OR/MS Today - February 2000

February 2000

TEC II to Build on Predecessor's Success

By James J. Cochran

"This is the best colloquium I've attended with INFORMS."

"This should be a requirement for grad students pursuing an academic career."

"I learned not only about teaching but more about OR."

Those are just a few of the many positive responses on evaluation forms completed by attendees at INFORMS' first Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium (TEC I). Forty-three registrants (21 full members of INFORMS and 22 Ph.D. students) and 18 presenters gathered in Cincinnati prior to the spring 1999 INFORMS conference to discuss various topics in OR/MS education. As a result of the success of TEC I, INFORMS' Education Committee has decided to organize another teaching effectiveness colloquium (TEC II).

TEC II, which will be held prior to the spring INFORMS 2000 conference in Salt Lake City, will be similar to TEC I in nature and format. The event, which will be comprised of a series of pedagogically oriented one- and two-hour sessions and workshops, will be held May 5-7. The purpose of TEC II is to expose INFORMS members to a wide variety of creative approaches for teaching operations research and management science. Twelve respected and innovative instructors from INFORMS' constituent disciplines will present and demonstrate their methods for TEC II participants. Many of these sessions/workshops will provide live demonstrations that offer the audience an opportunity to actively participate.

Topics covered in the sessions include (but are not limited to): effective evaluation of instruction, selling management science in a faculty of business, strategies for management of large classes, fostering active learning in virtual classrooms, running a modeling studio and the successful use of cases. Attendance in these sessions will be limited to spring 2000 INFORMS meeting attendees who are concurrently registered for TEC II. TEC II presenters who have committed thus far include John Birge of Northwestern University's School of Engineering & Applied Science, Dana Clyman of the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia, Erhan Erkut and Armann Ingolfsson of the University of Alberta's Faculty of Business, Donna Llewellyn of the Georgia Institute of Technology Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, Bill McKeachie of the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan, Steve Pollack of the Industrial and Operations Engineering Department at the University of Michigan, and Susan Sanchez of the Naval Post Graduate School's Operations Research Department.

Registration fees for TEC II are $60 Ph.D. students and $150 for all other INFORMS meeting registrants. All TEC II participants must also register concurrently for the Spring 2000 INFORMS Meeting. To be eligible to participate, a Ph.D. student must also:

be enrolled in a Ph.D. program in one of INFORMS' constituent disciplines (operations research, operations management, industrial engineering, statistics, management science, etc.);
have an interest in teaching; and
have completed all of their Ph.D. course work. This should be documented with a letter by their advisor certifying the student's status. This letter can be e-mailed to meetings@informs.org or faxed to 401-274-3189.

The registration fee includes participation in all TEC II sessions, all handouts and TEC II-associated materials, dinner on Friday, breakfast and lunch on Saturday, breakfast on Sunday and breaks throughout TEC II. Space is limited; registration will be accepted in the order received until capacity is reached.

For further information on TEC II visit the colloquium website at www.informs.org/Conf/Cincinnati99/ or contact Jim Cochran at either cochrajj@econqa.cba.uc.edu or (513) 529-4840.

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