Featured Faculty

Barbara A. Price
Professor
Finance and Quantitative Analysis

BACKGROUND

Highlights of my academic career include

• Proud to be in my fourth year “back in the ranks” as a professor
• Thirty months as director of the School of Information Technology initiative at Georgia Southern University
• An additional four-and-a-half years as a department chair in the College of Business Administration at Georgia Southern University
• Fourteen years on the faculty at Winthrop University, including a two-year term as Chair of the Faculty and Faculty Representative to the Board of Trustees
• Over 50 refereed proceedings and journal publications
• Active membership and leadership roles in several professional organizations, including Decision Sciences Institute and Association for Computing Machinery. Of particular note are a term as an At-large Vice-President of DSI, appointment by ACM as an ARD to CSAB, and service as a Commissioner on the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET, Inc.

Throughout my career, I have been active in the community through the Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis, foreign mission trips, etc. On campus I serve as faculty secretary of Omicron Delta Kappa and co-advisor for Circle K. And, many of you have seen me walking the campus!

After earning my Ph. D. in Statistics from Virginia Tech in 1973, my academic career began with teaching faculty appointments at New River Community College and Radford University. Our dual career marriage resulted in moves to faculty positions at Mississippi State University, Lynchburg College, and Winthrop University. My longest tenure was fourteen years at Winthrop University, beginning as an associate professor and advancing to the rank of tenured professor of quantitative methods.

In 1996, I moved to Georgia Southern University to serve as chair of the Department of Management. With the reorganization of COBA, I moved to chair of the Department of Information Systems and Logistics for the fall of 1999 and remained in that role until January 2001 when I became the Founding Director of the School of Information Technology. In the fall of 2003, I made the move back to faculty status. The IT Initiative at Georgia Southern was both rewarding and taxing. Much like faculty renew themselves with sabbaticals from teaching, an administrator can renew him/herself and gain new insights by returning to his/her roots. I feel that my three years “back in the ranks” have allowed me to refresh my knowledge and abilities and to become current in the technologies and challenges faced in higher education today.

Jamaican Mission Trip	ODK Boo-Boo Bunny Project

On a personal note, Stan and I have been married for 35 years and are the proud parents of J.T, a 32-year-old Harvard Law School grad who is employed as a principal with Three Cities Research and still enjoys playing soccer. We enjoy travel and have been to Australia, Romania, Nova Scotia, Hungary, Italy, Greece, and … We are outdoors folks who like to hike and enjoy the beauty of nature.

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
Statistics and quantitative methods are subject areas that create challenges for both the students and the faculty. My key objective is to develop capable users of the tools and theories of the courses I facilitate. The word facilitate was carefully selected as I believe that learning is a process that requires the active participation of the students and the faculty member. And, if successful, I believe that the process continues after the formal class has ended.

To become capable users of the tools and theories of statistics and quantitative methods, students must understand the concepts and how to implement them. To facilitate the learning of the concepts, I realize that our students have various learning styles. Thus, class times include lecture, discussion, in class exercises, hands-on demonstrations of the use of relevant software, and student presentations. Off-line students have access to various materials via WebCT. Materials available through the web include supplemental notes, solutions to recommended problems, class examples including associated computer files, lecture notes, discussion boards and chat rooms, and voice-over video demonstrations. Again, the objective is for the students to learn the tools and how to apply them so that they continue to use them after they leave this class.

Realizing that the courses for which I have “teaching” responsibility are service courses required of all BBA and MBA students, I attempt to convey to the students the value of the content in their coursework and their chosen career path. The value is demonstrated by sharing articles I have read in the Wall Street Journal or other publications, experiences I have had in consulting, past projects that students have completed while in one of my courses or shared from work experiences afterwards, and a team project that requires them to apply the material learned during the course. Often students will come back after they complete the course for consultation on a project for another course or a work problem.

Having taught statistics and quantitative analysis for several years, I have learned the great responsibility we have to convey information and knowledge and encourage our students to learn and develop a desire to want to continue to learn and grow professionally after they leave the university. I love the beauty and power of the areas I teach and hope that my students leave my classes with a better understanding of the value of quantitative understanding to them in their coursework and future careers.

TEACHING STRATEGIES
Objective: to develop capable users of the tools and theories of statistics and quantitative analysis
A variety of strategies/approaches are used for instruction. Below I will list many of the different approaches that have been used during the last three years. Generally, a variety of methods are employed for each course due to the diversity of material covered and the diversity of the learning styles and backgrounds of the students.

In traditional classroom settings, I can take advantage of being able to see the students’ faces. Their expressions and responses to the material being covered offer insights into their level of understanding. With regard to teaching tools used in the classroom, there are many.

• Lectures using the whiteboard, smartboard (if available), document camera (if available), PowerPoint slides, and computer demonstrations using Excel and SPSS
• WebCT for file download and upload of assignments and test files, grade reports, class communication and sometimes for objective assessments
• Team Projects that require data collection, analysis, and presentations (oral and written)
• In-class exercises as teams and as individuals, some for credit, some for learning with no grade concern [One class exercise that is used demonstrates the Central Limit Theorem and is discussed in a paper noted in the Curricular Contributions section.)
• Review sessions for exams at times convenient to all students, sometimes evenings or week-ends, that are voluntary

I am an active teacher, walking around the room and asking questions of individuals and looking at computer screens. I try to encourage student comments and questions. WebCT is used as a supplement in face-to-face courses.

For classes taught using the university’s DL facilities, instruction is a bit more challenging. Every effort is made to allow students to have as rich a learning experience as the on-site classes.
For classes taught in the web-exclusive environment, WebCT is the primary medium. The following materials are offered for learning modules:

• PowerPoint lecture slides
• Supplemental lecture notes and handouts
• Videos (with audio) to demonstrate computer applications and some of the more difficult concepts [This videos were created by me using Camtasia.]
• Examples
• Solutions to recommended problems
• Assessments (quizzes and the exam)
• Assignments that require the application of the tools learned via the instructional materials

In web-exclusive courses, communication with the students is via the WebCT mail, discussion, announcement, and chat room features. For the WebMBA class, the students perform a group consulting project for a client. That project requires a final report to the client with a presentation which may be in person by all or part of the team or virtual.

As can be noted, a sincere effort is made to provide a variety of venues for learning and the assessment of learning. The diversity of learning styles and backgrounds of our students presents a rich environment for the students and the faculty.