Lindner educators transform the student experience

With the college’s support, faculty dedicate summer months to classroom innovation

In April, the Carl H. Lindner College of Business awarded four educator faculty members with a unique funding opportunity to support summer research efforts that would improve the classroom experience for students. Now these four Teaching and Learning Scholars are expanding their ideas and driving them toward action.

The scholars are professors from across business disciplines:

Melinda Hubbard, DBA, assistant professor-educator of management
Dan Peat, PhD, assistant professor-educator of management
Jamie Weathers, PhD, assistant professor-educator of finance
Elliott Manzon, PhD, associate professor-educator of marketing

“We want to invest in our educator faculty, so they can keep expanding their expertise, their thought leadership and draw attention to what they do,” said Suzanne Masterson, PhD, associate dean of faculty, research and Lindner culture and professor of management. “It's good for them. But it's also good for Lindner and UC to be seen as not only generating scientific knowledge, but also having expertise in how to transmit that and how to make sure students have good experiences.”

Rebecca Williamson, director of learning and instructional design at Lindner, is providing pedagogical guidance to the scholars as they seek to enhance the classroom experience for students.

“This is a great way to showcase what our faculty are doing over the summer and position Lindner faculty as thought leaders in their fields,” Williamson said.

Scholars support one another throughout the process with biweekly meetings to help build community, develop shared knowledge, talk through challenges and maintain progress throughout the summer. Faculty projects cover a variety of pedagogical practices, including virtual reality (VR) for student engagement, mental health in the classroom, lessons on financial literacy and student engagement in online courses.

Teaching business ethics in virtual reality

Melinda Hubbard, DBA, assistant professor-educator of management

Hubbard plans to remake business ethics instruction through the implementation of advanced technologies like VR and augmented reality (AR). Hubbard has seen firsthand the difference immersive and experiential learning makes in students’ development and progress toward learning outcomes.

This summer, Hubbard worked closely with the Digital Futures eXtended Reality Lab to create the VR/AR environment and simulation that will allow her students to experience real-world ethical challenges in a low-stakes environment.

Hubbard hopes this project will create a continuing partnership between Lindner and Digital Futures for future collaborations and prepare students for using these technologies in the workplace.

“As our world becomes increasingly complex, it becomes ever more imperative that we prepare our students to be strong, ethical leaders,” said Hubbard. “It is important that they enter the workforce with an understanding of their roles and responsibilities in their careers, and to society in general.”

Stress management and mental health advocacy in the curriculum

Dan Peat, PhD, assistant professor-educator of management

Peat is turning his passion into practice and pedagogy by bringing a new lesson to the Lindner first-year experience: stress management and prioritizing your mental health.

“Mental health and stress are incredibly important and pertinent topics in universities, and especially in business schools. Rising rates of mental health challenges, anxiety and stress have to be examined and addressed for students,” said Peat. “The more tools we can provide to Lindner students, the more likely they will be able to successfully navigate these concerns in their academic and professional careers.”

With this project, Peat aims to teach first-year students to recognize the similarities and differences between stress and mental health challenges, identify potential coping mechanisms, and apply these concepts inside and outside of the classroom. He said these lessons also can help students as they progress into management and other leadership roles.

Peat seeks to create impact beyond the walls of Lindner Hall by creating a lesson that can be used in high schools to prepare students for college and by submitting a case study of the workshop for publication.

Financial literacy for a new generation

Jamie Weathers, PhD, assistant professor-educator of finance

After spending many years focused primarily on research, Weathers is pivoting to pedagogy to bring financial literacy to a new generation of business problem solvers.

“Everybody needs this information. Not just people who are in business,” said Weathers. “Regardless of your career choice, finance is going to impact your life no matter if you want it to or not.”

Weathers is constructing a workshop to incorporate into her courses to dispel personal finance myths and provide accessible lessons on finance management. Unique to this will be a focus on the history of access to capital for women and people of color and the impact that still carries for individual’s finances.

Long-term, Weathers hopes to expand the workshop to students beyond Lindner and to offer these lessons to high school students.

Improving the online learning experience

Elliott Manzon, PhD, associate professor-educator of marketing

Manzon wants to elevate the student online learning experience.

“Online courses are excellent for providing more flexibility and opportunities for students who are balancing work schedules, family obligations or live outside of the Cincinnati area,” said Manzon. “It’s really important that our online courses provide great learning outcomes and engagement just like our in-person classes. Implementing research-based findings for better online teaching is a great way to ensure that our online courses are excellent and prepare our students to be business problem solvers.”

Manzon is diving deep into the existing literature on the subject this summer before beginning his own research. Once he solidifies his findings, Manzon plans to implement informed changes in his courses.

Hubbard, Peat, Weathers and Manzon will share their preliminary findings and progress toward their respective goals at the 2023 Lindner Teaching and Learning Showcase on Sept. 20.

Featured image at top: Hubbard leads a workshop at Lindner Women in Business' annual Empowerment Day event. Photo/Suzanne Buzek

Empowering business problem solvers

At the Carl H. Lindner College of Business, we fuel professional growth through our distinctive combination of academic and hands-on experiences: our problem-solving mindset, cooperative education, flexible pathways, inclusive community and vibrant, urban setting. Place, age or stage — students from a diversity of backgrounds become problem solvers at Lindner.