Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Microbusiness Advancement Center on KUAT!
Congratulations to our friends at MAC for the great recent piece by Tony Paniagua from KUAT's Arizona Illustrated. Click on the yellow title above or see http://ondemand.azpm.org/videoshorts/watch/2009/10/1/kuat-microbusiness-help/
summary of recent meetings about the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship’s distance learning initiative
Below is a summary of recent meetings about the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship’s distance learning initiative.
Two meetings were held in late September. Participants included Randy Accetta from the UA’s McGuire Center, Chuck Bolotin from OnTarget Consulting, Marie Wesselhoft from AZCI, Debbie Chandler and Lillian Perez from the Microbusiness Advancement Center, and Charlette Padilla from Pima Community College, as well as Tanya Hodges from the UA in Yuma and Matthew Anderson from Arizona Western College College. A host of others were invited but not able to attend.
McGuire’s general goals of meeting with these “steering committees,” if you will, were to learn what the regional educators community wants from distance learning, to seek any points of collaboration (and perhaps revenue sharing), and to get a sense of specific curriculum needs.
Key take-aways from the meetings include the following
1) Topics in entrepreneurship curriculum are remarkably consistent regardless of the educational level of the student; therefore, a module-based program would be well-suited to the region, so that clients, students, and others can insert themselves at the place on the wheel of information that best fits their particular needs (for example, a person can take one module for a single credit, then skip a module that covers material they know, and take the next module for credit);
2) Modular-self-paced courses are fine, but if there is room for interaction between faculty and students, all the better;
3) As McGuire develops full 16-week courses, it is best if they are for-credit, non-degree seeking undergraduate and graduate level courses (some have asked for junior-year 300-level courses, while others have asked for 500-level graduate courses);
4) A podcast library of free audio and video lectures on important entrepreneurship topics is needed for the region (allowing schools and organizations to recommend students/clients to view certain topics);
5) Teaching DL is a different process than teaching in a classroom, and requires specific training and specific skills.
McGuire’s next steps will be to design a host of short podcasts and full-length module-based courses, most likely using the UA’s Blackboard course management system. Some of these offerings will be available for free, some will be fee-based through the UA Outreach College, and some will have revenue-sharing opportunities. We hope to have this project well underway by January, and ready to implement in the Spring.
Two meetings were held in late September. Participants included Randy Accetta from the UA’s McGuire Center, Chuck Bolotin from OnTarget Consulting, Marie Wesselhoft from AZCI, Debbie Chandler and Lillian Perez from the Microbusiness Advancement Center, and Charlette Padilla from Pima Community College, as well as Tanya Hodges from the UA in Yuma and Matthew Anderson from Arizona Western College College. A host of others were invited but not able to attend.
McGuire’s general goals of meeting with these “steering committees,” if you will, were to learn what the regional educators community wants from distance learning, to seek any points of collaboration (and perhaps revenue sharing), and to get a sense of specific curriculum needs.
Key take-aways from the meetings include the following
1) Topics in entrepreneurship curriculum are remarkably consistent regardless of the educational level of the student; therefore, a module-based program would be well-suited to the region, so that clients, students, and others can insert themselves at the place on the wheel of information that best fits their particular needs (for example, a person can take one module for a single credit, then skip a module that covers material they know, and take the next module for credit);
2) Modular-self-paced courses are fine, but if there is room for interaction between faculty and students, all the better;
3) As McGuire develops full 16-week courses, it is best if they are for-credit, non-degree seeking undergraduate and graduate level courses (some have asked for junior-year 300-level courses, while others have asked for 500-level graduate courses);
4) A podcast library of free audio and video lectures on important entrepreneurship topics is needed for the region (allowing schools and organizations to recommend students/clients to view certain topics);
5) Teaching DL is a different process than teaching in a classroom, and requires specific training and specific skills.
McGuire’s next steps will be to design a host of short podcasts and full-length module-based courses, most likely using the UA’s Blackboard course management system. Some of these offerings will be available for free, some will be fee-based through the UA Outreach College, and some will have revenue-sharing opportunities. We hope to have this project well underway by January, and ready to implement in the Spring.
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