MBA

Ipanema, Ideas and Innovations

Big news! #MBALife has wrapped up! I ended my 2+ year long adventure with a trip (for class) to Brazil. We visited São Paulo and Rio de Janiero, which of course included some delicious coconut water on the beaches of Ipanema!

Ipanema

And then in May I graduated with my masters. No big.

GradCap

And now it’s back to #WorkLife in the OCIO (and sometimes ODEE!)

In the OCIO, we’re currently working on a neat project called ImproveIT. It lets any employee submit an idea for an improvement or a new service. The suggestions help us do our work more efficiently and/or improve the customer experience. So many win-wins! And it keeps employees engaged, letting them know they really CAN make things better for everyone just by speaking up. I’m pretty excited to be a part of this effort.

In the ODEE side of the house, it’s all about Canvas! We’re shaking up how we run our LMS (learning management system, for long), and we’re using a new, innovative platform that is preferred by students and instructors alike. Canvas is user-friendly, has an app, creates a calendar that syncs all your assignments, has an app, gives faculty more freedom to be creative with their teaching, oh, and did I mention it has an app? You can also create a panda avatar to upload as your profile picture, because, why not?

To learn even more about Canvas, I’m heading on a trip with my ODEE compadres. Stay tuned for #pandamonium from Camp Canvas in July! It’s gonna be #Kumbayaweome!

Summer Update from RandiLand (in pictures)

Here’s a quick run down of what’s been going on in RandiLand this summer:

#MBALife

A bunch of students graduated in May!!!

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…but not me – classes are still rolling on.

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#WorkLife

In the OCIO, we’re handing out helpful brochures at orientation…

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…and the employee spotlight articles are going strong!

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#LifeBalance

I’m also gearing up for a camping trip this month…

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…and trying to make more time for my pup and the pool!

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Oh, and there’s a fantastic dance show in the rehearsal stage right now!

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…but more on that later. 🙂

#UpNext

My classes will continue through July, as will orientation. This August, the OCIO will make an appearance at the annual involvement fair and hopefully be able to give out some cool prizes (mobile power banks, an iPad, who knows!).

Goals for the new fiscal year should be formulated by the end of the summer as well.

Oh, and of course football season is just around the corner!

Exciting stuff!

Crowdsourcing for Class

I am currently in a Maymester class at Fisher called Digital Marketing, and the teaching format is quite untraditional. We have books to read, lectures on occasion and some basic principles we are learning about. We also have online discussion boards through Carmen. In addition, we are utilizing the idea of crowdsourcing for our final papers and projects.

What’s crowdsourcing you ask? I’m a fan of Dictionary.com’s definition of crowdsourcing: “to utilize (labor, information, etc.) contributed by the general public to (a project), often via the Internet and without compensation.” <-- note the without compensation part.

Each student in the class has posted the topic and general outline of the paper they are writing or the marketing plan they are creating. The idea is that other students, out of the goodness of their hearts, will comment on the topics and suggest sources that could help develop the paper or project. We can also ask questions of our classmates—Have you thought about this angle? What about this other growing trend? What are the ethical implications here?

In theory, this sounds like a wonderful idea and a great fit for a class devoted to the digital world. But…does it work?

I happened to get one comment on my topic, #FOMO, and a fellow student suggested a great TED talk video to complement my paper. However, there are several topics that no one else has pitched in any thoughts. Could it be the competitive nature of grad students? We are often graded in relation to everyone else in the class, so why should we help each other? Honestly, I think a lot of it has to do with time. I’m busy writing my own paper and trying to help out others at the same time. I’ve offered a few suggestions, but I don’t have the time or knowledge to chime in on other topics.

What do you think about crowdsourcing for class? Are there situations where this would work out better than it seems to be going for our final projects? I’d love to get some more opinions and real-life experiences with crowdsourcing! It’s a fantastic way to raise funds (check out Kiva.org to lend to others in need…AND GET PAID BACK!), but I’m still skeptical about the practicality of this idea in the classroom.