Finance with a virtual expert An online Corporate Finance

course: a case studyOpen University Business School

workshop9 April 2014

Dr Jane Hughes

Teaching and learning online

• Role of the teacher?

• Role of media?

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Teaching and learning online

“And I think we’re in danger of confusing here really the transmission of knowledge – which I suspect MOOCs are quite good at – and education. Education is about eyeball and interaction and it’s not really about having an assignment on Hamlet marked by multiple choice by computer.”

In the classroom…

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Online…

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Teaching online…

• Online: ‘portable’ MBA• Accessible via

internet : tablet, smartphone, pc

• Accessible: compulsory module

• Learning outcomes: finance in a business context

• Enjoyable: screen fatigue

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Online design principles• Online: active, designed to maintain pace

and capture interest; emphasis on student activity and feedback

• Accessible – cater for differences - activities and resources and structure of virtual learning environment (VLE)

• Learning outcomes – use web resources, a range of real world companies, provide help with mathematics

• Enjoyable – visual, animated, ‘snapshot’, consider ‘readability’

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Cognitive apprenticeship model and virtual teacher

• Cognitive apprenticeship (Collins 2006; Collins et al. 1991)

• Teacher as expert, helping students to build expertise

• Situated learning (realistic tasks) • In the classroom => ‘something

teachers do’; online, the VLE => teacher

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Cognitive apprenticeship framework

CF Content Method Sequencing Sociology

Domain knowledge

Modeling Increasing complexity

Situated learning

Coaching Increasing diversity

Scaffolding Global to local skills

Articulation

Reflection

Exploration

? Heuristic strategies

Community of practice

? Control strategies Intrinsic motivation

? Learning strategies Cooperation

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Corporate Finance activity wheelDomain

KnowledgeExploration

Reflection

Reflection

ArticulateCoaching

Modeling

ScaffoldingDomain

Knowledge

(Optional)

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VLE activities

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VLE activities: modelling

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VLE activities: coaching

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VLE activities: scaffolding

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Other student support• 8 hours face-to-face and 7 hours online

(synchronous) teaching with tutor• Tutor group forum (asynchronous

electronic conference) for tutor and students

• Student ‘café’ (electronic conference)• All provided opportunities for

articulation, reflection, exploration • Assessment and tutor feedback

emphasised ‘global to local’ skills

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Online finance

Did it work?

Can cognitive apprenticeship online provide satisfactory study experiences for postgraduate management students studying corporate finance?

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Sources of data for case studyEnd of course satisfaction questionnaire• 5-point Likert scale• 3 presentations of course – 40%+ response rate

(40%: 96 students of those surveyed)

Corporate finance results compared to:

~ management course – compulsory, running concurrently (same students surveyed)

~ predecessor finance course – elective, mix of strategy and finance, text-based (different students surveyed)

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Sources of data for case study

Semi-structured interviews, looking at student online activity

• 9 volunteer students interviewed about online activity (guidance and feedback), enjoyment and satisfaction.

Aim of both sources of data to prepare for a further quantitative survey.

‘Overall, I am satisfied with…’

Category Management

Old finance/ strategy

Quality of this module Higher – 7% Lower – 14%

My study experience Higher – 15%

Lower – 14%

Teaching materials provided Higher – 25%

Lower – 14%

Able to keep up with workload

Higher – 10%

Higher – 41%

Learning outcomes were clearly stated

Higher – 28%

Lower – 8%

Recommend to other students

Higher – 25%

Lower – 15%

Met my expectations Higher – 10%

Lower – 15%

Enjoyed studying Higher – 6% Lower – 10%

‘Overall, I am satisfied with…’

Category Management

Clear information about what to study

Higher – 2%

Easy to navigate website Higher – 5%

Advice and guidance for studies Higher – 11%

Work with different teaching materials at time I was required to

Lower – 10%

Teaching materials were well integrated and helped me learn

Lower – 10%

Method of delivery of teaching materials

Higher – 26%

Optional activities helped me to learn

Higher – 5%

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‘Blended learning’: themes related to satisfaction/ successful outcomes

• Interaction – social cues and teaching presence

• Participation and feedback

• Variation theory

• Outcomes are mixed (does using online help or hinder learning?)

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Interview themes: interaction with teacher

• “at the beginning I was quite conscious that I didn’t know the financial terms etc. so I had to Google everything and I think if I had talked to the tutor more then it would have been easier”

• “more face to face as it was more challenging, especially for those without a mathematical background”

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Interview themes: participation• “the WACC, there was a video and I went

over and over and over it and I could understand where it all came from because I could pause it and go through the case study to see where I could get the information from so I found it really useful”

• “I’m very much more of a visual person than an audio person – ‘cos I lose focus and wonder what is being said. Just listening to audio – I find it quite difficult to listen audio and take in the conversation – it’s quite dry”

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Interview themes: feedback• “The activities where you need to look

at an article and read it and then check the feedback with the notes that you have made. I enjoy that”

• “I especially liked the quizzes. That was a check for me to understand what has been asked”

• “having to go around website, other websites, although it was surprisingly useful”

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Interview themes: variation theory

• “First off , I thought it would be boring because you know I thought corporate finance would just be figures and I liked the variety of activities, it referred us to articles, case studies”

• “There’s lots of different ways to study and you kind of find your own path”

• “also a variety of different applications that they can draw on, I think it’s slightly more interesting, especially for the novice. And it’s definitely interesting for the person who works in finance, generally you tend to fall in to a rut, go one way”

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Interview themes: outcomes• “For me, particularly the WACC

calculation – I got a great deal of satisfaction in eventually coming to terms with it. Because when I first saw it, it was like Greek. Going through all those calculations the very first time was daunting, and getting through them quicker and also understanding the value of the end result, the calculation at the end. To the extent that I even did a WACC calculation for the company that I work at”

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Interview themes: outcomes• “My dad is quite a hard-core

entrepreneur, makes decisions without putting pen to paper. So corporate finance helped me I would say – I could actually use the language – talk the lingo – when I’m talking to bank managers, financiers, I reckon that you have to know what they are talking about – which I didn’t know before”

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Did it work?

By the end of the course you should have no difficulty

with financial jargon and you will be more

than able to hold your own in the

world of finance.

Many managers are apprehensive at the thought of taking a

finance course because they expect

it to be dull and difficult. This course

is neither.

It includes case studies and examples that show how relevant finance is

to all aspects of management. It also

uses multimedia to get the concepts of financial

theory across.

From video, podcasts, spreadsheets, and

related readings you will have substantial support

in learning the key concepts of finance.

Online discussion forums and a course website are

also included.

However…• Sources of dissatisfaction

• Sampling bias

• Role of multimedia in ‘education’

• Variation theory

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References• Collins, A. (2006) ‘Cognitive apprenticeship’ in: Sawyer R.K. (Ed.) The

Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences, New York, Cambridge University Press

• Collins, A., Brown, J. S. and Holum, A. (1991) ‘Cognitive Apprenticeship: Making Thinking Visible’, American Educator, 6-11 and 38-46

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