‘… we needed to stop teaching subjects in a silo’

New B.S.B.A. curriculum blends disciplines

Now that the newly approved College of Business Administration’s B.S.B.A. curriculum is in place, students are sure to appear on the radar screens of top employers sooner rather than later.

“This is our opportunity to mold the students and make them more sophisticated in their growth,” said Frank Andera, director of the SAP University Alliance Program and professor of business information systems. “What we’ve done here is special, and I’m a firm believer in it.”

Nearly five years in the making, the process of developing a new curriculum began with faculty retreats to discuss the best way for Central Michigan University business students to prepare for real-world business careers.

“We had a desire to do something about the curriculum, which had become dated in style and delivery,” Andera said. “In order to integrate disciplines, we saw that we needed to stop teaching subjects in a silo.”

Once the faculty members hammered out a new structure for the curriculum, CBA faculty committees created master syllabi, which had to be approved by the entire faculty. This year, the Academic Senate Committee approved the new curriculum, which now is in place.

Teamwork at all levels

The key to the new B.S.B.A. curriculum lies in its integration of core classes. As early as their freshman year, students are given tools they can use and build on for future internships and jobs.

First semester freshmen take essential business skills, where they learn teamwork skills and the basics of business enterprises. In their second semester, they take essential business communication skills, where they learn skills in writing letters, cases, and reports; making effective oral presentations; working in teams; communicating in various cultural and business settings; and researching careers in business.

“This new curriculum also provides exposure to business and industry ideas and structure. What is a business? How does it work? What are its substructures? What is accounting? What is marketing? What is a supply chain?” Andera said.

Cohort-style integrated learning

With the new curriculum, CBA sophomores gain experience in integration by working as cohorts in the accounting and management information systems classes. CBA juniors also work in cohort groups in three integrated courses, beginning with accounting/finance, supply chain management, and marketing/sales/distribution. Along with these three classes, the students participate in an integrated lab, with eight weeks spent on a SAP case study. In the senior or final year, students participate in a senior project that may or may not be an actual “live” enterprise.

“The new business curriculum will be the difference between talking about something and doing it,” Andera said. “Other schools are talking about wanting to integrate core classes; but here at CMU, we are truly doing it. We’ve moved on to a higher plane, and our graduates will be the better for it.”

Andera believes there will be challenges to overcome in these early phases of change, but he’s confident any bumps will be smoothed out in time.

“Over the last few years, the CBA faculty aspired to revolutionize their style of teaching,” Andera said. “We moved from a lecture-centered approach to an active student-learning approach. Now, it is time for our core curriculum to be revolutionized. We are moving from a self-centered silo approach to integrated, inter-related core courses where dependency upon related courses is reality, not a desire.”

As part of the new B.S.B.A. curriculum, students in the freshman-level essential business communication skills class learn how to make effective oral presentations, communicate in various cultural and business settings, and research business careers.

Director of the SAP University Alliance Program and CMU professor of business information systems Frank Andera, in the background, guides teams of students as they develop business reports.