FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
VSB Faculty Rise to the Challenge
Our faculty continue to demonstrate leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic with innovation, adaptability and forward thinking. Delivering Real-World Experience in a Pandemic Classroom
Unique Digital Solutions
Competitive Effectiveness is a required course in which students gain realworld experience through their work on a live case challenge presented by a client. The course averages five sections of 50 students each semester and requires extensive group work, creating a major challenge during the pandemic. VSB faculty came together to adjust the course and to deliver it in multiple ways: in person, remotely via Zoom and hybrid.
When Assistant Professor of the Practice Jeannette-Marie Kelley ’00 MBA first began teaching part-time at VSB nearly 20 years ago, she worked in Silicon Valley during the day and taught MBA courses remotely in the evenings. Kelley credits these early experiences teaching courses online—in addition to constantly growing alongside technology through the years—with helping to ease the abrupt transition to remote learning last year.
The course is co-coordinated by Ward Utter, associate chair and professor of practice in the Management & Operations department, and Beth Vallen, PhD, associate professor of Marketing & Business Law. Each section is centered around a case involving a major national brand. Students apply the management skills and frameworks learned in class to manage their work teams; across the semester, each team develops a plan to execute on a marketing prompt given by the client. This normally involves meeting with the client for the case kickoff, multiple coaching sessions, final presentations and a feedback session. During the fall semester, all of the client meetings and many class sessions took place remotely. The biggest goal for the faculty was maintaining the level of student engagement. Some faculty delivered much of the lecture material through asynchronous methods, allowing the in-person sessions to be focused on applying the concepts to real-world scenarios; others ran a more traditional platform, with some students attending class socially distanced and in person, and the other half remotely. Students were encouraged to schedule informal “hangouts” and opportunities to socialize virtually with their teams outside the classroom. This fostered team camaraderie and resulted in increased student engagement.
Since the pandemic began, Kelley has spent hundreds of hours focusing on the optimal utilization of platforms such as Zoom, Blackboard and MediaSite. She has implemented several digital enhancements in her courses to increase student engagement and participation. As Kelley studied and learned how to use each new platform and enhancement, she created reference documents and conducted online trainings for fellow faculty members.
It was important to offer flexibility to the students enrolled as well as the faculty teaching this class. The core content is consistent, but the method of delivery now varies across sections to accommodate our students and faculty.” –Beth Vallen, PhD
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Villanova Business Spring 2021
