Emphasizing Relevance: Incorporating Business Case Studies

and Competition to Teach Information Competency Skills

Armand Gilinsky, Jr., Ph.D.

Professor of Business

Course Development Faculty Member

Wine Business Program

School of Business and Economics

Sonoma State University

Stevenson Hall Room 2026F

1801 East Cotati Avenue

Rohnert Park, CA 94928

Telephone: 664-2709

Amount of Funds Requested: $6,160.00

Date of Submission: April 22, 2004

Abstract

The traditional teaching of information competency skills has always struggled with the crucial concept of relevancy. Library orientations or 50-minute, one-shot workshops taught by librarians often have failed to capture students’ interest and attention since they are often presented without proper context or meaning. Yet, if one ascribes to Davenport and Beck’s idea in The Attention Economy[1] that attention is the new currency of business, one easily can see that attention is also the currency of higher education. Finding ways to engage and manipulate students’ attention is higher education’s only way to achieve better learning outcomes.

It is these two inter-related concepts of relevancy and attention that this study seeks to address in the teaching of information competency skills for business. In order to address relevancy, this study will be designed to examine the efficacy of integrating information competency instruction into Sonoma State University’s Wine Business Program through two sections of a capstone senior seminar course. The project will consist of four separate groups in each class that research and analyze the same business case study related to a small business and/or wine business and present a business solution.

To make the project more relevant and to address attention, one of the three primary motivators of attention as defined by Davenport and Beck, “survival,” is incorporated. Introducing the element of “survival” is done by creating a single-elimination competition judged by Business Department faculty and local business leaders for the best overall analysis, strategy and presentation of the case. It is felt that this type of competition will appeal to students due in part to the popularity of such “reality” television show competitions as “The Apprentice.”

Learning outcomes will be shown through the students’ final analysis and presentation of their case study, a pre- and post-test for information competency skills, an analysis of the students’ research portfolios and bibliographies and a satisfaction survey. It will also be shown that the learning outcomes will demonstrate proficiency in all of the five major Association for College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Information Literacy Competency Standards.

The goal of this study, in addition to the learning outcomes, is to show that when the two issues of relevancy and attention are addressed properly, students will move beyond mere “satisficing” behavior, that is doing the minimal amount of work necessary to achieve a passing grade, into more motivated and effectual learning. A long-term goal is that this study will serve as a template for integrating information competency instruction into other business classes and that the results will spur discussion across disciplines on how best to teach information competency skills and engage students’ attention.

Project Activities

A key activity in this project is to help students’ generate questions that will lead to real-world business solutions. The art of question-asking can be easily overlooked within the usual framework and assessment of information competency instruction but this study will assess both the ability of students to ask the proper questions for their case analysis as well as their ability to identify and use the proper information resources to answer these questions.

The course instructor will teach and assist the students developing the proper questions for their case, such as what industry, competitive, economic factors/trends are significant or what are the key human resource management issues and the librarian will target instructional sessions to information resources that will most benefit the students’ analysis of the case and act as an advisor for their ongoing research.

Below is a schema[2] of the type of information each student will need to incorporate along with activities for each.

Diagnostic

/

Examples

/

Activity/Assessment

Foundational Information / Diagnostic Tools such as ratios, cash-flow and liquidity, inventories, earnings, etc. / Students will keep a portfolio of their research. The portfolio must include a record of what questions were asked; what information resources were initially considered for use, the answers for each research question, what information resource(s) they used to find their answer(s) and what search technique or strategy used.
Productivity Information / Information such as economic value-added information. Products, services, operation or activity with high productivity. Benchmarking versus industry and key competitors.
Competence Information / Identification of unexpected successes or failures of a business to identify areas of innovation. Identification of innovation occurring in entire field/industry. Research spending., new products, new methods, etc.
Resource – Allocation Information / Capital: return on investment, payback period, cash flow or discounted present value; Human Resources: performing people, skills sets needed, wage scales.

Strategic

/

Examples

/

Activity/Assessment

Environmental Scan / Markets, demographics, customer and non-customer information, competition, technology in one’s own industry and outside, worldwide financial information, state of national or world economy / In their research portfolio, students identify broad opportunities or concerns that may affect their case. Each factor identified is properly noted as to what resource it was derived from and what search technique or strategy was used.

Final project: Incorporation of information into a case analysis and presentation. Case presentation and content will be judged against other groups in a single-elimination contest.

Additional Assessment Tools:

Pre- and Post-tests: Pre- and post- tests designed to measure students’ ability to generate relevant questions as well as their knowledge of business information resources to answer these questions. The assessment tool will correlate to each of the five ACRL standards.

Research Portfolios: Each portfolio will be examined to determine each student’s ability to generate questions and find relevant information.

Student Satisfaction Survey: This survey will measure the students’ engagement with the activities and overall satisfaction with the design and implementation of the project.

Timeline

May 2004 – Summer 2004

Project Coordinator will develop case studies that will necessitate students’ access to a wide variety of information resources and contact local business leaders for participation, input and support for the case study competition.

Utilizing student assistants, the Project Coordinator and Librarian will direct them in designing and implementing a website for the class project and the final competition.

August - November 2004

Project Coordinator and Librarian will complete pre- and post-test assessment instrument and oversee the implementation of the assessment instrument into a WebCT environment.

Librarian will finalize design for the students’ Research Portfolio and create a step-by-step guide for how they should be used.

Students take Information Competency Pre-test.

Librarian instructs students on the use of business information resources and assists students with their research tasks.

December 2004

Students engage in Business Case Study Competition and submit their Research Portfolios and Bibliographies.

Students take Information Competency Post-test and Student Satisfaction Survey.

Project Coordinator and Librarian analyze and report on results to Business Department, the University Library and professional associations.

If the pilot project is success, the Project Coordinator and Librarian intend to use data gathered to support outreach to local business leaders. The intent of this outreach would be to garner future participation in and underwriting support for the competition. A related use of external funds raised will be to provide ongoing support for supplemental data acquisition tools that would be identified from this project, in order to continue to meet the information competency goals set forth by the Department of Business Administration and University Library.

Student Population

The School of Business and Economics serves a total population of approximately 1,212 undergraduate and 87 graduate (MBA) students per year. In the target population to be served in this project, approximately 260 students graduate with a B.S. in Business each year, concentrating in Accounting, Financial Management, Finance, Management, Marketing, and Wine Business. Roughly one third to one half of our Business majors are transfer students from two-year colleges. Upon completion of the core course requirements of the major, graduating seniors are required to take an integrative Senior Seminar in Management Policy and Strategy in their final semesters. This “capstone course” serves approximately 125 students each semester and is typically taught in sections of 25-30 students. Learning tools include lectures, readings on strategic management, business case studies, group discussions, team presentations, and computer simulations. Local community businesses are in most instances the focal decision-makers depicted in the case studies. Many local leaders also serve as judges for the case competition. In the proposed initial pilot test of this project, 60-65 students (two course sections) are expected to participate.

Budget

Line #
/ Item / Cost
1 / Project Coordinator, Business Faculty / $1,200.00
2 / Librarian consultation / $1,200.00
3 / Small Business Information Resources / $1,250.00
4 / Outreach for participation and support from local community businesses leaders / $1,200.00
5 / Business Faculty Information Competency training stipend / $200.00
6 / Updating of Library Research Guides and Tutorials
($10.00 x 15 hrs x 1 student) / $150.00
7 / Creation of project website ($11.00 x 20 hrs x 1 student) / $220.00
8 / Creation of WebCT Survey and Assessment Instrument ($11.00 x 20 hrs x 1 student) / $220.00
9 / Misc. office expenses/blue books / $200.00
10 / Misc. Training Materials (manuals, books, etc.) / $200.00
11 / Administrative support ($8.00 x 15 hrs x 1 student) / $120.00
Total: / $6,160.00

See following page for a detailed justification for each item.

Line # / Detailed Budget Justification
1, 2 / For covering release time involved in creating targeted IC assignments and case studies, creating assessment instruments and implementing the project.
3 / Will cover additional but necessary business reference materials specifically targeted to the wine industry and small business research.
4 / Local business leaders are a key component of this project. Their participation in the competition and input into the necessary information skills required of the students is crucial. Developing a base of support in the local business community is essential in developing relevant programs and in supporting SSU students’ ongoing access to necessary business materials.
5 / To allow Project Coordinator to receive further training in Information Literacy concepts and activities.
6 / To hire a student to update library research guides and tutorial as per librarian instructions.
7, 8 / To hire a student with web design skills to implement a class project website that notes important information resources, illustrates student research and shows student presentations. Student will also create a presence in WebCT for survey and assessment instruments created by Project Director and Librarian.
9 / Photocopies, handouts, instructional materials, etc. and blue books to serve as student’s research portfolios.
10 / To cover general instructional materials for technical and research-related activities.
11 / To provide for general student support of project, such as photocopying, typing, filing, etc.

Qualifications

Armand Gilinsky, Jr. is Professor of Business at Sonoma State University, where he teaches Strategy and Entrepreneurship. In recent years he has served as Director of SSU’s Entrepreneurship Center, Wine Business Program, and Small Business Institute.

Dr. Gilinsky has had extensive consulting experience with more than 30 companies, including members of the wine industry. He has written and published 17 case studies on local businesses, seven of which were about the wine industry. As an experienced teacher and consultant, Dr. Gilinsky understands the relevant information needs involved in business development and management. This understanding of business information needs has helped him in authoring numerous business case studies and several articles on entrepreneurial strategy.

At Sonoma State, Dr. Gilinsky has worked closely with the business librarian to incorporate information competency into his courses.

He holds the Ph.D. in Business Policy from Henley Management College/Brunel University (London), and M.B.A. in Finance from Golden Gate University, an A.M. in Education Administration and Policy Analysis from Stanford University and an A.B. (honors) in English from Stanford University.

Richard Robison is the Business Librarian at Sonoma State where he overseas the collection development for business materials and teaches numerous workshops on basic library skills, research subject-specific topics and other information competency topics, such as plagiarism or the evaluation of information.

Mr. Robison has been actively involved in information competency issues and assisted with a large study at the University of Maryland that examined student-learning outcomes in library instruction that utilized both in-class and online instruction. He later collaborated with Peggy Antonisse, Coordinator for the Freshman Writing Program, in co-authoring and presenting, “Assessing the Impact of the Terrapin Information Literacy Tutorial (TILT),” for the 10th Annual Teaching with Technology Conference. In addition, he researched alternative assessment methods and developed an assessment program based on the usage of Research Portfolios for the University of Maryland Library’s Bibliographic Instruction Department.

His current research interest is in understanding attention and the role it plays in our information-laden society and how attention may be manipulated to create better learning activities and provide more relevant library services.

Letter of support

[1] Davenport, Thomas H., Beck, John C. (2001). The attention economy: understanding the new currency of business. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

[2] Adapted from Drucker, P. (1995) The Information Executives Truly Need. InformationWeek. 525, 89-94.