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Photo courtesy Gary Kuwahara |
| Professors Cynthia Ozeki and Tom Norman will teach the four classes that make up the new online concentration. |
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HR Goes Online
In
January 2008, CBAPP launched an online Human Resources concentration
in the M.B.A. program, a new foray into graduate online learning
that very few other universities have undertaken. Adding to the
successful M.B.A. Online program, which has been referenced as one
of the best in the world by the Wall Street Journal and CNN Money,
the first class is comprised of 24 professionals from remarkably
different backgrounds and interests. For a completely new program,
the number of students enrolled and its early success suggests that
the four-course concentration will only add to the overall regard of
CBAPP’s impressive cadre of online programs. “I think it’s an ideal concentration for this college,” says Kenneth Poertner, director of CBAPP’s Graduate Programs. “It exceeded initial expectations because this was available only to our current students and drew the interest of 24 of them, prior to any external marketing on our part. Together with that expressed interest, it provides a skill set and knowledge in a field that we know is growing, and that matches the expertise and strengths of the faculty.” The faculty member who was most involved in bringing the online concentration to fruition – and who is teaching the first class – is Cynthia Ozeki, assistant professor of management. Ozeki came to CSUDH in the fall of 2006 and began batting around the idea for the new online program that same first semester. The reason was simple: “HR professionals are really busy people,” she says. “Deep into their careers, they don’t have time to come to campus to take classes, so an online program was a natural fit.” Together with Haejin Kim, a faculty member who has since taken a faculty position in her native Korea, she began building the framework of the program and then an outline and sample syllabus for each class. With a significant amount of help and expertise from Roger Berry, then the chair of the Department of Management and Marketing, they then moved the new concentration through the on-campus approval process. As the concentration continues, Tom Norman, a new assistant professor of management who came to campus in the fall of 2007 and whose background includes work as a HR management professional in the ultra-competitive arena of Silicon Valley, will also teach some of the courses in the concentration. The concentration that officially began on Jan. 2 is comprised of three core courses plus one elective that M.B.A. students take in succession as a part of their overall degree program, though Poertner also expects to offer them together as a stand-alone post-M.B.A. certification. The first core class focuses on the essentials of human resource management including recruitment selection, training, and development; the second class examines compensation and benefits, in which students will design a complete compensation plan; and the third class will bring it all together, offering a strategic overview of HR management. A major objective of the final class will also be preparing students for the Professional in Human Resources (PHR) exam, a test popularized by the Society for Human Resource Management and administered by the Human Resource Certification Institute. Ozeki likens the exam to the exam for Certified Public Accountants. Beyond its most obvious attractions for both the college and the students involved, perhaps the most interesting and unforeseen aspect of the first course now underway is whom the program has attracted. The first cohort of students is comprised of not just HR management professionals, but people from all walks of life. There’s a business manager revitalizing a plumbing business in Northern California, a handful of university administrators from campuses across the country, a mid-level manager for The Sports Authority in Colorado, and a gentleman running a non-profit involved in stopping human trafficking in Vietnam. “They are going to be hiring, paying, and training staff as managers themselves, looking to move up as HR professionals, or make a career change into the field,” Ozeki explains of the varied student list. What all of the first class’s students do have in common is a desire to become more fully prepared and trained HR management professionals. But as Ozeki explains, it’s that diversity of backgrounds that may make it such an appropriate fit at CSUDH: “Classes at Dominguez Hills are always full of diverse, mature, responsible, and intelligent students from varied backgrounds. It’s one of the main things that makes teaching here rewarding. But I’ve never had a class like this one. I must say it makes for some pretty cool and fascinating interactions and discussions.” |
