Academic Motivation in Introductory Business Analytics Courses: A Bayesian Approach

The MUSIC (eMpowerment, Usefulness, Success, Interest, Caring) Model of Academic motivation was developed to help instructors promote student motivation in the classroom. This study examines relationships among student perceptions of motivation and effort compared with their performance in undergraduate business analytics courses. Specifically, the study will attempt to answer the questions of whether students’ scores on the MUSIC model predict or explain effort, academic performance, course rating, and instructor rating. A Bayesian approach to linear regression is used to determine and understand the impact of the MUSIC model components on the aforementioned output measures.

Self-assessment and instructor assessment: Contribution to supervision in a brief counselling skills training program

Whilst there are many critical elements in the teaching of micro-counselling skills, feedback is an essential component of an effective training program. This paper describes supervision linked to a program of instruction. More particularly it examines the relative merit and contribution of utilising both instructor rating and self-rating as a means of providing educative feedback during the process of supervision in a brief counselling training program. Instructor rating and self-rating measures were taken on two occasions, first at the commencement of a six-week training program and secondly at the completion of the course. It was found that instructor rating was consistently lower than self-rating, but both reflected an improvement in counselling skills acquisition. Students indicated an ability to be self-critical after a period of counselling training to the extent that instructor rating matched more closely self-rating, after the second interview.

A Comparison of Student Ratings of Teaching Assistants and Faculty Members

Seven hundred and ninety-nine students in 36 sections of undergraduate analytic geometry and calculus completed an achievement test in both pre and post conditions and an instructor rating instrument in the post condition. Nineteen of the sections were taught by sixteen teaching assistants and seventeen classes by sixteen full-time faculty members. The data were analyzed separately for teaching assistants and full-time faculty. Students rated teaching assistants and faculty members in a similar fashion, both in terms of the level of ratings and the conceptual framework within which these judgments were made.