be teaching MBA 701: Leading a Dynamic and Diverse Workforce with the program starting in Spring 2021.
In addition to meeting virtually, faculty also engaged in a Canvas course created by the iDocs team of instructional designers prior to the live meeting to learn best practices from other faculty across the program as well as brushing up on some technical skills with new Canvas tools. “The pre-conference Canvas course is always well organized with rich information,” says Dr. Ling Liu, professor of accounting from UW – Eau Claire who has been teaching MBA 712: Developing New Products and Services since Spring 2019. "I get to know the team members in the online discussion forums before the formal conference meetings. The faculty showcases are very insightful. I like the training on the cutting-edge technologies for online teaching, which is very helpful for improving my own courses.”
One of the highlights of the annual meeting is to recognize the outstanding faculty from the program based on student nominations. Dr. Chad Cotti, professor of economics from UW Oshkosh and instructor of the MBA 782: Health Care Finance and Economics, was one of the Outstanding Faculty Award recipients this year. "The benefit of listening to the different approaches and practices used by colleagues in the MBA Consortium always helps me to identify new, multi-faceted ways in which online education can be delivered,” notes Cotti. “The creativity and breadth of opportunities to grow as an online instructor is clearly evident from participating in the Consortium Faculty meeting."
Learn who was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Awards for 2020.
UW MBA Consortium Faculty & Staff Meet in Zoom
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