ITEC 4700: Course/Instructor Evaluations

I received my first set of course/instructor evaluations for the class I taught this past winter quarter: ITEC 4700 class: Web for Business Success, at the Daniels College of Business, University of Denver. I had an amazing teaching experience and tremendous students with diverse backgrounds and different levels of expertise. It will be hard to top my experience from this past Winter.

Now . . . if these evaluations had been abysmal, I still would have posted them. No really! Transparency is an essential element to web, business and LIFE! Keep in mind that I had one of the best teaching experiences a person can have. It started day one and continued. This is a result of the environment that we (the students and I) collectively created. I’m not tooting my own horn (as my grandmother says), AND I am very happy with the feedback.

Below is the feedback that I received.

What are some of the things you liked most about this instructor and course?

This was the most enjoyable and useful class I have taken at DU. Myers taught to a level that enhanced our learning while fostered creativity. I think that this course should be required for any MBA candidate that is entering the business society. The course was designed so that the students learned from each other as well as the instructor. I found this more beneficial than any of the other material I have learned at DU.

This was one of the most useful classes I have taken at Daniels.  This course is an asset and should be continued most definitely.  It was extremely relevant to real world issues that will undoubtedly change the way business is done in the 21st Century.  I would suggest that all MBAs take this course if they are interested in technology or the way business will be in the future.  The instructor was extremely knowledgeable and very passionate about the subject matter.  He could effectively engage each student in the classroom to relate and understand the subject matter.  This was one of my favorite classes and professors!!

His energy and interest in the subject matter is contagious. He brings students into the lectures by giving examples and perspectives relative to their interests and/or line of work. He has a great handle on the beat of current landscape, is well versed, and seems well connected to local enterprises active in this space.

This course has exceeded all expectations I had entering this quarter.  Frankly, I think it’s a shame that the entire student body isn’t required to take this course.  I would like to offer an extremely favorable review of this course, and request that the course also be offered next quarter and beyond.  In my excitement of the content, I have told countless people about this course, many of whom would like to take it.The content that we’ve learned and the way in which Mike taught us is what real education should be.  He has a genuine interest in the content, and his enthusiasm is incredible and adds so much to the learning experience.  I hope I’m not diluting Mike’s future classes with too many students signing up, but every Daniels student with an available class needs to take this course.

The course was very informative.  The topics had a direct application to businesses in all industries.  The instructor was very enthusiastic and brought a lot of energy to the course.  Overall I think this course was one of the most relevant and beneficial classes I’ve had at DU.

In terms of a what I got out of this, this course should replace ITEC.  It is amazing to see how quickly things are changing.  We don’t talk about any of the technological advances and future requirements in any of my other classes.  I feel that as a future business leader,this course should be a requirement.   Michael is a very forward thinking professor and I have enjoyed this class a lot.  The real time examples of how business and technology are merging will be very valuable in the future.  I really enjoyed the presentations by him and it has helped force me to adapt to certain technologies.

What are some ideas for improvement for this instructor and course?

Being that this was the test run of the course, some of the presentations and schedule could be refined. It seems that some of the subjects could be organized differently to progress in a more logical fashion.

A more detailed syllabus might have been nice.  Also, the instructor is so passionate that sometimes he gets too excited and then sometimes gets ahead of himself and talks too fast.  Other than that, this class rocked!!

There is so much information that sometimes it feels like you’re drinking from a firehouse, but that is also the state of this market so it seems understandable. Pin down those folks that said they would come and speak to the class – guest speakers would really add to the value of having multiple perspectives.

Mike’s preparation, content, delivery, and real-world follow-up of content was incredible.  Classes typically went well beyond the 9:50pm end time, and we were happy to stay.  For improvements, I can only recommend marginal additions to the classroom setting. I recently saw an article about a professor using Twitter to retrieve comments from students during class. Even though we always used web tools during class, they were more for demonstrative purposes.  Use of a web tool so that we could post questions/comments in real-time queue during the lecture would be a cool way for us to interact during class.I’d also be interested in finding ways to share our research with the rest of the class/school. This is definitely possible with all of the web tools that we learn. A project which uses all/some of the web tools for a real application would be great. Guest speakers would be cool too.

Overall it was a very well taught course.  Continue encouraging class discussion and interaction, that adds a lot to the lecture.  A pure lecture format would not be as effective as the lecture / discussion format that we had.

One of the best ways to improve this course would to be integrate one or two case studies.  An argument in favor of something can always be strengthened if it is supported with numbers.  I would have also have liked to have a few speakers integrated throughout this course.

If you’re interested in getting a feeling for what we covered in class, the list of summary posts are below.

1. ITEC 4700: Class 1 – Conceptual Model
2. ITEC 4700: Class 2 – Conceptual Model cont’d
3. ITEC 4700: Class 3 – social objects, social graph, social capital
4. ITEC 4700: Class 4 – blogging
5. ITEC 4700: Class 5 – Wikipedia
6. ITEC 4700: Class 6 – Flickr
7. ITEC 4700: Class 7 – Twitter
8. ITEC 4700: Class 8 – Cluetrain Manifesto
9. ITEC 4700: Class 9 – Facebook
10. ITEC 4700: Class 10 – Naked Conversations
11. ITEC 4700: Class 11 – YouTube
12. ITEC 4700: Class 12 – iPhone
13. ITEC 4700: Class 13 – Personal Branding
14. ITEC 4700: Class 14 – Social Mobile
15. ITEC 4700: Class 15 – Twitterville
16. ITEC 4700: Class 16 – Monetizing Web 2.0
17. ITEC 4700: Class 17 – Web 3.0
18. ITEC 4700: Class 19 & 20 – Final Presentations

I’ll be teaching a ITEC 4610: Information Technology Strategy this summer and am excited to work in some of the things we covered in this class. Also, going to be talking a lot about mobile. Going to be great!