https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT5ntN9M_WY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hECYF0bxcmY
Julee Sims
EDAC 632 Organizing Adult and Community Education Programs
Dr. Bo Chang
Fall 2023
PROGRAM ORGANIZATION
I am researching the Master of Business Administration at Ball State University. It is located in Muncie, Indiana on the campus of Ball State University. There is not a residency requirement, so it is a fully online program geared towards adults who are not full-time students. They offer a general MBA degree, or you can customize your degree by choosing one of their seven concentrations. The concentrations offered are Artificial Intelligence, Business Analytics, Construction Management, Finance, Healthcare Administration, Information Technology Leadership, and Logistics and Supply Chain Management. They also offer graduate certificates in business. These are programs that consist of four classes and are often completed in one year. These certificates are for working professionals who want to build their resume and skills. The certificates offered are Business Administration, Business Analytics, Business Essentials, Finance, Healthcare Administration, and Logistics and Supply Chain Management.
Their mission is to empower you with tools you can use to advance in your career, start your own business, and make connections in your career.
The program is organized by product or division. The graphic below shows how the Dean oversees the whole program, and is supervisor to the Director of Programs. The Director of Programs manages the main office where the staff is located and works along with the faculty who teach the classes. The staff processes applications and communicates with prospective students. The faculty is divided into departments in The Miller College of Business and also by the subject areas in which they teach. These departments are Accounting, Economics, Finance and Insurance, Information Systems and Operations Management, Management, and Marketing. Together all of these departments teach the classes that are required to obtain an MBA or Graduate Certificates.
The functions of management that the Dean and the Director of Program utilize are planning and coordinating. Planning the programs and courses is extremely important in this organization. It is ever-changing with the needs of adult learners and new technological developments, and they need to be aware of how to change along with the needs of their students. One of the ways this is done is by meeting with the Advisory Board two to three times a year. They act as a sounding board for curriculum and program reviews. Coordinating is a big part of the management because there are multiple departments of faculty, multiple concentrations, and multiple certificate options. Keeping everyone up to date on what is expected of them and how to achieve these goals is a huge part of managing this program. The Director has meetings as needed with faculty to keep everyone aware of what their duties are. There are also formal faculty meetings with the Director in the fall and spring semesters.
I was surprised by the number of concentrations that are offered in this program. The vast number of options makes it easy to focus on what you need to succeed in your career without wasting time and money on classes that do not benefit you. The planning and coordinating functions of management that the Director of Programs and the Dean utilize help to keep the courses relevant to the current needs of students so they can be as efficient as possible with their time. The ultimate goal is to help students obtain knowledge that helps them advance in their careers, and using this management style helps them achieve this quicker and more conveniently. The fact that they can offer so many concentrations is a result of utilizing faculty from the various departments in the Miller College of Business. Taking faculty who are experts in specific topics and having them teach in the concentrations, and organizing the classes into concentrations, or divisions, makes this program more effective at offering multiple subjects and keeps the classes relevant to the student’s needs.
References and Graphics
MBA and Graduate Certificates in Business (2023). Ball State University
https://bsu.instructure.com/courses/141581/files/14386477 module_item_id=4105333
Schmidt, S.W., & Yelich Biniecki, S.M. (2016). Organization and administration of adult education programs. Information Age Publishing Inc.
Organizational Structure of Ball State University MBA Program
LEADERSHIP AND ADMINISTRATION
Roles and Positions
This week I am looking at the roles of the Program Director in the MBA office on the campus of Ball State University. The leadership structure of the program is organized by hierarchy with the Dean at the top of the program, and the Program Director directly beneath the Dean. The Program Director is Jason Webber and he is both a leader and an administrator in the program. According to Schmidt and Yelich Biniecki (2016) an administrator leads an organization as well as managing the people and resources, while a leader is able to influence and motivate people and has the ability to communicate their visions to multiple audiences in many different situations. Mr. Webber’s job duties vary greatly and therefore make him fall into both roles.
Daily Routines and Activities
Mr. Webber has many responsibilities in his daily activities. He is constantly working with the Dean’s office and faculty from several departments on various MBA initiatives. He is
always working on recruiting students to the program, representing the program at public events, building relationships with employers of graduates, identifying trends in graduate programs, building strong relationships with program alumni, and effectively managing the office, its support staff, and the budget.
His duties cover so many areas that it is hard to say what a typical day is like for Mr. Webber. He spends time in his main office, in meetings at different faculty departments, and occasionally traveling to conferences. He always has something that he is working on to keep the program running smoothly.
Qualifications
This list of daily responsibilities is why I classified Mr. Webber as both an administrator and a leader. As stated by Schmidt and Yelich Biniecki (2016) an administrator is a person who makes, and executes, decisions with regard to people, resources, and processes, focusing on short-term and long-term strategy and plans for the organization. Mr. Webber’s duties supervising the main office staff, managing the program budget, and working with the Dean and faculty on MBA initiatives are what classifies him as an administrator. He is very involved with the decisions and plans made for the organization and going back to my earlier citation, he is communicating with multiple audiences in many different situations (Schmidt and Yelich Biniecki, 2016).
His duties of building and maintaining relationships with the alumni and prospective employers fall into the leader description. According to Schmidt and Yelich Biniecki (2016) an effective leader is able to build followers and is directly responsible for moving their organization forward. Mr. Webber’s efforts to maintain these relationships are what keeps the program moving forward by attracting prospective students with promising connections and networking after graduation. Representing the program at public events shows prospective students everything that the program has to offer, and attracts them to apply. Interacting with prospective students also helps educate him on what is trending and needed in the MBA program for student success. These situations are examples of what Schmidt and Yelich Biniecki (2016) referenced when they said an efficient leader has in-depth knowledge of the people and the environment, he or she works in.
I asked Mr. Webber what he thought about what it takes to be a good leader. He feels that being empathetic and a good listener is where you need to start. Being the leader of the staff, faculty, and students means that he deals with a lot of different problems and issues that arise. He also feels that being fair and maintaining excellent communication is key to making people know that he wants what is best for them and the program.
Implications
I will say I was surprised to learn about all of the various duties that Mr. Webber has in his daily routine. He very much embodies the roles of both leader and administrator. He leads students towards the program with public events, and prospective employers by maintaining
relationships that encourage them to hire graduates from the MBA program. His leadership is strengthened by these relationships that give him knowledge of their needs and desired outcomes. His administrator role is evident in the management of the main office and budget. While he has one title of Program Director, he indeed covers many roles in the program.
References
Schmidt, S.W., & Yelich Biniecki, S.M. (2016). Organization and administration of adult education programs. Information Age Publishing Inc.
BUDGET AND FUNDING
In this assignment I will be presenting information about budgets and funding for the Graduate Program in the Department of History at Ball State University located in Muncie, IN.
Income and Expenses
I spoke with Dr. Dan Ingram who is the director of the graduate program. I learned that the program itself does not have a budget. They are dependent on the College of Sciences and Humanities to determine their budget and give them funding. The College uses enrollment
numbers from the previous year to forecast how much money will be allotted the following year for the program. The program’s income comes from these calculations. They operate on a fiscal year, July 1st – June 30th because the whole university follows this calendar. This is done so expenses that occur at the end of the calendar year can still be paid at the beginning of the next calendar year. This works out well for academic institutions because the majority of school sponsored events will happen in the Fall and Spring semesters.
The program’s main expenses are paying the faculty to teach the courses and paying the graduate assistants. The graduate assistants are the fixed expenses because they know how many they will have every year and they are not paid hourly. The College determines how much will be allotted for the graduate assistants, and then they are paid with a stipend. This eliminates the variable of hours worked that would make their pay a variable expense.
The faculty becomes a variable expense because the student enrollment can vary every year. The number of classes offered would depend on how many students have enrolled, and the number of classes affects how many faculty members will need to be paid for teaching. The faculty is from the Department of History and they teach the seminar courses for extra pay on top of their salary.
Budget and Funding
The main factor that will affect the budget for the program is enrollment. The College
uses the previous year’s numbers to forecast the upcoming year’s enrollment trends. There are all kinds of factors that affect enrollment. Covid made the numbers drastically drop. The economy is making it harder for people to pay for higher education, and the general anxiety that our country is feeling about the economy makes them less likely to commit to a new financial investment.
There are not many funding sources for the graduate program. There are soft money sources such as external grants that the faculty can apply for to invest in hiring themselves more graduate assistants. Dr. Ingram said other than that, there is not funding outside of the College. The rest of their money is hard money from the College. This leads to the challenges of the budget and funding. After interviewing Dr. Ingram, it feels to me like the program is under the control of the College. They determine how much is allocated to the program and how it is spent, such as the graduate assistant stipends. Since soft money sources are limited, I think they should consider an alumni donation effort. Maybe once a year have a promoted day of giving. One Ball State Day is an example of this type of fundraising. Schmidt and Yelich Biniecki (2016) talk about databases that Dr. Ingram could utilize that consolidate RFP’s and find appropriate grants that are being offered for his faculty and future projects. This could help him find more sources of soft money.
Implications
I was very surprised to learn that the graduate program in the Department of History does not have its’ own budget. Even though the College has control over their budget, the program does have more control over their funding. I say that because while Dr. Ingram cannot tell the College of Sciences and Humanities what his budget will be, he can work on getting outside funding through grants and possible donations. His soft money income is where he has control of the funding for the program. Overall, my observation is that the program needs to focus on soft money funding in order to grow and have some independent income apart from the College budget.
References
Schmidt, S.W., & Yelich Biniecki, S.M. (2016). Organization and administration of adult education programs. Information Age Publishing Inc.
HRM: PROGRAM PLANNING AND ORGANIZATION
Introduction
Human Resource Management (HRM) is the department in an organization that is responsible for acquiring employees, retaining employees, developing their job skills and knowledge, and handling the administration of a company’s employees (Schmidt and Yelich
Biniecki, 2016). The ultimate goal of HRM is to get the right people in the right positions, and then give them the training needed to be successful at their job. This does not happen without numerous preparations and hard work (Schmidt and Yelich Biniecki, 2016). An HRM department has 5 core functions that help them to achieve these goals. (Schmidt and Yelich Biniecki, 2016):
1. Policies and Procedures – development of all policies including but not limited to hiring, benefits, and safety procedures
2. Recruiting and Hiring – including but not limited to creating job postings and making hiring decisions
3. Orientation and Training – onboarding and continual job training
4. Records Maintenance and Legal Compliance – retaining employee records and legal matters
5. Strategic Planning – strategic planning so the organization is effective in the future
Main Functions of the HRM Department
Ball State University has almost 5,700 employees. This is an extremely large work force to manage. To learn more about how the HRM department manages all of these employees, I interviewed McKenzie Carmen who is one of the Human Resources Partners at Ball State University. McKenzie explained the roles of the HRM department.
“The main functions of HRM in my organization is to ensure that we are compliant with government and organizational regulations. At my organization HR is divided into several departments which include Human Resources, Employee Relations, Benefits, Payroll, and HR Solution Center. In my department of Human Resources, we are tasked with overseeing the onboarding and off boarding of every employee from our HRIS system.”
Daily Activities
McKenzie also described the daily activities of the HRM department. She had an extensive list of all the things she may do in a day. While she doesn’t do all of these activities every single day, she does do all of these tasks on a regular basis as the need arises.
Ø Reviewing job descriptions for compliance, accuracy, and salary range
Ø Equity reviews for every job offer
Ø Process background checks and education verifications
Ø Post all job advertising
Ø Collaborate best ways to hire and onboard all employees
Ø Update Banner records and employee files
Ø Collect transcripts
Ø Recruitment
Ø Processing terminations
Ø Writing offer letters
Training Activities
With so many employees, there are often moves from department to department. There are software updates, promotions, interim employees, and many other circumstances that create a constant wave of change in departments across campus. Because of this, it is vital for Ball State to provide employee training. McKenzie and I discussed the employee training opportunities that HRM offers the employees. The HR Solution Center has a branch called Learning and Development. This office collaborates with departments across campus to create training sessions as the need for extra training arises. These sessions are usually offered in person or via Zoom. The training sessions are led by the people who work in the department that is offering the training. For example, a training session on the new timekeeping system is led by the employees in payroll. They work with the Learning and Development office to create and schedule these sessions. McKenzie told me all of the trainings are established with the individuals in mind. They always consider that these are individuals who may have a family and are also working a full-time job. Because of this, they offer the training session during work hours, and they try to be specific on the information that is covered in the sessions to use time efficiently. Here is what she had to say about the various training programs,
“We have a LEAD program that you can be nominated to that helps develop leadership skills. This is set up as a semester course that you attend for 3 hours one day a week. There is a course syllabus and a final assignment at the end.
We have a wellbeing and culture department that offers a lot of training on personal growth and development. There are no guidelines for these offerings. You can plan sessions with someone in their area based on your time and needs. We also do regular trainings on government regulation changes throughout the year. We usually use an outside vendor to provide the training guides and modules.”
Emails are sent to all Ball State employees to inform them of when and where these sessions will be held. They also include a link to register so it is very easy for employees to add these events to their work calendars. Ball State allows their employees to attend these sessions during work hours without having to clock out. This makes it much more likely that employees will take advantage of the training opportunities since it is part of a paid work day.
Implications
After speaking with McKenzie, I realized how involved the HRM department needs to be at Ball State. The sheer number of employees demands several departments within the HR department. Having the departments including Human Resources, Employee Relations, Benefits, Payroll, and the HR Solution Center lets HRM focus on the specific needs of all their employees. I also realized that the needs of employees do not end after the initial orientation and onboarding process. There is a constant need to educate the employees on the changes that occur frequently within departments and their computer systems. Employee training is an on going need and I think that Ball State has done a great job of creating these learning sessions. I can speak from experience of being a Ball State employee who came to work on campus with no previous experience. I would however like to see them offer these training sessions on a monthly basis. Once the session has been created and the content is there, it wouldn’t be hard to have a one-hour session every month. This would allow new employees to catch these sessions right away and not have to wait months for it to be offered again. I also think that it is nice for the training to be repeated so employees can attend more than once. I know when I first started in my position, I needed to understand my job duties before I could understand the training for the financial systems used by Ball State. I have personally attended the financial training twice, and would definitely go a third time if it were to be offered. I also had no idea about the Lead Program. I think they need to promote this program and let employees know that it is available.
I do believe that Ball State does an excellent job of making sure their employees have training available as they need it, and they are willing to create sessions as people express the need. I would say that they recognize people are an organization’s most important asset, and they have great influence over the success (or failure) of the organization (Schmidt & Yelich Biniecki ,2016).
References
Schmidt, S.W., & Yelich Biniecki, S.M. (2016). Organization and administration of adult education programs. Information Age Publishing Inc.
MARKETING
Introduction
I am working with the M.A. Program in the Department of History to create a marketing plan whose end goal is to increase their enrollment numbers while keeping advertising costs minimal. I started by defining their market. According to Schmidt and Yelich Biniecki (2016) a market is “the set of all people and organizations (that) have an actual or potential interest in a service and the ability to pay for it.” Considering the program is not offered online, I determined their target market to be in-state undergraduate students, and local working professionals who could benefit from earning a master’s degree in History.
Marketing Strategies and Rationales
A marketing strategy involves planning activities that will focus on how to expose the program to the target market (Schmidt and Yelich Biniecki, 2016). Having the program housed in the same building on campus as the undergraduate History Department provides numerous opportunities to market to undergraduate students. As I mentioned before the program is not offered online. Because of this, one of the target markets for new enrollment would be students who can still attend school full-time. Utilizing the free advertising opportunities around campus
would reach the undergraduate students who may want to roll right into the M.A. program. The program could advertise on the digital signs that are placed all over campus in various buildings, including Burkhardt where the Department of History is housed. They could also advertise the program at various student events on campus. Star Party, Meet Your Major, job fairs, and the annual Student History Conference are a few of these events. They could sponsor lectures where alumni of the graduate program come back to campus and speak to current undergraduate students. The director of the program has access to all the email addresses of current undergraduate students with History Majors and Minors. They could frequently email those students with news and updates about the program. Regular social media posts are a great way to advertise consistently and for free. The University sends out Comm Center email announcements every day where they could frequently blast out information about the program. And finally, they can utilize the school newspaper and online magazine to advertise the program.
Indiana has a plethora of smaller colleges who have students looking to pursue a master’s after they graduate with their undergraduate degree. If the program made contacts with advisors
at these smaller institutions, they could encourage students who are interested in History to pursue a master’s degree at Ball State. Ivy Tech is a local college that has a large number of students transferring to Ball State upon completion of their classes and degrees. Making connections there would be a great place to start because their students are local and could easily travel to Ball State’s campus for classes. More places to consider would be Anderson University, Taylor University, IUPUI, Indiana Wesleyan, and many more within the state of Indiana.
The second target market would be working professionals who want a master’s degree to accelerate their career. One of these markets would be high school teachers. With a master’s in History, they are able to teach dual credit history classes. Sending information about the program directly to local high school history departments would be a way to advertise to a very specific market. Other demographics would be people who are employed in museums, historical societies, libraries, and local government offices. The program could build a network of alumni who are currently employed in these types of jobs. These alumni could encourage their place of employment to look at the graduates of the program for any job opportunities that they might
have to offer. It would take some time, but if they could build these on-going relationships with organizations the program could advertise job placement opportunities upon graduation. Getting people to invest their time and money to a long-term program is difficult, but if you can show them the opportunities that it will create for them upon completion, this could help entice them to commit.
Implications
After creating this marketing plan for the M.A. in History program, I realized that their numbers are struggling. They have so many free resources right here on campus that they really need to utilize. I also think that the program could offer incentives to encourage students to enroll and to stand apart from similar competitive programs. For example, they could get rid of the textbook requirements. If they could reduce the price for students by providing all the learning material on Canvas, this could help steer students toward their program over others. I also feel very strongly that they need to offer this program online. It limits their target market drastically by requiring students to attend the classes in person. I believe they could transform this program if they offered online degrees. The target audience would expand to a national market, not just local. It would take a few years to see these strategies develop, but I believe they are worth investing the time and efforts of the program director to increase the enrollment numbers.
Summary Table
Goals | Strategies | Rationales | Possible Results |
Increase Enrollment Numbers | Determine Target Market | Focus Efforts on People who would Benefit from a M.A. in History | More Student Enrollment |
Free Advertising | Utilize Ball State’s Free Resources like: Comm Center Emails | Advertise with Little to No Budget Allotted for this Purpose | Reach a Larger Target Audience More Frequently |
Recruitment Connections | Keep in Contact with Alumni who are Employed | Promote the Program with Incentives like Job Placement Opportunities upon Graduation | To Build Connections with Potential Employers to Boost Job Placement Rates |
Taking the Program Online | Offer Asynchronous Classes | Expand the Enrollment to a National Audience | The Program Would Grow into an Online Program |
References
Schmidt, S.W., & Yelich Biniecki, S.M. (2016). Organization and administration of adult education programs. Information Age Publishing Inc.
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