Special Teaching Leaves

1998-1999

Nancy Kaplan (Audio/Video/Film), "Multimedia Studies and Production" is a proposal for a liberal-arts based, academic program that is both interdisciplinary and content-driven. Unlike many multimedia programs around the country that are pre-dominantly technology-driven, this program sees the new media technologies as simply tools that can be used for the enhancement of communicating thoughts and ideas. Involving both inquiry and hands-on experience, this program combines a content area of study (e.g., music, business, biology, education, law) with external components, including internships or work/study units plus an international/global component (ideally a study-abroad experience). While still in development, this program promises to be unique amongst the increasingly popular offerings in multimedia.

Elaine Sherman (Marketing and International Business), "Combining Direct Marketing and E-Commerce: Integrating New Technologies Into Direct Marketing," developed a course to provide students with a conceptual and applied understanding as to how to (a) integrate e-commerce and direct marketing, (b) critically evaluate specific e-commerce and direct marketing strategies, and (c) apply knowledge to assist a real world client.

Charles Smith (Management and General Business), "Self-Organizing Project Teams," worked on a project to communicate essential aspects of group theory/research that will be useful to faculty and students in organizing and facilitating team approaches to classroom learning. The essence of the research supports "self-organizing" teams, and the importance in the learning environment for teams to meet their own challenges rather than involve/depend on the professor. Yet, the team must really have an identity and develop certain skills before it will have any capacity to do this. The fruit of this study is guidelines for team development that can be used by teachers and students during the early stages of the team's life.