At a Glance
Institution:
Conestoga College
Instructor:
Amalia Kartsonas
Course Name:
Stakeholder Management
Course Material in Use:
Cardon, Business Communication: Developing Leaders For A Networked World, 2ce
Resource in Use:
Connect
Course Type:
Face-to-face
Integration:
Sakai
Course Enrollment:
220 students total per academic year
Before implementing Connect in her Stakeholder Management course, Professor Amalia Kartsonas struggled with the manual entry required for multiple-choice, true/false, and written essay questions in her assessments. It was difficult to develop question pools because of the labour involved to maintain them. She also found the student progress reports very basic on previously used platforms.
“Other platforms I’ve experienced had primitive GUI and functionality, limited feature sets, and painfully difficult search outside the platform which required one to go to another system as integration was non-existent.”
Professor Kartsonas chose to implement Connect because of the extensive instructor resources available including presentation slides, question banks, helpful student progress reports, and easy integration with her institution’s LMS. The success she has found with this learning platform has led her to continue to use Connect for four years.
“It was easy to implement Connect thanks to support from my McGraw Hill representative.”
For her Stakeholder Management course, Connect is used for 50% of total course grades. Additionally, she also uses Connect in a Project Leadership & Team Management course, worth 85% of course marks. Some of the content she assigns from Connect for these courses include the question banks, SmartBook activities, discussion questions to be conducted synchronously, and self-created content. She also leverages the student progress reports to understand how her class is progressing in learning content and address students in need of further help sooner.
“The e-text, question pools, discussion exercises, and business cases not only provide control of lecture delivery and save time by automating the process, I can also easily customize content to meet curriculum needs.”
Since adopting Connect, Professor Kartsonas has found students are better engaged in her course with 90-95% of students attending class, compared to 50% before the use of Connect. This increased attendance and engagement has led to students having a better understanding of concept application, instead of simple memorization. Student progress reports have helped her identify at-risk students so she can provide additional resources and has decreased course failures. The use of Proctorio has also allowed Professor Kartsonas to audit assessments and exams to ensure academic integrity is maintained and as video evidence for student appeals.
“Connect allows me to focus on student engagement through levity and friendly banter.”
Her students have also found Connect a positive experience. They have expressed that the eText including the audio version is very easy to access which has helped to enhance their English skills. The self-serve access to grades and course materials has also allowed students to take charge of their own progress in the course.
Amalia Kartsonas is a Professor of Project Management in the Post-Graduate Project Management program at Conestoga College. Amalia believes that the art of human communication and presentation skills are vital for her international students in college and beyond. In addition to being the curriculum guide for Project Leadership & Team Management and Stakeholder Management courses, she’s passionate about student success and achievement.
Amalia acquired her HBA in Communications & Sociology at York University (1990) and Project Management Professional Designation with PMI (2013). She graduated with her Masters in Professional Education (MPEd) at Western University (2021) with a specialty in International School Leadership.
“Connect may look difficult to use initially with the advanced learning curve but if the investment is made to learn the platform, time efficiency will be your reward. Connect has the ability to engage students but also make a change in the instructor’s style of teaching for the positive.”