Lamar business course wins Bizzelll Innovation Award

The course focuses on induction, deduction and logical thinking.
The course focuses on induction, deduction and logical thinking. | File photo

Lamar University course “Introduction to Critical Thinking for Business Decision Making” recently won the 2016 Bobby Bizzell Innovative Achievement Award runner-up designation, a recognition from the Southwest Business Deans’ Association.

The course encourages critical thinking and represents a collective effort from faculty in seven departments: management, accounting, business law, marketing, entrepreneurship and information systems and analysis.

“Bringing together different disciplines into a single course adds a certain richness,” professor of Business Law and Director of Accreditation and Assessment Toni Mulvaney said. “The opportunity for the student to begin to integrate different and important areas of business is enhanced and facilitated.” 

The course focuses on induction, deduction and logical thinking, and introduces students to the R.E.D. decision-making model – recognize, evaluate and draw conclusions. Students learn about business writing, how to use the data visualization tool Tableau, and how to apply business ethics to their decision-making. They also examine fraud and play a marketplace game wherein they operate a virtual business over 18 months. 

“Our goal is the well-rounded business student, who specializes in one discipline, certainly, but also understands how that discipline works in business as a whole,” management and marketing instructor Craig Escamilla said.