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The University of Central Missouri Integrative Business Experience: An Intensive, Hands-on Foundation for Undergraduate Business Education

 Undergraduate business majors typically encounter two problems in developing an integrated view of business organizations.  First, students have seldom worked in anything but low level, part-time jobs that contribute little to their understanding of the workings of business organizations.  Second, because of the discipline-based structure of business schools, their course work often compounds the problem.  They typically complete several core courses that focus exclusively on the concepts and terminology of a single business discipline.  They then advance to a series of specialized courses that are increasingly narrow in scope and that are primarily concentrated within their major field of study.  More often than not, students’ only cross-discipline exposure to business concepts occurs in their final term in a single Policy/Strategy course.

The Integrative Business Experience: A Comprehensive, Hands-on Solution

Since the spring semester of 2004, Harmon College of Business students at the University of Central Missouri have had the opportunity to participate in an intensive, hands-on program that directly addresses both problems.  This program, called the Integrative Business Experience (IBE), was inspired by the MG101 program at Bucknell (Miller, 1991) and the Integrated Business Core (IBC) program at the University of Oklahoma. As in MG 101 and IBC, students in IBE simultaneously create and manage two significant enterprises: an actual start-up company and a hands-on community service project.  Thus, all three programs create a laboratory that provides students with the opportunity to: 1) develop interpersonal and group-interaction skills in a work-like setting, and 2) learn from their experience of trying to apply key business concepts and analytical tools to solve a wide range of unstructured, but very real problems.

The strength of IBE for enabling students to develop a clear understanding of the “big picture” results from two key factors.  First, it is an integral part of the core business curriculum.  During the first semester of their junior year, IBE students are required to concurrently enroll in three junior-level core business courses (Marketing—MKT 3405, Management—MGT 3315, and Information Systems—CIS 3630) along with an Entrepreneurship and Community Service Practicum course.  Second, the content coverage and many of the assignments in the core courses are specifically sequenced to support students in organizing and managing their business and service ventures.  Students are able to make the conceptual connections across disciplines because, on an ongoing basis, they are using concepts and tools from all three core courses to guide their decisions in the business and service organizations.

IBE Program Elements

1)      Students must simultaneously enroll in and be responsible for mastering the concepts of three required junior-level core business courses—Management, Marketing, and Information Systems (Marketing—MKT 3405, Management—MGT 3315, and Information Systems—CIS 3630) plus a three-hour Entrepreneurship and Community Service Practicum (MGT 3385, MKT 3485 or CIS 3685).

2)      Students learn in classes in which the instruction is delivered using Team-Based Learning. Thus, instead of listening to lectures, most of their in-class time is spent working in a 5 to 7-member learning team that remains stable across the core courses for the entire semester.

3)   Students work as an "employee" of a  20 to 35-member company that becomes a “laboratory” in which they apply concepts from the core business disciplines as they engage in two ventures—a start-up business and a service project on behalf of a non-profit community organization.

4)   Students spend the first 7 weeks developing a business plan for a start-up company whose profits are used to finance a hands-on community service project. The plan is then be presented to a loan review committee (First Community Bank officers and local entrepreneurs) to obtain the capital (real money up to $5,000) needed to implement their plan.

5)      Students implement their business plan (i.e., they have 6-7 weeks to do enough business to pay off their loan and expenses and generate enough profit to finance their service work).

6)      Students create a program portfolio that contains reflections on their experience and includes a set of “artifacts” that will enable them to communicate their learnings to potential employers.

IBE Program Outcomes

At the University of Central Missouri, a total of 454 students participated in IBE between the first pilot in the spring semester of 2004 and the fall semester of 2008.  These students formed and managed 23 remarkably successful companies.  In total:

l IBE student businesses received $57,911 in loans and have generated a total revenue of $183,595 and a total net profit of $124,891.

l 30community service and/or voluntary non-profit organizations received:

ü $124,891 in direct financial support from the profits of IBE student businesses.

ü      5,954 hours of community service from IBE student-organized activities and projects.

The key to the success of IBE is that the practicum experience produces an extremely high level of student engagement in the learning process.  As one UCM student put it, “It’s one thing to talk about a business plan or even write one (that’s what we do in other classes), but it’s something else to have to generate an idea from scratch and turn it into a profitable business—all in 15 weeks.”  This challenge has an extremely positive impact for everyone involved in the educational process because it creates a high level of student commitment to the success of his or her IBE company. IBE has had a profound positive impact on the vast majority of the students who participate in the program.  For example, when asked to identify the single most positive aspect of their undergraduate business education, over 50% of OU graduating seniors who were in IBE (i.e. 18-months to 2 years after the actual experience) specifically name the IBE program.  By contrast, less than .5% of non-IBE students mention anything related to any of their junior-level core courses.

Given the comprehensive nature of IBE, it is not surprising that students report a wide variety of positive outcomes from their participation in the program at every school it is being used.  When asked to identify the most valuable aspect of IBE, their responses typically fall in one of three areas.  First, many maintain that the IBE context improved their learning and give examples how they have a richer understanding of the “big picture” and/or retain the content and apply it in later classes.  Second, many cite the impact of IBE on their understanding of the importance of and ability to develop “people” skills.  Third, IBE profoundly changes the social aspect of the remainder of the students’ undergraduate experience.  The intensive involvement creates a very strong sense of community among IBE participants.  Although core courses at UCM have a dropout rate of 10-15%, only 2 of the 198 students who enrolled in the first 7 semesters of IBE failed to complete the classes after attending more than the first two class periods.  Nor does the difference end there.  When asked about how things are going in later courses, IBE students invariably speak in terms of we—they and one or more IBE peers with whom they have voluntarily chosen to work and study.  In fact, many instructors in higher level courses are finding that they can not allow self-formed project groups because other students are simply unable to compete with groups composed of former IBE students.

References

Miller, J. A.  ( 1991) Experiencing Management:  A Comprehensive, “Hands-on” Model for the Introductory Management Course.  Journal of Management Education, 15 (2), 151-173.

Recent Publications on Team-Based Learning and IBE

Michaelsen, L. K & McCord.  (2006). Teaching Business by Doing Business: An Interdisciplinary Faculty-Friendly Approach. In To Improve the Academy: Resources for Faculty, Instructional and Organizational Development.  Robertson, D. & Nilson, L. (Eds.).  Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press Co., p. 238-253.

This article describes the UCM IBE program and outlines why it is much more faculty-friendly than other approaches to curricular integration.  It also, includes data on the impact of the program at both the University of Oklahoma and at the University of Central Missouri.

Michaelsen, L. K., Knight, A. B. & Fink, L. D.  (2004). Team-Based Learning: A Transformative Use of Small Groups in College Teaching. Stylus Publishing, LLC: Sterling, VA.

This book answers three questions about team-based learning: “What is it? Will it work in my special situation? and How do you do it?” The book provides examples of how team-based learning can be used effectively in a wide variety of learning contexts and is based on over 20 years of experience from using this unique and powerful teaching strategy.

Shinn, Sharon (2003). Junior Executives. BizEd 2(4) May/June, 48-51.

These articles use a series of students’ own stories to describe how the University of Oklahoma IBC experience enriches their understanding of business and of themselves.