MAILING LISTS

I have a problem with an assignment in my face-to-face Management Information Systems 
class. At the end of each 2-week module, the current out-of-class assignment has student 
teams creating a summary of the key topics from the chapters and cases in the module. 
They are supposed to relate each of approximately 6-8 key topics to the theme of the 
module, demonstrate an understanding of the topic, and give examples of how businesses 
have used or can use the topics to compete in the market place. The goals are for students 
to be able to separate the important from the less important, and to give them the tools to 
make better decisions in the future. The problem with this assignment is that teams have 
taken a divide and conquer approach, and freeloading has become a problem, even in the 
face of impending peer evaluations. I am also getting brain dumps and summaries of entire 
chapters and cases, instead of the summaries of a few key topics. In order to reach my 
goals for the assignment and to eliminate the freeloading problem, I need your help to 
redesign it while I still have 3 modules yet to cover. If I could somehow find a way to 
revise the assignment then I am confident I could dramatically improve the class.

Ken Gunnells, Ph.D.
COLLAT School of Business, Management Information Systems & Quantitative Methods
UAB | The University of Alabama at Birmingham
205-222-0871
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