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Title: Benefits of self-selected projects from students' workplace as a pedagogical tool in graduate operations management classes

Authors: Alan Jin; Lifang Wu; Margaret Cunningham; Ravi Chinta

Addresses: Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, College of Business, Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH 45207, USA ' Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, College of Business, Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH 45207, USA ' Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, College of Business, Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH 45207, USA ' Department of Business Administration, College of Business, Auburn University at Montgomery, Montgomery, AL 36117, USA

Abstract: Project-based pedagogies are well recognised and widely adopted in business education. In this paper we present lessons from a project-based pedagogy specifically designed for Master of Business Administration (MBA) students: self-selected operations projects from their workplaces. We introduced this approach in two sections of our core MBA Operations Management course during the Spring 2014 semester, and then interviewed thirty-seven students to discover students' perceptions of the benefits of this pedagogy. Our analysis revealed that, from MBA students' perspective, self-selected projects from students' workplaces provided significant benefits to the students' workplace performance, professional and career development, project management experience, and course material learning. We conclude with the limitations of the study, implications for instructors, and suggestions for future research.

Keywords: effectiveness; self-selected projects; workplace projects; pedagogical tools; operations management education; graduate class; experiential learning; MBA; perceived benefits; higher education; business education; student perceptions.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIOME.2015.073161

International Journal of Information and Operations Management Education, 2015 Vol.6 No.1, pp.70 - 92

Received: 09 May 2015
Accepted: 18 Aug 2015

Published online: 25 Nov 2015 *

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