Monthly Archives: March 2023

Review: 2023 AACSB International Conference and Annual Meeting

30 Thursday Mar 2023

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Sunday, April 23th, 2023

  1. 9:00 AM – 9:55 AM CT
    • Associate Deans and Online Learning Affinity Group Meeting
      • ChatGPT and Education: Illistration of the Impact of Generative AI
        • Pros:
          • Can be used as a learning tool
          • Can be used to overcome languge barrier
          • As a tutor (I like this one):
          • For brainstorming (I like this one)
          • To correct programming code
          • To improve writing
        • Cons:
          • Can be used to cheat
        • Academic Integrity: Communicate with students about expectations; Include a syllabus statement
        • Speaker performed a demo, asking ChatGPT to review an academic paper in which it did provide a limited review. He also generated an abstract on the fly. He also demonstrated its use to create wedding vows as well as a demonstrated how ChatGPT was used to generate a series of break up texts in which a woman wanted to break up with her boyfriend and let him off as easily as possible.
        • The next speaker was a finance professor that shared his evaluation of responses to various financial questions. Some questions were more general about processes and how to make certain evaluations. Responses were mostly correctly though some detail was missing. Then he moved on to more specific, calculable questions; from easy to hard. It did well on easy and intermediate problems. However, it tended to stumble with more nuanced questions. His conclusion was that it can get students headed in the right direction but it won’t get them all the way. Students still need to “think”.
        • The session broek into groups to discuss ChatGPT and identify one positive and one negative.
          • Keldon brought up the point that ChatGPT affords us as professors to update our assessments and return to a time in which we ask deeper, more thoughtful questions that are…currently, beyond the scope of ChatGOT. Learners may use ChatGPT to learn and work with foundational knowledge but then be required to apply it to those deeper thoughts.
          • Another professor, a new dean somewhere, mentioned that he requires learners to submit their ChatGPT prompt which he can then evaluate how learners are formulating their questions to help them improve their ability to define a problem and obtain a solution.
            • ChatGPT Inquiry: How can requiring learners to submit their chatgpt inquiries help professors evaluate their ability to forumate a problem?
            • ChatGPT Response:
            • Requiring learners to submit their ChatGPT inquiries can help professors evaluate their ability to formulate a problem in several ways:
            • Clarity of expression: By reviewing students’ ChatGPT inquiries, professors can evaluate the clarity of their expression. They can assess if the student has clearly articulated the problem they are trying to solve, and if they have provided enough context and details for the question to be understood.
            • Precision and specificity: Professors can evaluate if students have formulated their questions with precision and specificity. Students who can formulate their questions with clarity, specificity, and precision are more likely to identify the key concepts and issues related to a problem and are better equipped to find effective solutions.
            • Identification of relevant information: By analyzing students’ ChatGPT inquiries, professors can evaluate whether they have identified and included all the relevant information necessary for understanding the problem they are trying to solve. Students who can identify and include all the relevant information demonstrate their ability to think critically and solve complex problems.
            • Creativity: ChatGPT can generate responses to students’ inquiries that may require students to think more deeply about the problem they are trying to solve. Professors can evaluate the creativity of students’ inquiries by assessing how they have used the information provided by ChatGPT to generate new insights or approaches to solving the problem.
            • In summary, requiring learners to submit their ChatGPT inquiries can help professors evaluate their ability to formulate a problem by assessing their clarity of expression, precision and specificity, identification of relevant information, and creativity.
        • Elon Musk: “ChatGPT is scary good”. Based on the above output, I’d say he is right. In fact, when I inserted that quote into ChatGPT, it thank me..but also ackowledged the fears that some may have and shared that it is unable to harm people and designed based on ethical principles.
  2. 11:00 AM – 11:55 AM CT
    • Digital Transformation Affinity Group: Focus is on ChatGPT and Google Bard and how these tools may impact our curriculum.
    • Lots of pontification of the threats…and benefits of ChatGPT. The general consensus was that ChatGPT is here to stay and they we, as educators, need to figure our the best way to live with it. “Live with it” meaning exploring ways to leverage it as a learning tool. Derrill shared one of his experiences leveraging ChatGPT to explore a specific research question related to the Great Recession, having students utilize ChatGPT, reviewing the results, verifying and identify proper citations. He referenced a paper that used ChatGPT as a brainstorming tool which had the most success compared to other approaches.
    • NOTE: This is the second session in a row that brought up the issue of utilizing ChatGPT as a brainstorming tool.
    • Derrill, and a few other participants noted that when complex questions with specific detail included in the prompt is necessary, that ChatGPT often simply mimics the input, rearranging key words from the prompt to develop a response.
    • One participant mentioned that they use ChatGPT for understaffed functions such as student recruitment and social media posts to help generate content.
      • NOTE: Reach our to Ryanna to have her review this as a potential tool for these purposes
    • After the slide below, the discussion moved towards discussing Internal Governance, specifically policies in place for faculty, staff, and students regarding the use of AI.
  1. 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM CT
    • Graduate Business Education Affinity Group Meeting: Strategic Enrollment Management for GME: Best Practices and Innovation”
      • At the time of this writing, the slides were not yet made available through The Exchange. But, it seems like their slide deck is full of useful information.
      • They are looking at this from a traditional marketing funnel perspective through which they described different levels to help steward prospective students from awareness to conversion to students.
      • Applications ususally include:
        • Transcripts
        • Application Fees (up from $42 to $65 on average)
        • A little under a 1/3 were first generation students and significant increase in international students and a slight decline in those from a military background.
        • More women represented
        • Younger people being represented
        • Still a large gap for minorities with trend being flat or down
        • 3.3-3.4 is the average GPA
        • GMAT/GRE showing downward trends in terms of average scores
        • Most undergraduates are from business, enginnering, marketing, information systems
        • International applications up more that U.S. applicants. Note, this does not mean students, these are applications.
        • Target X is one of the top 3 in use; Outside of the top 3, everyone else is super small. So, we are good with respect to using a widely used CRM.
    • They broke up into break out sessions to discuss:
      • Staffing, Management, & Leadership: Number of advisors (they reporting in some instances of 1000 students per advisor); some use faculty. Stats are reported for undergraduate ratios but NOT for graduate advisors. Offering professional development for advisors to help them be a part of the profession. Another challenge is the incoming background of their MBA students (i.e., those that lack business background). ALso, recruiting (i.e., SEO, work with organizations in the area, certificates to encourage companies to pay for, double count undergraduate/graduate hours, etc.)
      • International Student Recruitment: Helping students to acclimate to new social environments.
      • Granular Process Analysis:
        • Working with the university is a hastle
        • Outdated application processes
        • Working with Marketing for approvals to promote programs is difficult
        • No longer requiring the GMAT
        • Rolling admissions. Both of these last two bullets, something we have doen for some time now, appear to be effective practices based on input from other schools that have started implementing these policies.
        • Prospective students do not want to hear from sales people, they want to hear from actual faculty.
      • Pipeline Development-New Audiences:
        • Flexibility
        • Stackables are not working out the way they want to. Customized demand is proving too difficult to implement
        • Specialized programs seem to be increasing in demand
        • Hybrid appears to be on the rise (i.e., some online, some face to face)
        • Encouraging undergraduate students to continue through graduate programs through grants, scholarships, etc.
    • Pipeline Development-Traditional Audiences:
      • This is the one in which I participated. Seems like other schools, mostly in the Illinois area, are reporting declining f2f enrollment. We are moving in the wrong direction.
      • Key concerns of attracting traditional audiences. Students are asking for flexibility (i.e., they want face to face, on Tuesday nights, during odd weeks that are on even dates…if they don’t have anything else conflicting). They say they want face to face but ultimately, that is not what they end up wanting. Other programs reporting real challenges in the opposite direction of our challenges.
  2. 1:00 PM – 1:55 PM CT
    • Responsible Management Education Affinity Group Meeting
      • Noted the U.N.’s sustainability goals and that with approximaltey 1/3 or 70 million graduates with an undergradaute or gradaute degree in business each year, we have a real opportunity and responsibility to have a positive societal impact.
      • PRME Roadmap:
        • Curriculum Change
        • Skillset Development
          • The way curriculum is brought into the classroom.
          • This is an oldschool approach and we, as educators, need to be able to update our own skillsets to engage students in a way that better prepares them for the workforce.
        • Practical Relevance
          • We must link together/tie our classroom concepts to real world, practical applications. Teach students to apply their theory.
        • Global Impact
          • Positive societal impact; Sharing success stories so that all may benefit by communicating successful practices.
  3. 3:30 PM – 4:15 PM CT
    • Collaborating for Innovation: A Conversation with Business School Partners
      • Single modality program offerings used to be the major consideration. Today, deterimining rapidly changing demands in different modalities is necessary and those that handle this well are flat or growing whereas others focused on a single modality tend to have dropping enrollments. She did not say it, but my impression was that she was referring to those only offering face to face.
      • CapSim representative mentioned the growing challenge/emphasis on softskills.
      • Trends: Curricular agility-Pivot the uniqueness of programs to provide learners with authentic, emersive experiences for their students. Think simulations that can be used to present high-fidelity experiences for learners to teach students real life or real life-like case studies. There is also a rise in interdisciplinary programs. Shift to online, multi-model course offerings. Gave an example of MBA online program being offered to international students LOCATED abroad.
        • ACTION ITEM: LOOK into this!!! Idea, work with the international office to identify the most appropaite country, work with Triss to create targeted ads, grow like hell!
          • Emailed International Office to begin thisline of inquiry.
      • We need to get better at marketing our programs online; understanding our customers (i.e., learners, prospective learners, and other stakeholders).
      • Audience member asked about faculty training for various technology applications in the classroom.
      • CapSim representative pushed more than once, the idea of a pre-test and post-test over those higher orders of thinking (i.e., critical thinking, communicaiton, etc.) as becoming more important to businesses.

Monday, April 24th, 2023

  • 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM CT
  • 11:15 AM – 12:00 PM CT
    • (A1) What Should Business Schools be Doing Today to Stay Relevant?
      • We have shifted from a generalists mindset to more of a specialist’s mindset. Recruiter indicated they are recruiting for targeted skills.
      • There is a need to shift academic research to deal with the grand issues faced by society today. A review of top management journals indicated that only 3% are tackling these issues.
        • I think this is where Keldon’s idea of incorporating the UN’s SDG’s as keywords for articles is a good idea but I am not sure it is enough. I think we need to emphasize among faculty to considering these kinds of issues before they even begin or at least as they begin to formulate their research problem. Additionally, we need to move beyond this to incorporate the UN SDG’s into the curriculum, perfect timing for our review of our BBA core.
      • We have to engage learners through technology as well as through innovative pedagogies such as helping learners travel to locations to learn about a business, country, etc. Bring education to those with disability to meet them where they are.
        • Dean from Shanendoa indicated that their curriculum is “boring”. She wants to invigorate it while maintaining the essence of what is important in a graduate education. Sounds liks a similar issue we are facing.
  • 1:15 PM – 1:45 PM CT
    • Beta Gamma Sigma International Honoree: The Power of Partnerships
      • Presentation by Stephanie Stuckey, CEO of Stuckey’s. She explored the story of her grandfather starting and growing the Stuckey’s brand to it being sold off and nearly driven into non-existence. She purchased ownership in the company and has begun to turn it around.
      • Stuckey’s was NEVER segregated. Build an identity with high ethics.
  • 2:00 PM – 2:45 PM CT
    • Partnering for Impact
      • Colleges of Business have always had “impact”. They have created graduates that go out and earn a living and serve as economic drivers. Perhaps it is the languate. But today, there is a shifting definiion of “impact” and this is what we need to get behind. Partnerships with the community are important in order to avoid transactional relationships.
      • Partner with local non-profits to get local non-profits to agree to allow students to shadow their people (i.e., managers and so on).
      • Must find ways to appropriate reward and incentivize different types of impact so as to not reward/punish disproprotionatly different groups. We need money to do this.
      • Keys:
        • Identify a core group of faculty that are interested in impact. That way, they are personally intersted.
        • Be willing to experiment and try things.
        • Culture: What is it that we wish to do and achieve institutionally? Build a culture of impact through involvement.
  • 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM CT
    • AACSB Officers’ Remarks and Annual Business Meeting
      • AACSB’s current CEO is stepping down and search is underway. It is anticipated that the new CEO will be announcenent within the next few weeks.
      • AACSB is increasing its dues, requiring discussion and a vote. It was 2017 the last time there was a rate increase. The fees include membership fees, accreditation fees, site visit fees, etc.
      • Two votes: all voting member and educational members
        • The increase passed.
      • AACSB REALLY needs to update their voting mechanism. Consider Poll Everywhere. The printed paddles are inconsistent with sustainability efforts and the manual process of counting screams a lack of innovation, something that AACSB has been championing. Please, please, please come inot the 20th century, if not the 21st.
  • 4:45 PM – 5:30 PM CT
    • Fixing The Research Culture
      • Ended up not attending but based on Derrill’s feedback, I did not miss much.

Tuesday, April 25th, 2023

  • Document notes over Knack Tutoring
  • Document notes over Ivey Software to replace our leveling classes
  • 9:30 AM – 10:15 AM CT
    • Upcoming CIR Accreditation Visit Q&A
      • Someone asked about “mature” schools having an extended review period (i.e., 7 years instead of 5). While the board considered this, it was decided to stick with the current 5 year review. One speaker shared that AACSB is not the sign of a high quality school but rather, it is a sign of continuous process improvement.
      • PRT’s want to see faculty credentials organizaed by disciplines. This is a seperate issue from organizational structure. In other words, we can organize however we wish. But we need to be able to demonstrate that our faculty meet the appropriate credentials and scholarly status, by discipline.
      • COVID impact statements are going away after this current cycle (i.e. those entering the 5 year C.I.R. cycle this after year). After 2027-2028 cycle ends, COVID impact statements will no longer be required.
      • Use the PRT report with the adminisration to leverage for more resources.
      • NOTE: During the session, they also included a flier that shared a new program in which AACSB will conduct Private Seminars for schools. Keldon and I thought that it would be useful to perhaps do this twice fo rour faculty; once soon and another right before our C.I.R. visit.
  • 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM CT
    • Keynote II: Overcoming the Resistence that Awaits New Ideas
      • Fuel forces that incite change vs. Friction forces that slow/stop change
      • Gave an example of a furnature retailer who ran into the problem of increasing advertizing that did not result in an increase in sales. After exploring the problem, they determined that the real issue was that customers delayed purcahsing until they could figure out what to do with their old furnature. The solution was simple: promote that the company would remove the old furnature for the customer.
      • “Does the idea represent a major changr frmo the status quo”
        • Reduce the tendencies to differentiate ideas and emphasize the similarities to how new ideas are similar to old ideas.
      • “What is the cost of implementation?”
        • Provide a roadmap. Show people where they are in a process (i.e., Question 1 of 3).
        • Always provide an agenda bacause we are reducing friction by sharing with users what they can expect
      • What negative feelings might the idea produce in others?
        • Make sure you kow the emotional reasons people buy your good or service.
      • What business are you reall in?
        • Friction of reaction: The idea that pushback occurs simply as the result of being told what to do.
        • For reactants, more data does not help. Rather than trying to convince them with more data, invite them into the process to help design a solution to the problem that is faced.
        • Frame everything, not as a new policy but rather, a new experiment.
        • Ask instead of tell.
        • Four elements of Friction: Intertia, Effort, Reactance, Emotion (Read his book)
          • David Schonthal
  • 12:00 – 12:45 PM CT
    • (C4) Industry Session: Move the Needle with Virtual and Virtual Hybrid Classroom Software
  • 12:45 PM – 1:30 PM CT
    • System 2 Thinking: Move from System 1 (Directive Change) to System 2 (Collaborative Change) where the people you want to keep want to stay and the people you want to leave, do.
    • DxVxFxS>R
      • D: Disatisfactions
      • V: Vision
      • F: First Steps
      • S: Supporting Mechanism
    • I want to meet with you instead of we need to have a meeting. It says I want to meet with “you”! Participants are more likely to engage in the activity. Coming together to do work that matters.
    • You have to go slow to go fast
    • If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
    • 6 Rules: Only do together, what you can only do when you are together
  • Three questions: ask these every time: purpose, who, conversation
    • Flip it: Asynchronous tools to unleash synchronous moments
    • Event Design Teams: Include the participants in agenda creation
    • Systemic Breathing: Connect individual group whole
    • Enabling Constratints: Use collaborative change techniques
    • Model it all the way: Practice What You Teach

#ICAM23

NOTES:

  • AACSB is ISO Certified and as part of that effort, conducts satisfaction surveys and anything under 90% they work to address.
  • Begin working on CIR so that we have a better idea of what the content/expectations are and can make adjustments as necessary to meet the 2020 standards and prepare for the accounting supplemental accreditation.
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