case studies

[Sun_Worshiper]

Interestingly, since Bryant is an expensive private school, one cannot say one went there, as opposed to a higher-rated private uni, for one's MBA, in order to save money.   It is also the case that the students will doubtless therefore, taken as a whole, be less academically impressive than higher rated places, esp top tier ones, and given that, the quality of the instruction will have to be lowered, in teh sense that the standards a professor will have to employ must needs be lowered, unless he wants to see a heavy flunk-out rate, which I am sure the uni just does not want.

To the extent that this is true, isn't that true of any field?

[kaysixteen]

One more thing here-- this biz school prof also has assumed a policy of competitive grading, whereby he only permits x% of As, etc, in his classes, regardless of how well any given student actually performs in the class.   Anyone want to offer ANY justification for this Jack Welch GE-style practice?

[apl68]

One more thing here-- this biz school prof also has assumed a policy of competitive grading, whereby he only permits x% of As, etc, in his classes, regardless of how well any given student actually performs in the class.   Anyone want to offer ANY justification for this Jack Welch GE-style practice?

Preparation for the ruthless world of business?

[Wahoo Redux]

Those CD courses are often dumbed down versions of the real thing----I think they are designed for people to listen to when they are driving----so you may not have the full impact of the scholarship.

I deferred to the late great mamselle when she argued that everything should be fodder for scholarship, particularly considering how important business is for our capitalist culture, but my impression is that, except for some math, business is not a terribly rigorous field of academic study.  Coming from the classics, biz-school material may look a little lightweight. 

[secundem_artem]

I don't think they use case studies at the 5 Minute University, but they're still college graduates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO8x8eoU3L4

[dismalist]

One more thing here-- this biz school prof also has assumed a policy of competitive grading, whereby he only permits x% of As, etc, in his classes, regardless of how well any given student actually performs in the class.   Anyone want to offer ANY justification for this Jack Welch GE-style practice?

Yes, explicitly to avoid grade inflation. I've seen it justified that way, and not just in B-School.

There are even sophisticated versions of such rationing -- making it binding only over several years, e.g.

[FishProf]

One more thing here-- this biz school prof also has assumed a policy of competitive grading, whereby he only permits x% of As, etc, in his classes, regardless of how well any given student actually performs in the class.   Anyone want to offer ANY justification for this Jack Welch GE-style practice?

This article suggests it improves class performance.
Competition for Grades and Graduate-Student Performance, D. Cecil Clark, The Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 62, No. 8 (Apr., 1969), pp. 351-354 (4 pages)

[bacardiandlime]

One more thing here-- this biz school prof also has assumed a policy of competitive grading, whereby he only permits x% of As, etc, in his classes, regardless of how well any given student actually performs in the class.   Anyone want to offer ANY justification for this Jack Welch GE-style practice?

It's called grading on a curve, and used to be very common. Surprised you haven't encountered it before.

[kaysixteen]

Ah yes, I did forget about the grading on a curve thing, which this e ssentially is, although the guy is indeed doing it precisely because he wants the grading to mimic the cutthroat competitiveness of corporate America.

I hate it, and it is academically indefensible.   Say you have 1000 points available in your course, but have a preset max of 5 As, and John Q Student gets 972 points, which ends up ranking 6th in the class, so he gets a B.   What do you suppose the Dean will say when John Q complains?   And he should complain.

[Ruralguy]

Yah know, with a regular points system I more often see grad *deflation*!  Many of my students, when they a hit any kind of B-ish grade with points seem to say "eh, good enough."   Maybe I am assigning too much thought to this.

[FishProf]

I hate it =/= academically indefensible. 

[secundem_artem]

I was once asked to lead a "small group discussion" class that had 30+ students in it.  The best I could do  in a class that size was to put a tick mark behind a student's name if they contributed to the discussion and grade each session on a 1-2-3 basis. Most students got a 2, a few who made major, high quality contributions, would get a 3. And a couple would get a 1 or a 0.

Comes the end of the semester - how do I convert 1-2-3 to an A-B-C format?  I asked the course coordinator - crickets.  Dept head - crickets.  So...............  I calculated an average out of 3 and put the scores on a bell curve.

It rained merde in my office for 2 full weeks afterwards.  Nobody was happy, but nobody could tell me what I had done wrong.  Shortly thereafter, I was informed that my services in that course would no longer be required.  Problem solved I guess.

[kaysixteen]

I did not say that 'I hate it' and 'it's academically indefensible' are equal.   I think both of these things are true here.

[FishProf]

Kay,
You asked this question:

One more thing here-- this biz school prof also has assumed a policy of competitive grading, whereby he only permits x% of As, etc, in his classes, regardless of how well any given student actually performs in the class.   Anyone want to offer ANY justification for this Jack Welch GE-style practice?

You then received (by my count) six responses to your question, one of which you explicitly acknowledged

Ah yes, I did forget about the grading on a curve thing, which this e ssentially is, although the guy is indeed doing it precisely because he wants the grading to mimic the cutthroat competitiveness of corporate America.

Then you said

I hate it, and it is academically indefensible. 

Clearly, it IS academically defensible (as the previous responses show), and you haven't offered any counter-argument except "I hate it."

[kaysixteen]

No, the fact that some others view it, for stunning reasons, to be academically defensible does not mean that I think they have made their case.   They clearly have not.   Asserting something does not mean one has proved something.