Course Feedback Happened

Came in from the ASA.

Colleagues and friends had warned me some of it could be nasty. And true to form, some of it was.

Sobering? Yes. Bruising? Not quite. Best to quote Nietsche here:

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

And the the experience of teaching a 4-section ISB course did make me 'stronger' in many ways. Have a slightly thicker skin now, a slightly colder heart, a less excitable (more numb?) demeanor. And importantly, a significantly better ability to distinguish signal from noise. I now realize I took a lot of noise far too seriously during the course. Won't happen again, tauba tauba. Like I said, "The first time is always special". Doesn't mean it has to be 100% nice to be memorable.

Some of the feedback I got was constructive and instructive. Thanks to those who took the trouble. The following I have already decided to incorporate:

1. Quite a few folks said "Cut down on course breadth and increase course depth." I totally agree. Specifically, will drop Conjoint and MDS from the syllabus. Will upgrade Model-building and regression analysis to full-lectures each.

2. Others wanted "More applied and less theory".
I agree with qualifications. Specifically, will make use of ready-made datasets - the ice-=cream questionnaire cum dataset, the beer dataset for secondary analysis and now, the car dataset + questionnaire as well. Applied and hands-on will be taken care of.

3. Then, folks have said "Project needs to be shorter in scope and longer in duration."
Fair enough. Will happen. Phase I starts in week 1 itself. Phase II in week 2-3. Will attempt to provide structured, step-by-step guidance in every phase. That way, scope is streamlined, efforts are more focused and in general, everything is peachy. Also, peer eval will be built in from the beginning. The project next year will be on "understanding metro consumer attitudes and shopping habits regarding modern/organized retail".

4. Shall remove the quizzes. Replaced with individual, take-home assignments based on the datasets.

5. "Resolve software issues before the course". Sure. Will dump SPSS, give up on R, and go with MEXL (and Excel throughout).

6. "Use less of email."
Yes. Sorry about this time, I guess. Will make the blog 'compulsory' as opposed to 'optional', this time. All the lectures and datasets are now ready more or less. So, less need for last emailing.

Sudhir

P.S.
Last but not least, might as well address some of the thornier criticism that arose (and was still within the realm of civility):

Some grandly wrote "None" when asked for "value/learning from the course". Thanks but no thanks. People had the option of opting out, 'twas an elective after all. Should have exercised the option then, IMHO.

A couple of others asked, (rhetorically perhaps?), of why students should be asked to taking a chance with new instructors. Good question. My answer is for the same reason customers of companies in industry will take a chance with newly minted MBAs -i.e. you - managing firm resources. Bottomline, Everyone starts somewhere. Also, tying in with the earlier question, there's a reason why rookie instructors are given electives - with a built in prior syllabus, sampling, and opt-out option - to first learn, apply and prove themselves with and only the more experienced and senior instructors handle 'core' courses.

A few others complained that "he never takes a stand about ANYTHING". Well, welcome to the real world, I'd say. Better to know how to handle nuance and complexity. The age of knowns and certitudes is passing. Little if anything can be taken for granted anymore. What would you rather have - the complex truth or a simple certitude that doesn't correspond to reality? Reminds me of Morpheus asking Neo -

"You can take the Red pill. Or you can take the Blue pill. The choice is yours, Neo."

Well, by self-selecting into one of the most demanding MBA programs in this part of the world, seems to me, you had already made that choice - the red pill. And IMHO, you knew what you were getting into - preparation for the real world. And that is a courageous thing to do - to choose reality as it is over make-believe. Let me quote Jack Welch here:

"Take control of your destiny.
Or someone else will."

You are all red pill choosers. The kind who believe in action. Karmayogis.
ATB for the future.