A Comparison of the Aptitude and Attitude of College Students Toward Social and Technical Computer Technology

The purpose of this study was to investigate college students\u27 technical and social technology competencies based upon their attitudes toward computers and their perception of technical computer knowledge. The participants for this investigation were college undergraduates majoring in apparel merchandising and design and other related and non-related majors at the University of Arkansas. The research model selected for use in this study was the survey design method. There were a total of 1270 students responding to the survey with 1052 usable surveys remaining after cleaning the data for missing entries. This constituted an 83% response rate. The findings included significant effects of social aptitude by age and major, and technical aptitude by major. Males had significantly higher perceptions of technical aptitude, and both social and technical attitude toward computer technology than females. Whites had significantly higher perceptions of social aptitude toward computer technology than Nonwhites. Class standing had no significant effect on college student\u27s perceptions of either aptitude or attitude in social or technical computer technology. There were strong correlations between social aptitude and technical aptitude and social attitude and technical attitude. Colleges and universities as well as industry are taking advantage of social technology not only for recruitment but in the classroom and on the job as well. A strong relationship between social and technical aptitude and social and technical attitude would tend to indicate that students are ready for this type of interaction

Teaching Personal Selling with Volunteer Professional Salesperson Role-play Scenarios

Producing what is often referred to as “career ready” graduates is a challenge that most business department faculty take seriously; after all, we are measured to some extent by the success of our students. As a faculty member with twenty-plus years of experience in competitive sales environments, I believe that it is essential to create roleplay personal selling situations for students that simulate what happens in the consultative sales environment. Providing students with realistic situations calls upon the student to perform at a higher level. It is my position that these role-plays provide the best learning outcomes when conducted with professional sales people versus the use of peers or faculty to facilitate the role play. As educators, we have a luxury that doesn’t exist in most professional settings. That luxury is in our purpose; we are here to develop career-ready business leaders. While this purpose is also true for sales training staff in their respective organizations, they have to do this without exposing their weaknesses. Corporate Sales Trainers cannot, in most cases, bring in one of their top clients and ask them to run role play practices with their new sales trainees. In the collegiate environment, many of those top clients are more than willing to do just that; they volunteer their time to help coach a sales student. Their reasons for doing so are likely quite varied, but regardless of motive, I’ve rarely had difficulty recruiting sales and buying professionals to serve as role-play partners for students. They want to give back; making a contribution is a strong motivator. While I will readily admit that I don’t use professional volunteer buyers in all of my classroom role play scenarios in my sales and marketing coursework, I have reached the conclusion that professional sales people as volunteers are essential to creating a more realistic role play situation. Mary Ellen Weimer in her book Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice, states, “(this book) seeks to answer this question: What should teachers do to maximize learning outcomes for their students?” Specifically, as it relates to this topic, I concur with Weimer’s concept that “learner-centered teaching engages students in the hard, messy work of learning.” We need to help our students develop learning skills through personal practice. This situational instruction requires that the following stipulations be followed for the best possible outcome for student learning. These specifications include: selecting the most appropriate professional sales role-play volunteers, creating a case study that is robust enough, but is still easy to follow, and creating a simulation that closely replicates a consultative sales call. In the use of role plays, I believe that student learning maximizes by securing the best professional sales role play volunteers. It is important to find a professional sales person that will be generous with his/her time. Sadly, I’ve had some professionals that have wanted to help, but have then not completely “shown up” for the situation; while they may show up for the event, they’ve over extended themselves and spend the time distracted by what is happening in their lives. While this may be realistic for some sales call experiences, it doesn’t maximize the student’s learning. Also, you need a sales professional that is going to provide detailed and prolific feedback both verbally and in writing. Giving and receiving clear feedback is the “messy” part of learning, but individuals will not grow in their sales skills unless they get accurate and honest feedback. Finally, the sales professional needs to be nurturing. I’m not suggesting that they hold back in their feedback, but they need to be able to encourage and mentor the students – not necessarily beyond the role play, but at least for the time they spend with the student. All of these combined attributes of a professional sales role play volunteer provide a positive learning experience for the student. The second essential element of a strong professional sales role play scenario is to have a robust case study but to not make it overly complex. The important aspects of the case study include having a strong, but not excessively detailed background story. Digging into research to gain product knowledge such as the features, benefits, and advantages of a product or service is essential learning for students on how to approach a sales call. As a part of the scenario, some conflict needs to be included as well; this can take many different forms as either an objection or a challenge, but this conflict helps students understand that uncovering the client’s “pain” will lead them to better understanding how to meet the clients’ needs. I have also had success with role play circumstances that are somewhat ambiguous. This ambiguity exists in real life sales situations, so helping students understand that they’re not going to have all the answers and that they will need to do some investigation in the form of both research and questions to the client are relevant to the learning outcomes. Finally, the final essential piece of an effective professional sales role play scenario is the creation of a simulated environment that closely replicates a sales call. There are several elements that I believe are important in this simulated environment. First, it is best if the professional sales person has not met the sales role play student before the role play. Not having a prior introduction creates a dynamic similar to that first sales call and places the responsibility of creating rapport in the hands of the student. Next, I think it’s best if no other students are in the room during the role play. It can be videotaped for shared learning later, but having a peer audience changes the dynamic of the situation, and it is a more realistic simulation if an audience is not present. Creating a realistic role play that puts the sales call experience into perspective will help students better understand their strengths and weaknesses as it relates to the sales process. Ultimately, some will argue that this is too much effort to go through to create a professional sales volunteer role play in each class. To not over tax my volunteers and to better utilize class time, I frequently set up many volunteers for the same class period. Also, I usually don’t rely on the same volunteer for more than one class. Following this plan of action puts the pressure on the instructor to develop a strong network of professional sales people. However, I would argue that the effort to present more opportunities for students to practice sales in this way will make a substantial difference in our student’s success in a commission-based sales career. REFERENCES Weimer, M., 1947, & ebrary, I. (2013). Learner-centered teaching: Five key changes to practice (2nd ed.). San Francisco;Palo Alto, Calif;: Jossey-Bass

PRESCHOOL TEACHERS IN SHANGHAI, CHINA: PRE-SERVICE PIANO SKILL DEVELOPMENT, PERCEPTION OF ADEQUACY, AND CURRENT INSTRUCTIONAL USAGE

This study investigates the influence of preschool teachers’ perceptions of the adequacy of their undergraduate piano skills training on the frequency of their use of piano skills with their students in Shanghai, China. In addition, the study explores the possible influence of these adequacy perceptions regarding their piano skills training on their usage of various piano skills in the classroom. The researcher-designed questionnaire covered twelve specific functional piano skills including improvisation, playing piano repertoire, accompaniment, sight reading, solo singing with self-accompaniment, composition, score reading, techniques, chord progressions, harmonization, transposition and modulation. They also reported on their perceived use and training adequacy of piano skills as a whole. Cluster sampling was used to recruit preschool teacher participants who graduated between 2013 and 2018 from six Shanghai preschool teacher preparation programs and had at least one year’s teaching experience. There were 567 participants who returned usable, completed surveys. Using descriptive statistical analyses and sequential multiple regression, the researcher found that nearly all (99.1%) of the preschool teachers reported receiving less than three years of piano training before college. The analysis suggests that preschool teachers’ overall perception of the adequacy of college-level piano training they received affects their overall frequency of using piano skills in preschool teaching, after controlling for the amount of time spent on training received prior to entering college. Not only was this true for their perceptions regarding their training as a whole, but the same was found for 11 of the 12 specific skills investigated. That is, as perceptions of adequacy increased, so did usage of the particular skill in preschool teaching. The one exception was “score reading” which was not statistically significant. Specifically, 9.1% of the variation in piano skills usage, overall, can be predicted from their perceptions of undergraduate piano training adequacy, as a whole. Implications for college trainers and in-service teachers are discussed and suggestions for further research are offered. Caution is advised, however, when inferring cause from non-experimental designs such as the survey research employed in this study

Leadership and Administrative Tasks of Secondary Choral Music Educators

The problem of this study was the inconsistency between perceptions of secondary choral music educators and college and university choral music professors pertaining to needed leadership and administrative training in undergraduate music teacher education programs. The main purpose of this study was to attempt to develop a list of recommendations pertaining to necessary leadership and administrative tasks of music education majors. Two subpurposes of this study were: to help university and college school officials evaluate the present curriculum and adjust it to help meet the needs of their music education graduates; and to help expand the limited literature base concerning administrative and leadership tasks that are required of bachelor of music education degree graduates. This descriptive study was conducted to attempt to identify administrative and leadership tasks necessary for secondary choral music educators. A four point Likert-type scale was used to identify the importance level of administrative and leadership tasks of secondary choral music educators. A preliminary questionnaire was developed and mailed to a selected panel. After changes were made based on respondents suggestions, two pilot studies were conducted. The results were tested for reliability and validity. It was then sent to 899 secondary choral music educators (25.0% of the population) and to all 131 college and university choral music educators within the Southern Division of the Music Educators National Conference. The conclusions of this study were based on 486 responses from secondary choral music educators and 63 college and university choral music educators. No significant difference existed between the two groups. Developing rapport with parents and conducting fund-raisers were the only two tasks that obtained absolute significant differences. This analysis provided the rationale that 49 of the 51 tasks are basically valued at the same level of importance by secondary choral music educators and college and university choral music educators. All of the tasks, except for attending school board meetings and employing special service personnel received a majority percentage level from both groups for inclusion in a music teacher education program. Recommendations were based on the analyses that the majority of tasks were important and should be included in a teacher education program

Gaps in Marketing Competencies Between Employers’ Requirements and Graduates’ Marketing Skills

This study was conducted to highlight the gaps in marketingcompetencies that are required by employers and those thatgraduates learn at business school. The existing literature wassurveyed to identify the knowledge, skills and abilities required byemployers in the field of marketing and then contextualizedaccording to the requirements of employers in Pakistan. A surveyof marketing graduates was conducted in two parts, competencysurvey 1 was designed to identify the importance of differentcompetencies required in marketing jobs and competency survey 2was to make out the level of those competencies present in freshgraduates, according to their (graduates) own perceptions. Acomparison was made between the results of two cohorts and it wasfound that statistically significant gaps existed in required andactual level of few marketing competencies like ‘design andimplement marketing plan’, ‘conduct market research’ and‘forecasting and budgeting’

Developing Life Skills : Perceptions of Graduates of the Adult, Non-Traditional Business and Management Programs at Indiana Wesleyan University

Problem. Indiana Wesleyan University teaches all of its adult courses using 10 skills as a foundation. This study determined the perceived attitudes of its graduates regarding the importance of and their relative progress in these 10 areas. Method. A survey questionnaire was developed and a stratified random sample of graduates was surveyed. A two-way analysis of variance was used to analyze the differences and interactions among the graduates based on two variables: major and gender. Results. Graduates perceived the following four skills as very important : Problem Solving, Oral Communication, Writing Effectively, and Ethics. Six skills were perceived as important : Teamwork, Lifelong Learning, Critical Thinking, Reading Materials, and Christian World View. Graduates further perceived themselves as evidencing considerable progress in the following eight skills: Teamwork, Writing Effectively, Oral Communication, Problem Solving, Lifelong Learning, Critical Thinking, Information Literacy, and Ethics, and some progress in the remaining two skills: Reading Materials and Christian World View. Conclusions. While considered to be important, the skill of the Christian World View was perceived by graduates as the least important of the skills. Graduates felt that although they evidenced some progress, the Christian World View skill was perceived as evidencing the least amount of development. Problem Solving and Oral Communication skills were perceived as the most important skills, and Teamwork was perceived by graduates as the skill evidencing the most progress

Creating value in an introductory business IS and IT unit

Given the downturn in student enrolments in Information Systems (IS) and Information Technology (IT) units, and the poor performance of a first-year IS and IT common-core unit in a business school, a new unit was developed. Action and design science research methods were employed. The new unit has a unique focus on two key skills and on modern IT and information literacy. The first skill involves describing information systems, and the second, determining how to create business value with IT in specific business contexts. Modern IT tools like a Web-based productivity suite and professional networking services are introduced, together with advanced search techniques and services and an information quality evaluation framework. The evaluation of the utility and efficacy of the unit is based on the institutional standard student feedback survey and unsolicited feedback. The unit has achieved a significant improvement in evaluation results and feedback from students, as well as converting students who were previously averse to IS and IT to study further in these areas.<br /