Thinking about Touro? Then read this first!!

Guys,

Rarely do I contribute anything uselful here. Well as some of you know, I recently enrolled in Touro's MBA program and recieved great "heads up" here. So here's my contribution to those who are thinking about taking the same or similar steps as me.

Below is an email I recieved from Mel Hagan, the graduate assistant to my professor. I think this is wonderful stuff for those seeking a little insight into what they might expect at Touro.

Good luck to all,

4Q

P.S.- I deleted a few items so this post wouldn't exceed the 10K character limit.

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Getting “Good” Grades - A Basic Primer

General Comments:

1. Submit all work on time. If it cannot be done on time, make sure to communicate with the GA/Professor to ask for an extension. If an extension is granted, there is no penalty for late work. If an extension was not granted (and you cannot give a very convincing argument for why the work was late), then the product is automatically charged a “half-letter” grade penalty (i.e., a paper that normally would have earned an A would now only receive an A-).

2. Use the proper format. The TUI style guide should be followed.

• One of the things that students often miss is the one-inch margin required at top, bottom, right, and left. The default setting for the left and right margins in MS-word is 1.25”, so either manually change the settings for each paper or change the default setting to 1”.
• Choose your font and font size wisely. The TUI standard asks for 12-pitch. Using less than 12-pitch means you have to type more to meet the page length requirements. Also, some fonts, such as Arial, are so “clean” that they use less space, again requiring you to do more work to meet assignments. Using a larger font size is viewed as “padding” the paper (something frowned on). My personal font preference is Times New Roman, but any clean font will do. I personally despise Courier/Courier New because they are simply ugly.
• Double space your work unless the assignment specifically states otherwise.

3. Do the assignment.
• In doing the assignment, be sure to focus first on the CASE and then on the Session Long Project (SLP). The CASE is the bulk of the grade for the module (60%), with the SLP being a very, very distant second (30%).
• Each module also has an option to do either the threaded discussion or the enhanced case. While you may do both if you so desire, you get no extra credit for doing so. We encourage people to use the threaded discussion because that is a good way to see others’ points of view and to engage in collegial discussion and debate about the issues. This part of the assignment is worth 10% of the module grade.
4. Meet basic requirements. Unless the instructions specify otherwise, the normal requirement for this course is a 2 to 3 page paper NOT including the cover page (or a reference page if you use a separate page for references). The 2 – 3 pages is text directly related to the topic.

Doing Assignments:

1. Begin by answering the question! Tell us your answer in a nice, tight opening sentence or paragraph. For example, if the assignment is to pick a management style that interests you and apply it to a work setting that you are familiar with, then the first paragraph/sentence should clearly identify (1) the style chosen and (2) the work setting in which it is being applied.

• NOTE: Except in some mathematics, statistical, and related types of work, there are very few “wrong” answers. A significant number of our cases simply ask us to take a position and then to support that position.

2. Argue in favor of your position. Once you have defined your position, tell us why you believe that to be true. Give us a good, sharp, convincing argument in favor of the position.

3. Integrate the facts. Even when the assignment asks for you to give your opinion, you need to have good, solid support.

4. Integrate research. The CyberLibrary is your best friend. Use it to find documentation to support your position and integrate the facts. And, above all else, when using support, make sure you cite it and give credit for it. The reason for doing research and finding facts is to give credibility and support to your position.
• There is no requirement for documented research and references for undergraduate students unless the assignment specifically tells you to do research. Of course, references and research are always welcome and make a good impression, plus are excellent practice for graduate level work.
• Graduate level work demands research and documentation of the research. As a general rule, consider having at least 3 reference sources for every case. Don’t go overboard and give a couple of dozen references, but also do not rely on a single source. If the assignment tells us to use a specific article, you can consider that to be one of the references, but find a couple more to support it. The TUI CD/Online Course Materials can be used as references, but at least one outside source is recommended.
NOTE: References are critical for the Case Assignments but not so much so for the Session Long Projects.
NOTE 2: Keep in mind that even when the professors ask us for our opinion, what they are normally asking is that we give our opinion and then support it with outside evidence.
NOTE 3: For graduate students, if the professor says “don’t worry so much about research,” DO NOT take that to mean no research is required. We are still required to support our arguments, we just don’t need to spend as much time digging for that support.

5. Follow a logical format. Most business presentations have three basic parts: introduction, body, conclusion.

• Introduction: A single opening paragraph that answers the question and tells briefly how you are going to prove your point. With a 2-3 page paper, double-spaced, you rarely have room for more than 3 or 4 points.
• Body: paragraphs 2-? with a single point in each paragraph.
• Conclusion: A strong finishing paragraph that re-states the position and how you proved or supported it.

And if I do this all 100% correct, do I get my “A”?

My personal grading guidelines include the following generalities (more detail follows):

A (4.00) Great work; watered my eyes
A- (3.67) Excellent work; sound in all areas; just not spectacular
B+ (3.33) Very Good work; met all requirements and went slightly beyond
B (3.00) Good work; met all course requirements
B- (2.67) Essentially good work, but minor flaws in several areas or a major flaw in an area
C+ (2.33) Slightly less than standard. Minor flaws is several areas or a few major flaws
C (2.00) Less than standard. Minor flaws in many areas or major flaws in a few areas
C- (1.67) Well below standard.
D (1.00) Seriously flawed work, but still barely passing (we don’t normally use the +/-)
F (0.00) Failed.


• If you do not answer the question, the highest grade you normally will get is a B+. If you write a really dynamite paper, I might relent and grant an A-.
• If you are a graduate student (your student number begins with an M or a P), showing no research/references for the case assignment will result in a maximum grade of B+ (unless the assignment specifically states not to worry about references).
• Sloppy work. As a general rule, we do not normally penalize folks for formatting and the like. However, we do penalize for things that should have been found and corrected through proofing, not to mention using the tools available in MS Word. With the spellchecker and grammar checker tools in MS Word, there is no reason for any paper to contain major errors. [A word of caution about the grammar checker: it has some major flaws, so do not take it as gospel. It will catch the more common mistakes.]


1) Responsiveness: Answer the question.
2) Completeness: Cover all parts of the question.
3) Relevance: Respond to only the question.
4) Explanation: Furnish information needed to clarify, define, or distinguish elements of the response.
5) Organization: Provide a sequence that facilitates communication and comprehension.
6) Prioritization: Allocate emphasis based on importance.
7) Logic: Ensure mutual consistency among response elements, and between response elements and external referents (e.g., definitions).
8) Clarity: Use accurate, direct, and grammatically sound language.
9) Efficiency: Avoid unnecessary redundancy (while feel free to include necessary redundancy as needed for clarity).
10) Practicality: Apply knowledge derived or used externally to the case, and vice-versa - apply case issues externally.
11) Knowledge: Cite contributory sources - academic or practitioner.
12) Exhaustiveness (not the same as "completeness"): Cite a wide and representative range of contributory sources.
13) Integration: Establish usable commonalities across contributing knowledge, both "imported" and generated internally.
14) Originality: Apply external knowledge inventively, in a previously unutilized and perhaps non-obvious fashion, to events in the case.
15) Novelty: Develop new relationships among existing concepts.
16) Creativity: Develop new knowledge - a new theory, or an integration, extension, transformation, or refutation of previous theory.

Dr, Klein says, “... Hence, the first ten criteria apply to undergraduate students; the first twelve apply to MBAs (and to the top-performing undergrads); and all criteria apply to the doctoral students (and to all other top-performing students).”

 

Useful guidelines for anyone, Tour-ist or not. Thanks.

 

Excellent post.

 

Thanks for the information.

 

Omigod, Mel Hagan is even more pompous than I am. He's probably the type who would point out everyone's typos on this forum.

Of course, I'm opposed to letter grading in the first place, and would give people an A if they simply knew their shit.

 

I'm with you.......and they get a B if they show up for class whether they know their stuff or not!

 

Why are you opposed to letter grading?

 

Know your @#$%

I am convinced that my tenure as a nurse has well equipped me to know my fecal matter - but I could guess correctly someone else's 9 out of 10 times.



Steven King

 

hums, does the same apply for the BS?

Do you think that the same rules apply for the BS programs at TUI? I am enrolled in a BS in CS at TUI and I have basically followed the style sheet you discussed.

I guess I am doing well if 4.0 means that all my teachers have water in their eyes after reading my assignments. I have only got A's except two A-'s for one case and slp in economics. Anyways this is good information and I am wondering why nobody sent me something like that....

 

Re: hums, does the same apply for the BS?

As a senior GA, I also wonder why you haven't received anything. I'll ask the professors what's going on.

 

1. Because it fosters a spirit of competition instead of a spirit of cooperation between peers.

2. Letter grading is too often skewed to a teacher's perspective, subjective rather than objective. Moreover, grades become meaningless in a dumbed-down educational system.

3. Because some students don't test well yet know the material and can conceptualize the subject brilliantly, while even more students don't write well. I'm opposed to poor writing even more than to letter grading, but I'm not paid to teach writing skills.

4. Because life is a pass-fail proposition, and I see no reason that classes should not be the same.

But most of all, due to #1.

 

Excellent! Thank you for the informative answers. Do you think it is unnecessary to provide some means of differentiating student quality? Does this transcend into the business world as well?

 

New Learner and Enjoying

As a new student to TUI Ph.D. program, I have to say that I am very impressed by the program. The academics are very complete, much material is included in the courses, the Professors are very accommodating and there is a stringent amount of work that needs to be done. I do agree with other posts here that you need to keep up to the workload. In DL it's easy to fall behind. I hope this help some possible learners on the fence.