The HCBA Integrative Business Experience (IBE)

Beginning in the spring semester of 2004, Harmon College of Business students at University of Central Missouri have the option to participate in a program that links their learning to a real-world experience. This program, called the Integrative Business Experience (IBE), was inspired by the MG101 program at Bucknell and the Integrated Business Core program at the University of Oklahoma. IBE students will be required to create and manage two significant enterprises: an actual start-up company and a hands-on community service project. Thus, IBE students will have 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.

Participation in the IBE option, which will typically occur during the first semester of the junior year, will require students to enroll in a four-course block that includes three required junior-level core business courses and an Entrepreneurship and Community Service Practicum course*. The link between learning and experience occurs because the content coverage and many of the assignments in the core courses will be specifically sequenced to support students in organizing and managing their business and service ventures. As a result, IBE students will develop a clear “big-picture” understanding of business operations because, on an ongoing basis, they will be 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 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). Students will be responsible for mastering the concepts and terminology of each of the functional area core courses.

2) Students will 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 7-member learning team that remains stable across the core courses for the entire semester.

3) Students will work as an "employee" of a 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 will spend the first 7 weeks developing a business plan for a start-up company whose profits will finance a hands-on community service project. The plan will 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 will 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 will 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.

For Additional Information on Team-Based Learning IBE, and IBC

Contact Dr. Larry K. Michaelsen, Professor of Management at lmichaelsen@ucmo1.ucmo.edu (660) 543-4124 or visit www.teambasedlearning.org, www.ucmo.edu/ibe and/or www.ou.edu/org/ibcore.