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COB professor named editor of the journal Academy of Management Learning & Education

by | Jan 3, 2008 | Research

Nationally recognized management education scholar Ben Arbaugh, a professor with the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s College of Business, has been named editor of the journal Academy of Management Learning & Education.

The interdisciplinary journal is focused on research and theoretical models that deal with how managers learn as well as the educational process and context. Arbaugh will take over as the journal’s editor-select on July 1 and as editor on Jan. 1, 2009.

Arbaugh said he stumbled onto a career as a management education scholar in the mid-1990s, when he volunteered to teach an online course because he had heard it was the “wave of the future.”

Since he was teaching that same course in a traditional classroom as well, he decided to compare student performance based on the method of course delivery. That initial study led to many others and a significant body of work.

“Probably the most significant way my research informs my teaching is that I make sure to be actively involved in class discussions in my online courses, since I’ve found the student-instructor interaction to be one of the most significant predictors of learning outcomes,” Arbaugh said.

“I also make sure to use a variety of media (text, links to other Web sites, PowePoint/multimedia, audio) on my course Web sites and am looking to add more video to my courses in the future.”

Other findings from Arbaugh’s research include:

  • Selecting online course software that students perceive to be both useful and easy leads to positive course outcomes for Web-based classes.
  • Students are more satisfied with Internet courses that cover certain topics, such as project management, human resources, accounting and management information services, than other topics, such as operations management, business law and finance.

For future research, Arbaugh is developing a study to examine the applicability of emerging theories of education and technology adoption in online courses. He also is planning to write several journal articles based on his recent literature review of online learning in business disciplines over the last five years.To learn more about the Academy of Management Learning & Education, visit http://journals.aomonline.org/amle/.