Business students make movie By Francolse Hultzapple "I thought I was going to be really nervous and embarrass ed having someone `witness'me on the video screen. But, when I watched our finished project with everyone else, it made me feel so much more at ease." Chris Veltri, along with 19 other students from Dr. Refik Culpan's Behavioral Concepts in Business classes, participated in the production of a video case study to be used for class discussion. "In organizational behavior courses," said Culpan, "in structors often use the classical approach to case studies. I wanted to try something dif ferent," he explained, "by en couraging students to par ticipate in a role-playing situa tion in which they have to create their own character and act it out for video taping." Carolyn R. Dexter, Acting Head of the Business Division, said "active courses" are necessary in education, after she viewed the video earlier this week. "The teaching profession is responsible for providing a package of teaching techniques to students and we value all the pieces of the package," she said. "This video is another way of providing student par ticipation in the learning pro cess." Two weeks into' the fall semester, Culpan and student, Fran Hultzapple, had modified an existing case study into a video treatment format. "The skeleton of the case," noted Culpan, "is about a man working in an insurance com pany who wants to have a sex change operation and is cur rently dressing as a woman in the office." Students were quick to sign up for management and employee roles for extra credit. Surprisingly, the man/woman role was one of the first to be cast. Two scenes were even add ed to accomodate the en thusiasm of the actors. However, the production meant work for everyone. Despite three planning sessions to coordinate everyone's research on their characters, two rehearsals, 15 hours of video shooting and 19 hours of post production, the students found the experience beneficial. "From my research," said Mike Turk,a management ma jor, "I learned what legal and illegal questions management is permitted to ask during a job interview. You'd be surprised at some of the questions you can't ask." He also said, "I'll feel more confident wheii` giving a speech; I have a better idea of hoW to present myself for an in- terview; and I learned to work with a group of people." Chris Veltri, an accounting major, played a union attorney. "Working in the production," she said, "I got an understan ding of all the concepts in the case study. I know I won't do "Education has to have active courses." Carolyn Dexter Acting Head, Business Division some of the mistakes [manage ment made], because I was so close to those mistakes. For ex ample, I won't fire someone without investigating all the cir cumstances first." After the preview of the finished production which in cluded a bloopers tape, the rest of Culpan's classes viewed the video for discussion purposes. "Real life situations aren't College freshmen fear computers PITTSBURGH (CPS)-Most college freshmen are surprised, confused and frustrated during their first year of computer courses, according to a newly; released study. The computer anxiety afflicts incoming students in all majors, but may be particulary severe among liberal arts majors, observers add. Over 80 percent of all incom ing freshmen are "surprised" by the subject matter covered in computer courses, the survey reveals. Moreover, one of every two freshmen are "confused" by computer coursework, while nearly 70 percent say the courses actually make them "frustrated" and "angry." "When freshmen go away to college they have a lot of new experiences. But the computer science courses turn out to be much different than any of the new students expected," says Lee Sproull, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University who has surveyed CMU freshmen over the last three years to asses their attitudes toward computer courses there. Among other things, Sproull says entering students find computer courses "more sur prising, more confusing and harder to get a handle on" than their other courses. And such confusion over computers "is true of liberal arts as well as technical students," she adds. One, of the reasons fcir the so called, computer anxiety, Sproull says, is that students are textbook situations," noted Greg Wisloski, an accounting major with 11 years in the work force behind him. "I experienc ed a situation in real life where a problem occured," he said. "Instead of management deal ing with it immediately, when it would have been easier to handle; it got to a point where it was an unpleasant situation for all concerned. The lesson is to deal with the problem when it comes up. This video is more like a real-life simulation and that's what makes it interesting and more beneficial," he said. "Usually, our class is not a very talkative group," said Jan Dougherty, a business manage ment major, who worked for often "thrust into the computer culture" before they learn how comptiteriwork and understant the special language used in computer courses. Like at many schools, "com puting at CMU is not simply a question of learning about computers in a classroom 'set ting. Computing is a part of the whole work life at a campus," Sproull notes. With more traditional sub jects like history, math, or physics, she says, student learn in a sheltered, academic en vironment, and ease their way into the subjects as their abili ty and understanding increases. But the "hands-on" ex perience in computer classes catapaults students directly in to the real-life world of com puting, frequently without any prior exposure to the subject or the machines. Thus, "students who are new to computing end up using the campus mainframe right beside advanced users, which often makes the newcomers feel in timidated and even more con fused," she says. "That's a natural reaction for just about anyone who has to use computers in the presence of experienced users," agrees Mark Tucker, director of the Project on Information Technology and Education in Washington, D.C. "And the confusion and in timidation cycle repeats itself each time you use a different computer or a new piece of software," he adds, "which makes it a lot different from November 29, 1984 The Capitol Times Page 3 11 years in an insurance com pany in personnel and under writing before coming back to school. "We have four or five main spokespeople. I would judge that we had above average participation in the class discussion compared to non-video days. It was not just using video, but using students from the class to participate in the video that got everyone so interested. It did have a positive effect, even in an early morn ing class." "This was my first experi ment with a participative case study video and I am extreme ly pleased with the class reac tion," said Culpan. "I was afraid they would take it as a fun thing and miss the educa tional nature of the video,"he said. "But, the students reacted maturely and rationally; they related the video concepts to the ones we did in class -- group dynamics, communication skills, conflict, managerial pro blem solving styles, motivation, learning other college sub jects." To ease students' entry into the campus computer culture, reasearcher Sproul! suggests colleges offer computer orien tation course's so students will learn the basic rules and lingo before taking a computer course. "Many of the students we surveyed said the computer rooms reminded them of a scene out of '1984' because they FRANKLY SPEAKING © CREATIVE MEDIA SERVICES Box 5955 Berkeley, CA. 94705 and informal organizations," he said. The video was produced by four students currently enroll ed in Behavioral Concepts in Business courses. Three of those students-- Zaihan Mohd Noar, Clinton Lattany and Fran Hultzapple -- have taken video production courses of fered by Eton Churchill in the Multi-Media department of the Humanities division. Mohd Noar and Lattany were the cameramen; Jim Stotler per formed crew duties; and Fran Hultzapple produced, directed and edited the video project. Culpan said, "We are con ducting a follow-up research to see to what extent this experi ment was useful to the students. The only limitation I see is that the experiment might have been even more useful if the classes had been smaller and all could have participated. I have a hunch students will want this kind of experiment done in the future." were so cold and sterile. Com puter rooms should be more warm and inviting," Sproull adds. Fortunately, the computer anxiety many freshmen ex perience decreases as they become more familiar with the subject, Sproull notes. "Some students become very exhilarated by their new-found knowledge and say Wow, I never knew this could be so fun." phi( frank
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