Higher Education Training

Want to teach your students the skills of collaboration, teamwork, and problem-solving?

At the University of North Alabama, the Agile Strategy Lab was approached by faculty to see how we could teach collaboration, teamwork, and networking to their students. From that work came two courses that have had very positive feedback from the students. Courses were developed for both graduate and undergraduate courses. The courses were designed with the mindset the courses could be used by other universities and colleges.

Graduate MBA Leading Complex Collaborations Course (3 credit hours)

This course teaches emerging strategy practices, and the student will be able to understand and implement the skills of agile leadership in teams or organizations facing complex challenges and be able to design collaboration events. These same tools and approaches are being used in a rapidly growing number of organizations across the globe. The course is designed to be fast-paced and interactive. Students will learn a set of practical skills to help them become agile leaders, providing them with a knowledge of emerging management and leadership skills. The course is online hybrid within two parts: the first is "asynchronous" – taught over 7+ weeks. There are assignments for each module which must be completed. The second part includes four live two-hour sessions over 4+ weeks. Designed to meet Quality Matters Standards. Student’s feedback included the ability to use the skills immediately at their work or in other classes.

Undergraduate Collaboration and Team Problem-solving Course (1 credit hour)

This course is 8 modules designed to be taught in person in eight 75-minute sessions. For example, 2 sessions per week over 4 weeks. The course is designed for undergraduate students who will be facing team-based problem solving and the need for building collaborations to complete their work. The skills gained in this course will add to their ability to succeed as they advance through their studies. Each session has experiential exercises followed by discussion questions. Designed to meet Quality Matters Standards. Student’s feedback included the new ways they now know how to get a team to work together to complete a project and how to move from an idea to action.

Doctoral Emerging Methodologies for Organizations (1 credit hour)

This course exposes experienced business professionals to existing and emerging strategic frameworks and methodologies to address adaptive problems intrinsic to business strategy. Students encounter and engage in tenants of agile strategy such as framing appreciative questions, asset identification, leveraging assets to achieve strategic outcomes, and selecting appropriate projects to attain strategic objectives. Taught in two sessions during weekend residency.

Senior seminar (1 credit hour):

One other recent higher education course was for a senior seminar at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. This course was a one credit course where we designed 6 weeks of online work and an in person six hour experience. The students prepped with reading and discussion boards prior to the live session. At the live session we went through experiential exercises with discussion afterwards. The program director said, “What a great day of engagement and learning. Janyce and Rena moved our students through the concepts of Strategic Doing in a manner that resonated with them. One student remarked, “The in-person seminar, online materials, and book worked well together to teach us the tenets and reasons behind creating Strategic Doing, a concept that applies to our current roles [students] and future as engineering management professionals.” The experience was a great compliment to their traditional engineering education.”