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Deans response to the M.S. Management Technology program review - 2001-2002

You are here: Planning Review Committee of the Faculty Senate

Listed below are the responses to the Planning and Review Committee’s report on the M.S. in Management Technology degree:

Recommendations to the Program Director

1. Encourage program faculty to engage in scholarly activity and to redevelop program curriculum for currency and, as appropriate, on-line course offerings.
2. Continue planned efforts to ensure program courses are not overlapped in schedule and to increase number of on-line and night/weekend courses to support working professional students.
3. Continue planned recruiting efforts to increase the number of working professionals in the program, which will in turn support the offering of more graduate-only courses.
4. Investigate the creation of cohort groups with other graduate programs at UW-Stout or other universities as additional support for such graduate-only course work.
5. Develop a plan, including budget, for the regular updating of software used in the program.
6. Work to get better student/alumni survey follow-up; e.g. by using e-mail or web-based surveys.

Responses from the Program Director

1. Encouraging faculty to engage in scholarly activities and re-develop program curriculum is the responsibility of department chairs, and not the program director.  They will be responsible for performing the recommendation.
2. To minimize course overlap a plan has been developed for 2002-03 to offer courses and a schedule that includes unique times for all required and some elective courses.  The program director will also work with department chairs to increase the number of on-line and weekend courses.
3. The program director will continue the planned recruiting efforts to increase the number of working professionals.  As a first step, posters will be printed and mailed to about 250 regional companies this spring.  Recruiting efforts will also be made to the other two markets for the program – current Stout students and international students – as funding permits.
4. Cohort groups are not part of the program plans.  Off-campus cohorts will not be investigated or developed without significant additional resources.  On-campus cohort groups do not make sense, except possibly for a group of international students from one location.  Developing cohort groups will not address any of the program issues raised in the program review report.  The program director does not plan to develop cohort groups at this time.
5. Developing a plan and budget for updating course software is the responsibility of department chairs.  They will be responsible for performing the recommendation.
6. Working to get better student/alumni survey response is the responsibility of Institutional Research.  They will be responsible for performing the recommendation.

NOTE:  The only recommendation, which is the program director’s responsibility, is number 3, marketing the program.  The program director has been and will continue work to market the program.  The program director will work with the responsible parties to accomplish the other recommendations, but they are not primarily the program director’s responsibility.

Recommendations to the Department Chair

1. Support key faculty’s professional development in instructional technology.
2. Explore incentives in areas of development time and budget to encourage key instructors to develop alternative course delivery formats.

Responses from the Department Chair

1. The department provides the following assistance to encourage faculty to utilize currently available instructional technologies:
   1. the majority of the department have attended the LTS Web Camps
   2. department members have been encouraged to utilize expertise and ready availability of the resident Nakatoni Associate, (Ms. Wendy Dittmann, and the CTEM Laptop Associate, Mr. Evan Sveum)
   3. provide personal assistance for ITV delivery through Learning Technology Services
   4. provide additional student assistant hours to faculty offering Internet courses
   5. support for computer hardware and software upgrades as the department, college and university budgets allow
   6. provide information regarding grant and other funding opportunities addressing instructional technology
2. The department provides the following incentives to instructors to encourage the use of alternative delivery methods:
   1. funding or release time to develop courses for on-line delivery
   2. right of first refusal to those courses once developed
   3. additional student help to manage the electronic communication demands generated by Internet course offerings
   4. creative scheduling opportunities, particularly during the WinTerm and summer sessions offering whole day or weekend formats
   5. assistance at the college and university to develop ITV and on-line courses

Recommendations to the Dean

1. Support efforts of the program director to provide flexible delivery and scheduling of program courses to attract and support working students.
2. Be open to increase the program director allocation from .25 to .50 position should proposed student recruitment program be successful.
3. Advocate for the reinstatement of ESL services at UW-Stout.

Responses from the Dean

1. The Dean’s office has lead and supported the institution of alternative, accelerated and customized program delivery for many of its graduate and undergraduate degrees.  This includes weekend courses and off campus programs.  Departments have been responsive to the needs of programs and have provided faculty and development time to establish these types of programs.  All cater to the needs of working adults seeking degree completion and graduate study opportunities.  In the case of Management Technology, the program and its directors have the support to recruit students and deliver courses to this market.
2. In the College of Technology, Engineering & Management, program director allocation is based on student enrollment within programs.  Release time and allocation for program directors are continuously scrutinized to ensure adequate support is provided.  If and when the Management Technology program enrollment reaches a point in which additional release time is needed, it will be implemented.
3. Many graduate programs at UW-Stout have a major contingent of international students.  If the recruitment of international students continues to grow, a need for second language services must be provided by the university.