We Mean Business
Unlike those sports where it's always the same two teams in the finals, to wrap up Winter 2018 I pitted three competitors, Cengage's Mindtap, McGraw HIll's Connect and my do it yourself Blackboard shells, in a round robin tournament. And unlike in pro wrestling, no one fixed the results.
Cengage and McGraw Hill are both major publishers of college textbooks. Over the last few years, they have introduced online learning systems that allow students to take quizzes and tests, watch videos, and work on various projects. Both come with online versions of the textbooks which are more or less integrated into the assignments. Both are not cheap, typically costing about $150 per student. But that is a lot less than historic textbook costs for most business classes. Blackboard is a popular online platform for classroom management. It allows online testing, posting of links and classroom documents, and submission of papers. A well designed Blackboard course shell will lay out everything a student needs to do to complete the class in an easy to use format. In my classes, the Blackboard shell tracks the assignments in the traditional, printed textbook. The downside is that the professor has to build the shell from scratch, where as Mindtap and Connect allow the professor to pick and choose the desired assignments. So which do my sample of Mott Community College students like best? Here's the non-rigorous pseudoscientific methodology. Each student was given the option of answering a survey with the following three questions: 1. If you have used both Mindtap and Connect in a class, which do you believe is better? If you think they are the same or you have used only one or the other, put "No Opinion." 2. Only answer this one if you used Connect and had a class where Professor Enge used Blackboard without a separate publisher platform. If you have not had both experiences, answer "No Opinion." Which is better, Connect or Blackboard alone? 3. Only answer this one if you used Mindtap and had a class where Professor Enge used Blackboard without a separate publisher platform. If you have not had both experiences, answer "No Opinion." Which is better, Mindtap or Blackboard alone? The survey also asked for written comments. Many students gave a lot of feedback that was really valuable and will help guide my future decision making. There's just too much to publish here. Here are the head to head result totals: Mindtap 9 (32%), Connect 19 (68%) Blackboard 16 (55%), Connect 13 (45%) Blackboard 22 (85%), Mindtap 4 (15%) If we add up total victories, we get: Blackboard 38 (46%) Connect 32 (39%) Mindtap 13 (15%) My Blackboard course shells go undefeated in the tournament and claim first prize. Connect follows with a respectable second place. Mindtap is left splayed at the bottom of the mountain like poor Vinko Bokataj suffering the Agony of Defeat. Thanks to my students who took the time to answer, the results will definitely impact my decision making going forward.
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I received a happy surprise and a great honor when I learned that the 2018 F. H. Martin Award winner is me. The F. H. Martin award recognizes an attorney who has made great contributions to Saginaw County Law Day. I have been the attorney advisor for Birch Run High School for four years. I served on the Law Day Committee for a couple years before that.
It's a great honor. Lawyers and educators participating in Law Day show the next generation that they too can be part of something great. Our system only works if ordinary people of good will seeking justice make it work. The Law Day mock trials are a great hands on learning experience of what it takes for courts to do justice. We ran out of time, so I had to cut my acceptance speech short. Here's the acceptance speech I wrote but did not get a chance to give. This year's Law Day mock trial dealt with animal cruelty. The defendant stood accused of abusing 7 pit bulls in his basement. The photos in this case are heartbreaking, they are photos of real suffering animals.
For the Birch Run High School team this year we had two student attorneys and three witnesses. Of those five students, four are also Mott Community College students. They did a great job, winning both on points and getting a conviction. Lindsay Yax, an MCC student and BRHS student, spoke to TV 25. She played the animal control officer. The real judge told her that if someone puts a real badge on her some day, watch out! The good news for me is that she's just a junior and I hope she comes back to be an attorney next year. Here's a look back to TV 25's coverage of the Birch Run High School Saginaw County Law Day team. I'm the attorney advisor for Birch Run High School.
One of the fun things that happened in 2017 is that Judge Borchard promoted Kali Decker, a student juror from Birch Run, to judge. She handled the judge's duties, with a bit of help being whispered in her ear. Here are the new syllabi for Spring 2018, including my first pure online class at Mott!
Business Law I BUSN-251-01 Organizational Behavior MGMT 283-WWW Check out the syllabi for Winter 2018. They change from semester to semester, but you can get an idea of what the class will be like.
Human Resources Management MGMT 286 Retail Management MGMT 185 Small Business Management MGMT 183 Principles of Management MGMT 181 Business Law I BUSN 251 |
Christopher J. EngeEducator. Entrepreneur. Attorney. Author Archives
January 2022
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