|
BA
780 – Field Studies in Business Overview (Summer)
PREREQUISITES
- Completion
of MBA Core, and
- employed
or Engaging in a Business Internship during the semester
of enrollment (Arranged by the student. Contact the
Internship Bureau in BAM 451 [594-4774] or
Career Services for help).
COURSE
OVERVIEW
This
course provides opportunities for students to integrate
their academic work with experience in the community,
which is a key objective for the College of Business Administration.
To achieve this objective, students will undertake a significant
“learning experience” with an organization and
then prepare reports on their experiences. The course
requires 135 hours of effort at the organization and in
fulfilling course requirements. This course counts as
elective credit.
GRADING
Grading
is on a Credit/No Credit basis with “C” level
work required to receive credit.
COURSE
ASSIGNMENTS
Information
is available on the College of Business Administration
website www.rohan.sdsu.edu/~rwilliam.
This site provides specific guidance for fulfilling course
requirements and can answer many of the questions you
or your supervisor may have.
1.
CHOOSING AN ORGANIZATION
BA
780 integrates work and learning, and requires students
to have a “supervised” position with
an employer as an employee or as an intern. For an internship,
most organizations are acceptable as long as they provide
a “legal” product or service for profit or not-for-profit.
Crucial to this choice of organization is your ability
to pursue an appropriate learning experience.
2.
CHOOSING A LEARNING EXPERIENCE
There
are two types of learning experiences: a project
or a series of learning activities. This learning
experience must require you to apply high levels of cognitive
processes in a business setting, such as applying what
you have learned in school and analyzing and evaluating
the effectiveness of these applications. Routine tasks,
such as data entry or clerical work, do not meet this
high level of cognitive processes and are not acceptable.
Your supervisor’s active involvement is crucial
to you defining your learning experience. Your supervisor
must agree to support your learning experience and later
provide an evaluation of your accomplishments. Managers
are always concerned with how to reduce costs, increase
revenues, improve processes, or improve the quality of
their product or service. Learning experiences that focus
on these areas would most likely be acceptable. When
seeking guidance from the instructor regarding the
acceptability of your proposed learning experience, you
must be able to address in detail one of the two options
described below.
- Project:
you must accomplish something that “adds value”
to the organization and requires significant effort
above and beyond your “routine” tasks. Projects
involve providing a deliverable to the organization
and providing proof that you: 1) completed each task
undertaken in completing the deliverable, and 2) added
value to the organization. May be best for employed
students.
- Learning
Activities: you must undertake a least five specific
learning objectives that are appropriate in content,
rigor, and level of difficulty suitable for upper division
credit. This should involve learning “significant”
business processes. It does not include learning routine
tasks. You must provide proof of your learning.
May be best for interns.
CLASS
SCHEDULE
Most
class objectives are achieved in the student’s workplace
and only a few class sessions are held during the semester.
These occur during the first six weeks of the semester,
with additional sessions held as needed. Students must
attend these early class sessions. If you are thinking
of crashing this class, come to the first class
session so that you can understand what you need to
do and the timeline involved.
|
