当Daniel Chaffin博士第一次教授MGT400-Entrepreneurship课程时,他非常清楚教材和课程计划的内容。 他相信他的学生在学期结束时会学到他们需要知道的东西。 What he didn’t count on was the lesson that he would learn. 多亏了他的一个学生的反馈,他在太阳城娱乐官网大学科尔尼分校的班级已经离开了教室的界限,遍布校园。 These days, Chaffin wouldn’t have it any other way.
像大多数教授一样,在上完一节课后,查芬希望得到学生的反馈。 他预料到必须调整一两件事,但从未想到一个诚实学生的评论会改变他对教师真正含义的看法。 He read the feedback where the student “cut right to the heart of it” which ended up being a powerful experience for him as a teacher.
当他读到他的学生期望这门课有一天能教会他经营企业的技能时,查芬知道他必须找到一种新的方式来教授这门课。 这让他扔掉课本,集思广益,想办法让学生只有掌握了经营自己企业所需的知识,才能通过他的课程。
When students enter Chaffin’s class these days, they quickly figure out that their professor does less talking than most. By giving up his time behind the lectern, Chaffin has created an environment where his students “do a whole lot more doing.” 毕竟,还有什么比创建和经营一家企业更好的学习方式呢?
课堂上不再是学生们在安静地完成个人作业。 Thanks to the way Chaffin has completely overhauled his class, the students now “work as a team” to create and run their businesses. 几年前的那个学生希望他在上了一门大学课程后就知道如何经营一家企业。 多亏了他,每个完成MGT400的学生都可以在他们的大学曲目中添加企业主。
What takes place in Chaffin’s class isn’t combined group work. 学生 don’t have the option of simply dividing the work so each can complete their part. 他们很快发现,这门课的目的是让他们对彼此负责,也对客户负责。 例如,当营销人员需要制作广告时,他们首先需要从运营人员那里了解产品的细节。 这种程度的相互依存完美地模仿了这些太阳城娱乐官网学生毕业后进入真实的商业世界时将要做的事情。
Running a simulation of a business would be a fun project in any class, but this isn’t what Chaffin offers his students. 他们经历了压力和兴奋,所有企业家都知道这是一种生活方式。 毕竟,在询问100名潜在客户是否会购买他们的产品之前,他们会提交一份商业计划和一份融资提案来获得种子资金。 然后,他们必须想办法把这些东西变成一项有利可图的生意,在学期结束时,这笔利润将被捐赠给他们选择的校园事业。 They’re required to prove to Chaffin that they have “evidence of three different distribution channels” before they start collecting materials and handling products. In addition to creating websites and figuring out how to get their products in front of potential customers, these students write frequent reflective pieces where they explore what they’re learning about themselves, their group, and entrepreneurship in general. Chaffin admits he loves “watching how there’s feeling in it” as his students take what could be a straightforward class and turn it into something that becomes real to them. He recalls the words of a student who reached out before his business’s launch day to tell him, “I have hardly slept the last two nights. I’m so stressed.” 意识到学生们的投入程度,查芬明白他在只教了一个学期后就放弃教科书的决定是正确的。 他很高兴学生们可以选择为自己的企业想出自己的想法,这一事实使他们在很大程度上拥有了学习的自主权。
As for Chaffin, teaching this way has “made (him) make friends across campus” since having his students leave the comfort of the classroom affected him as well. 他采用这种新教学方式的第一步是成立一个专家小组,以确保一切都是正确的。 通过接触他在金融、风险管理、太阳城娱乐官网、设施等领域的同龄人,他确保获得学生体验成功所需的输入。 该小组不仅仅预先批准他的学生的商业计划; they stick around for the entire process, seeing each group’s final presentation.
查芬喜欢他的课程对学生来说充满活力的方式。 As a 400-level course with no prerequisites, it’s a diverse class. 来自各个校区的学生意味着,非商业专业的学生与传统的商科学生混在一起。 He shares that these non-business majors “add a dose of creativity” to his class, affecting the way he chooses his groups. 就像他的小组都不一样,查芬承认他不知道每个学期他的班级会发生什么。 This dose of reality, one that he didn’t experience the first time he taught this class, has added an element of surprise which helps keep his students engaged.
When asked about his future plans for MCT400, he has what he terms “the wild idea” of combining what he’s doing in the classroom with what other professors are doing in the field of industrial technology. Not only does he want to expand the parameters of the coursework, but he would like to find a way to give his students “more of a spotlight platform.” 毕竟,由于他的教学风格发生了改变,他的课堂反映了现实生活。 Impressed with what he has seen his students accomplish, he would “love to give them a little bit more of a megaphone.”
Dr. Daniel Chaffin has created an environment where, at the end of the semester, he has watched his students learn to work as a team, has watched them experience that certain “nuance that you can’t get out of a book,” and has gained the confidence that they are ready to launch. 他希望通过这种新的教学方式,他的学生已经学会了冒险。 He spends the semester encouraging them to have the courage to “move forward even though (they’re) not sure” about everything. He knows “wonderful things can happen” for them after graduation. 在MGT400中,Chaffin让他们在追求自己的创业目标时尝到了一些伟大的东西。