MGMT2101: International Business and Multinational Operations

- 10% Group presentation
- 15% Midterm
- 15% Class participation
- 30% Individual learning journal
- 30% Final

Prerequisite/corequisite - MGMT1101

My comments are mostly about the transition to online learning, as this course lacked the smooth transition that other courses I completed had. I'm certain that course quality would've been much better if we didn't have a global pandemic.

In comparison to the other courses in the IBUS major that I've completed (MGMT1101 and MGMT2102), it's quite heavy on theory and content, and this impacted content delivery as lectures were packed with information and sometimes it was difficult to keep up. Assessment criteria is very inconsistent from what is explained in class and on the course outline, where for the group presentation, my group didn't address criteria specified in the tutorial and lost marks because we forgot about that as the course outline specified points that differed slightly to what was required.

Further, the transition to online learning was not organised very well, and a lot of the learning afforded particularly by the tutorials - which are great in person - was lost.
First, tutorials are structured first with an overview of that week's case study, where case studies are supposed to supplement learning of theory, which is then followed by class discussion of the case with question prompts, then discussion of the short article. In the online transition, the tutorials were replaced with discussion on Moodle forums. Groups were required to post their presentation on the forum, and then the tutor posted the questions that we would usually discuss in class. This discounted a lot of the learning that would've occurred in the classroom, as students could actively build on each other's answers, whereas on Moodle, students had 24 hours to post their answers and couldn't really respond to each other as if it were a classroom setting. Asking questions was also made difficult because you couldn't directly approach tutors during class.
Next, lectures were just PowerPoint presentations with voice recordings, and this change wasn't announced at all. While other courses had moved to Blackboard Collaborate or Zoom for lectures, this course didn't allow for interactivity in lectures and that also built on the poor transition to online for tutorials.
Assessments are also fine, but changes were made very last minute, and there was a definite lack of clarity on them as students didn't really get what was required of them. For example, the midterm was supposed to be on March 16, but was cancelled the night before due to student concerns about COVID-19, where at the time, there had been multiple cases on campus. While it was definitely understandable that the exam was postponed, the way it was reinstated was less than ideal as it was announced 4 days before the new date, leaving a small window to actually prepare for it, even if it was open book. However, explanation of assessments improved as the due date of the individual learning journal and the final approached due to student complaints.

3.5 - 2 hour lecture, 1.5 hour tutorial

2/5

Yes

Lecturer - Dr Pradeep Ray, Tutor - Amir Chitizadeh

All readings and case studies are on Moodle

2/5

This is only recommended, but International Business (12e), Charles Hill.

T1 2020