IN DELIVERING THEIR programs, business schools must meet the needs of
a wide range of students, many of whom work while they take classes.
Schools address these needs through online and hybrid courses, as well
as courses of varying length held during nontraditional semesters.
At Rowan University’s Rohrer College of Business in Glassboro,
New Jersey, we redesigned the capstone business course taken by all
undergraduate business students. Business Policy not only covers
strategic management knowledge, it requires students to work in
teams to complete consulting assignments. While the course has
traditionally been offered during the normal-length fall, spring, and
summer semesters, we revamped the course five years ago so that we could deliver it in a condensed semester
called the Winter Intersession.
Our goal was to provide another
option to enable students to graduate
on time. Over the years, students have
noted other reasons for enrolling in
the Intersession course. For instance,
some want to lighten their course loads
in the spring semester while freeing up
time for professional responsibilities.
Others want to devote themselves to this
crucial course without the demands and
distractions of other courses.
The class meets on ten evenings
during two or three weeks in early
January before the start of the spring
semester; each class is four hours. Those
40 hours equate to the number of hours
students would spend in the class if they
took it during a regular semester.
About half of the students in the
course work full- or part-time, so
offering it in the evening allows both
traditional and nontraditional students
to enroll. However, we make it clear
in advance that the course can be very
demanding, and many working students
arrange to take time off from their jobs.
KEY ELEMENTS OF THE REDESIGN
We wanted to make sure that, even in
a compressed timeframe, the course
achieved its key learning objective: helping
students develop strategic planning
skills in environmental scanning, strategy
formulation, and strategy implementation.
We achieved this by redesigning
the course in three important ways.
We require students to do a great
deal of preparation in advance. Students
who want to enroll in the Winter
Intersession version must attend a
mandatory pre-course briefing in the
fall semester, about six weeks before the
first Business Policy meeting. During
this briefing, we give students a realistic
preview of the course, outline our expectations,
discuss research strategies and
resources, and review pre-course readings
and assignments. We also describe the scope of work and the deliverables
we expect from the consulting project.
Before the initial class, we expect
students to have read the textbook. They
also should have conducted extensive
individual research on the organization
that will be part of the consulting project,
and they should have created a draft of an
environmental scanning document.
We revamped the required consulting
project. During regular semesters,
student teams complete three consulting
projects designed to develop specific
skills in environmental scanning, strategy
formulation, and strategy implementation.
In the condensed program, teams
complete three sequential assignments
focused on a single organization, so that
we can achieve the learning objectives
within the time constraints.
Every company selected for student
consulting projects must have sufficient
public information available that
students can research through library
databases. For the past two years, the
consulting project was conducted for
a prominent lifestyle brand, which
provided us with a full array of pointof-
purchase merchandising materials
for its product line. Because the Winter
Intersession has a dedicated classroom,
and because students focused on a single
company, we enhanced the immersion
experience by decorating the room with
the materials the company supplied.
We strive to build high-functioning
teams. On the first night, students
choose their project teams. During the
first half of this session, all the participants
introduce themselves, sharing the
relevant background information that
would make them valued team members.
Because of the compressed nature of the
course, students recognize the importance
of being part of a team with highly
motivated, qualified members.
After students form their teams, we
use an ice-breaker decision-making exercise
that prepares team members to work
together effectively and to resolve any problems early. In this exercise, students
individually review the credentials of potential
appointees to the Federal Reserve
Board; then, they discuss their lists of
preferred candidates with one other team
member until both reach consensus.
Eventually, all team members come together
to harmonize their lists and make
their final recommendations as a group.
Each team presents its recommendations
and justifications to the class.
Students then engage in a facilitated
discussion on the group decisionmaking
process, which helps develop
positive working relationships.
These teams begin working together
during the second half of the first class,
developing plans that will allow them to
quickly submit a written environmental
scanning report and deliver a related
presentation. The work that students
have completed in advance is instrumental
because the first of the three
consulting assignments is due on the
fourth evening of the class.
INSIGHTS AND LESSONS
The condensed capstone course has
proved to be a popular option with students,
usually reaching its enrollment
capacity within the first day of registration.
Although we officially cap the
course at 30 students, we occasionally
have added students based on their situations
and graduation plans. Depending
on future demand for the condensed
course, we would consider offering an
additional section.
Through course surveys, we have
found that students consider this to
be one of their best class experiences.
Through observation over the past five
years, we also have learned four valuable
lessons about how to make the compressed
course successful:
1. All participants must be highly motivated
and prepared to devote the
necessary time and effort to complete
course requirements.
2. All participants must attend the
pre-course briefing so they are prepared
for the demands of the course.
3. The business faculty librarian
should be involved in the precourse
briefing to make sure participants
have the resources to complete
readings and assignments ahead of
the first class.
4. Faculty members who teach the
course must be as prepared as
the students, because it represents a
significant workload. For that reason, we
do not expect these faculty members to
engage in labor-intensive institutional
service during the Winter Intersession.
Faculty must turn around assignments
quickly and provide timely, detailed
feedback so student teams can make the
expected progress on their next consulting
assignments. We have committed to
providing this feedback by noon the day
after each assignment is submitted.
The only real tradeoff we feel we have
made by offering the course during a
condensed semester is that we have time
to focus on only one organization for the
consulting project. However, feedback
from course participants and graduates
indicates that the benefits of the
intensive immersion experience greatly
outweigh this disadvantage.
Although this was not one of our
considerations when we were deciding
to offer this course during a compressed
semester, we have found that it is a great
team-building and bonding experience
for participants as well. As more schools
move away from traditional classroom
delivery models, they might also want
to consider offering intensive capstone
courses in compressed timeframes.
Robert S. Fleming is a professor of management
and former dean at the Rohrer
College of Business at Rowan University
in Glassboro, New Jersey.