{"id":1231,"date":"2020-10-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogit.metropolia.fi\/hiilta-ja-timanttia\/2020\/10\/01\/benefits-of-systematic-degree-program-design-1-3\/"},"modified":"2024-10-01T12:18:57","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T09:18:57","slug":"benefits-of-systematic-degree-program-design-1-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogit.metropolia.fi\/hiilta-ja-timanttia\/2020\/10\/01\/benefits-of-systematic-degree-program-design-1-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Benefits of Systematic Degree Program Design 1\/3"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is Text 1 in a 3-part series of texts focusing on the benefits of the <\/span>Metropolia Industrial Management (IM) Master’s Program<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s overall design aimed at catering to professionals, often engineers or team leaders, looking to make a career leap from engineering toward management positions. The other two texts will take a closer look at two key components in the program. Text 2 will focus on the benefits of the Gate model utilized in the IM Thesis process and Text 3 on the specific benefits of the Writing Clinics providing one-on-one guidance and using IM Thesis template as a key tool.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have been part of this program for almost 10 years and for the past few years I have been mainly providing language and communication instruction and language guidance during the thesis process. The main aim of this blog series is to share my observations and learnings with instructors interested in adopting scientifically sound, systematic and holistic research and business principles \u2013 that produce quality results \u2013 into their pedagogical toolbox.<\/span><\/p>\n

Industrial Management Master\u2019s Program<\/h2>\n

The 1-year IM Master\u2019s program is worth 60 cu altogether with one half of the credits earned from the common, specialization and optional courses (blue boxes) and the other half from the Thesis (orange boxes), as shown in Image 1 below. The substance teaching taking place in the fall term includes literature readings on several current management topics such as strategy and leadership, process development, supply chain management and performance management plus students\u2019 specialization related topics. All of these are feeding particularly the theoretical section of the thesis, written and completed in the spring.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The
Image 1. IM Master\u2019s Degree Program structure (modified from Haimala, 2020)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Importantly, the program has been developed further every year ever since its inception in 2006. The development has been done using action research principles thus ensuring pedagogically and methodologically sound teaching and learning experiences for professional adult learners, for instance through learner empowerment and authenticity of material and activities (see Huhta 2010).<\/span><\/p>\n

Gate Model in Brief<\/h2>\n

In practice, the students complete their studies in 9 months only, from September to May. This is why a systematic 7-Gate model has been designed to ensure timely graduation and a quality final product, i.e. a practical, logical and well-grounded Master\u2019s thesis in Industrial Management.<\/span><\/p>\n

To guarantee a systematic approach to the thesis studies, the program applies key concepts and methods from design research\/applied action research (see e.g. Saunders et al. 2016; Kananen 2013) as well as from product innovation and development through the application of a system called the Gate model (see Cooper 2008). Cooper, a Professor of marketing, originally created the gate system for moving new product development projects through the various stages and steps from idea to launch to achieve improved cycle times and commercially successful final products. Cooper\u2019s system consists of gates, each with its own set of metrics and criteria for passing the gates, similar to quality-control checks in production. In the context of the IM Master\u2019s thesis studies, the idea of gates has been harnessed to serve both the thesis instruction and writing process<\/span><\/p>\n

WHAT IS A GATE? <\/b>As shown in Image 2, it is a preparation to allow the student to create one key component of the Master\u2019s Thesis at a time, from Introduction to Conclusions. Each gate must be completed before moving on to the next Gate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Image 2. Gate model (modified from Rohweder, 2020)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Image 2 depicts, each Gate consists of Faculty input and student output and needs to be passed before moving to the next Gate. Let\u2019s take Gate 1 as an example:<\/span><\/p>\n