Preparing Grad Students for SFU's MBA program

In the computer lab for SAS Practice

A group of new grad students started this summer's Pre Masters Program which is a direct pathway to the highly recognized SFU's MBA just about a week ago at Fraser International College in the Burnaby campus. This group of students were one of the most diversely represented yet, coming from Ukraine, India, Indonesia, South Korea and China. After the first week of familiarization and course introduction, the second week was more of transitioning to some serious learning. Their course load included Quantitative Analytics, Collaborative Work Environments, Writing Literacy, Intercultural Communications and Case Competition Capstone.

Practicing the online tool used for Statistical Analysis

Most of them have been here less than two weeks and already adjusted back to being a full time student again. This pre masters program will help them transition and gain the necessary experience to a successful MBA experience. In fact this is my third year with this program and I have had the opportunity to transition and work with at least two previous batches of pre masters program students that have gone on to successfully graduated from the SFU's MBA program. I have been involved with the development of the pre masters program since initiation.

After the First Week of Class in Summer 2016

Students in the BUS237 Comp Lab.

The first day of class for the summer 2016 semester started on the week beginning on May 9 for students in Fraser International College at Simon Fraser University. There are about two hundred and fifty new students in FIC this semester. I am also glad to start the new semester with many familiar faces. Like previous semesters, I will be teaching the BUS237 Introduction to Computer Information Systems for Business from the first week onwards. And the other Pre-Masters Program classes will only start on week three. So, summer is going to be a pretty busy semester for me in terms of instructions and support from week three.

Getting ready for first day lecture

Personally, the first week was more about getting familiar with the students, discussing about the course workload, responsibilities and components of the course as a whole. I would like to set the path for students right from the start. We also talk about course requirements, responsibilities, procedures and policies. My aim is to make sure every student understand the opportunities and benefits of the course and are able to achieve the best results possible within these similar circumstances. The students too are pretty eager to get the semester started and have shown great enthusiasm. I am pleased and satisfied with the first week of classes.

Start of the Summer 2016 semester

I am actually glad to be back in school after the two weeks break. Last Friday was orientation day for the newly arrived students and today classes started as early as 8.30am. My BUS237 Introduction to Computer Information Systems section 3 class was one of the early classes this semester. And, just like every class that I teach, first thing I do is get to know the students. I call out the students' names one at a time from the attendance record and they reply with their preferred names and course concentration. After that, I will discuss about my role and the students' responsibilities for this course. Included in the discussion will be course components, grading system, assignments, exams and policies. Lecture on Chapter 1 starts immediately after a short break.

I am assigned to three sections of this course this semester on top of the PreMasters Program courses. This is going to be my busiest semester for the year. Other than teaching, I will also be conducting two to three workshops within the semester, depending on the availability of time on my schedule. Also, not forgetting the Universal Case Competition and Instructor Advising.