Sabbatical Work Makes Immediate Impact

EUGENE, Ore.  - The Fall semester of 2010 was a pivotal time in the life and career of Associate Professor Anne Maggs, who made a number of professional strides without ever setting foot in a classroom. Maggs was awarded a semester sabbatical and immediately put her work to good use at Northwest Christian University this spring, implementing a new teaching methodology to an introductory business class.

Dennis Lindsay, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty said, "Sabbaticals are often mistakenly construed as an 'extended vacation', however the real purpose is to allow professors to engage in a different kind of scholarly activity that will provide personal growth and renewal and enhance the educational offerings that they are able to bring back to the campus community upon completion of the sabbatical."

A sabbatical, for which NCU faculty members are eligible to apply after six consecutive years, give professors the opportunity to refresh and recover from the demands of teaching and also gives the opportunity to pursue and refine research interests that often lie dormant because of heavy teaching loads.

Maggs, who has been a full-time professor at NCU for eight years, spent her sabbatical writing an educational online novel for her Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management class. She spent a considerable amount of time researching the pros and cons of moving toward teaching online as opposed to meeting face to face. In her research she found that incorporating both produces the greatest results and worked hard toward designing something that her students could not only enjoy but also take a lot from.

"I am very grateful to have had this opportunity," said Maggs. "Not only to work with the students and faculty of NCU but to have been able to take advantage of such an opportunity is something I am very thankful for. My students actually inspired the project. I wanted to design an online program that would enhance their learning, while at the same time, be fun and interactive for them."

Her online novel teaches the basic principles of business through its main character, Bailey, who is only seventeen years old and has just inherited a bookstore. Knowing little to nothing about business, let alone how to run one on her own, her aunt begins teaching her about business and the basic principles of how to successfully run a small business. With the information her aunt provides, she must decide whether she will find someone to buy her out or if she will instead, choose to take over the family bookstore.

Download an excerpt from A Bookstore for Bailey?

Throughout the online text, Maggs has used new teaching techniques, which expose the students to key vocabulary and concepts. For example, she has designated different color fonts for different exercises. Red text presents vocabulary terms that, while not always business related, are important concepts for any student to learn. Blue text leads to a hyperlink for further research assistance, and green words are key terms that must be looked up and recorded in the accompanying workbook.
The workbook is more than just a supplemental piece of the course; it is an integral learning tool. Maggs said, "at the end of the class, students will have their workbooks returned to them. They are a reliable resource, full of basic business principles."

Maggs' goal is to present the information to the students in a unique way that will move their knowledge toward wisdom. Students should move from understanding relations to understanding patterns to, in the end, understanding principles. Students will hopefully come away feeling more connected and having a much greater understanding of the material which she presents.