I have always said and tried to make crystal clear on the expectation front, that one gets out of on-line learning what they put into it. Good effort and reflection in, then good, self paced learning can take place. Poor effort in or no reflection, then don’t bitch about what what little one gets out of it.
Online learning, whether in a 100 percent distance format or a hybrid format — part face-to-face and part internet (this course is a very lightweight variation of a hybrid course), puts the onus on the student for that portion of their learning and requires them to struggle with connecting some of the dots.
I have found that merely suggesting at a place like Poly that a course be built with an online component often gets one “you are a child of satan” stares by a wide number of stakeholders. Yet, nobody wants to take on and discuss the true elephant in the room — that is, how, under the traditional model of a professor at the front of the room spewing knowledge while students furiously take notes trying to decipher what they will be tested on for the exam, the research clearly shows that student retention of said material where that is the mode of delivery is very, very, very low. But, I digress and hey, I will just have to accept that I won’t win a popularity contest on this issue in parts of Mustang Land (ironically, many companies today train their employees through different types of online learning and tools and one of the things I seek to do by using such a learning mechanism is to let students start to get comfortable with the very type of continued education and professional learning their firms will provide to them after they graduate).
One of the advantages of online learning in the form of a blog is that the student(s), through the posts they submit in a course like this, take ownership of and help design a part the content of the course and what they find interesting and relevant and what they want to discuss.
I have also found that in a traditional classroom setting you can’t easily replicate others in the world being a part of the learning process as you easily can with a blog and its asynchronous nature. On this note see the below post from the Corporate Social Responsibility in Asia blog that shows that people are interested in your work product and evaluating it (another reason I incorporate a blog into some of my classes is because I have found that transparency and public sunshine on things like work product are tremendous mechanisms that can separate contenders from pretenders).
My PhD student Rob Hanlon (doing his thesis on human rights, corruption, CSR and business) alerted me to this fascinating blog
. It’s run by [a professor] as part of his teaching in a business course and the lead up to an annual China trip by Cal Poly MBA students. As somebody who regularly gives talks to MBA students from various universities, I was intrigued by this post, which asked these future business leaders to define human rights. The students’ answers are interesting; I wonder if they will change their views after visiting Shenzhen. Nevertheless, I had lunch with Rob today and we talked about how so few companies in Hong Kong (both local and otherwise) even talk about human rights, let alone define them. Yet if they are sourcing from workplaces across the border, investing in China, or just doing business there, the issue is inescapable; workers’ rights, land acquisition, and numerous other issues are simply becoming a greater risk to business (and also an opportunity). Even if you don’t use the term “human rights”, somebody investing in your company is probably going to ask you at some point about migrant workers, social security payments to workers, overtime hours, wages, workplace safety, water, emissions and so on. Forget rights; think about risk. And if these students aren’t clued into the risks and opportunities associated with what eggheads and NGOs call human rights, then they really are going to find China an unfathomable place.
Thank you, CSR in Asia, for the feedback. Please do check back in and let us know what you think of this comment stream. We welcome your constructive input, critique, expertise, and feedback, good or bad.
In a few weeks, I will publish Part II of this post, which will discuss how mainstream scholars look at and discuss human rights, so that each Cal Poly MBA and MS in IT student on the trip can go back, look at their own response, and see if they were in the right ballpark. Stay tuned.
