Teaching

Introduction
I believe that my primary roles as a teaching professor are to facilitate student learning of the relevant subject matter and to significantly
increase their critical thinking skills. As such, I seek to meet each on their individual journey, encouraging them when they lack confidence,
challenging them when they are complacent, and coaching them when they are receptive. I view my classroom and time with students as
a meeting, no different from my two decades of industry experience. I am proud of the engagement I get when they are challenged weekly
to draw relevant experience from their own lives and critically apply it to our course material, providing teachable moments for each other
in the process. My role is to facilitate their learning, using any of the tools available to do so, including guest lectures and innovative
technologies. I have leveraged online modalities and technology to make my classes more inclusive, drawing more student voices into our
conversations. I believe in continuous improvement and apply it to my teaching, seeking to make every course and semester, better than
the last.

My Motivation
I teach to shorten the learning curve for young adults and the organizations that will employ them. I teach to improve supply chains and
the communities and stakeholders they serve. I teach (and write) to contribute lasting improvements to people’s understanding of
how/why things work as they do. I teach with the hope that some of those same students (and readers) will then further improve supply
chains, for the betterment of society and each other.

My Objectives
At the course-level, my objective is to improve their critical thinking abilities, equipping them with the questions supply chain and
operations management professionals are typically called on to answer. This includes a full range of quantitative, qualitative, objective, and
subjective queries. Frequent examples are what do we need, how much do we need, when do we need it, where do we need it, from who
should we source it, what cost should we pay, how do should we ship, receive, and store it, how will we communicate with those suppliers,
have we optimized the packaging and minimized resource use, etc. Course objectives also typically include understanding of the complex,
interconnected nature of supply chain and operations management processes and systems. Lastly, each of my courses include objectives
to improve our students’ quality of communication, presentation, and preparation of work deliverables.

At the macro level of our degree programs, my objectives for Bloch students focus on building evidence to potential employers that they
are teachable, collegial, and persistent. Hiring managers know they will need to train new employees on their organizations’ process,
systems, and software. Our Bloch degrees provide students with credible evidence that they are teachable and that they are able to
navigate an institution. That evidence of their collegial ability to “play nice with others” will typically map to a hiring manager’s
organization. Further, graduation with a formal degree provide students with evidence that they have some level of grit, that they will
“stick to it” and finish what they start, another desirable trait.

Lastly and arguably most importantly, I desire that each of my students exhibit some sense of personal growth and development in our
time together. Statistically, the odds are relatively slim that the majority of my students will spend much of their career directly leveraging
all of our course materials. However, there are basic goals of the highest order which can serve them the rest of their lives. Ultimately, I
seek to assist them in gaining a better sense of who they are, who they aspire to be, and their next logical steps in that journey. This
objective includes that they have a growing appreciation for the value of work, not as drudgery, but as a life enriching source of joy. And
lastly that I’ve invigorated their natural curiosity about how the world around them works, so that they can become lifelong active learners.

Methods Used
I use a variety of pedagogy to facilitate communication of critical theory and principles and to activate students’ curiosity, engaging them
as active owners of their own education. Increasingly, I have gravitated to a “flipped” classroom, assigning my pre-recorded video lecture
content for asynchronous consumption, freeing synchronous time with students for more high-touch, active learning engagement. While
this can include my introduction of timely, novel topics from latest new cycles, I program the bulk of the weekly schedule during the
semester with student led group presentations, followed by open discussions, for which a number have submitted discussant notes. My
course content draws from a variety of mediums, from traditional textbooks for foundational undergraduate courses to more focused
selected readings at graduate level. I leverage multiple sources for video lecture content, including other academics and current industry
practitioners, so that students may hear from a diversity of voices. My course deliverables typically include various constructs/artifacts that
require students to consider what is being requested of them. This sometimes means they must seek examples on their own, like they will
frequently have to do in the workplace when operating semi-autonomously with little guidance.

Measurement
Each course I teach uses a variety of measures to assess efficacy in my teaching and student learning. My goals in answering hiring
managers’ most basic desires are measured through the ultimate award of our various Bloch degrees and at micro scale by course grades.
But at a more granular level, their evidence of teachability can be found in assessing students’ growing competency in our agreed goals
and objectives for supply chain and operations management course and emphasis. My higher order goals for them as humans, speak much
more of growth and enlightenment, requiring more nuanced subjective assessment. Typically, this has been through their writing, but
increasingly there are opportunities to consider novel ways to use more dynamic technology tools, such as feedback polls to gauge interest
and enthusiasm during class discussions. As I have at times been the lone voice a student heard from in my discipline for their Bloch
degree, I have intentionally sought to vary the assigned deliverables used, so that my courses do not feel redundant.

Summary
I teach to share from my unique interdisciplinary training and experience, that others may avoid at least some of my mistakes. I categorize
my goals and objectives in teaching in hierarchical fashion, from granular/micro level of my courses, to macro level of our Bloch degree
programs, to highest order objectives for each as individuals. I rely on a wide variety of pedagogies, sources, and modalities to effectively
facilitate my students’ learning and accomplish my objectives for my time with them. I use a broad range of assignments, traditional
problem sets, quizzes and exams, discussant notes, informal reading reflections, and formal research papers to assess student
comprehension, retention, and competency. I won’t let perfection get in the way of doing, but insist the next be better than the last.