This week's session notes - Week 1 (31 July and 2 August 2018)

Hi everyone

Great to meet you all this week at our first two BUS6291 Problem Solving and Decision Making (PSDM) classes for 2018!

On Tuesday, I started by giving you a brief overview of the Problem Solving and Decision Making paper for 2018, including a few ‘house rules’ and some of the things that you can expect over the current semester. The main things to note at this stage are:

* That this is a second year paper where the emphasis is on analysis and application. Think about the work that you do on the paper in terms of these two requirements.

* That as you move from first year papers to third year papers, you will be developing independent learning skills. That means that this paper will be a combination of me-telling-you-things and you-finding-things-for-yourself (facilitated and supported learning).

* That you will need to do your own independent learning outside of the classroom. This includes at least 110 hours of self-study, group and project work outside class times, some of which will involve assignment work and some of which will be general independent research and learning.

You should also be aware that this paper is intended to be highly interactive and we will be doing a range of activities including practical work and visits by industry. Where possible, we will be trying to use classroom sessions for discussions and collaborative work.

Please take the opportunity to ask questions and try things. There is no such thing as ‘silly questions’ in the PSDM class and I would really love to hear from you as you apply your PSDM learning to real-life situations.

Please read the Course Outline (softcopy available on Moodle). The Course Outline contains important information about the paper (what you need to do to pass the paper, suggested reading, how to contact me, etc.) as well as all of the assignments and marking schedules. I understand that this is a lot of information to take in during your first week, so please contact me right away if you are unsure about anything.

We then moved on to introductions. I asked students to introduce each other and to talk briefly about a problem that their partner has faced recently and how they resolved that problem. This was a good opportunity for me to learn a bit about you and it was also an opportunity for you to start on Assignment 3 (Journal). Have a look at the requirements for this assignment in the Course Outline and also see the Assignment 3 template on Moodle. Remember that you will need to include an analysis and a discussion of techniques, models and methods.

We then went for a break and when we came back we had a quick look at Republic Polytechnic in Singapore. Republic Polytechnic is a very interesting place! A substantial amount of the teaching there is based around PBL (‘problem based learning’). Each day begins with the tutor outlining a case study problem to the students before sending the students off in groups to research, discuss and prepare their case study findings. At the end of the day the students return to the classroom and each group presents their finding to the tutor. They do this each day and you can probably imagine how experienced the students are by the end of their qualification! By repute, Republic Polytechnic turns out some very competent students with skills that are well matched to industry expectations.

(Republic Polytechnic is interesting for other reasons as well. As part of the site design, a lot of recycled material was used, including carpet made from nylon recovered from old car tyres. The cooling systems are based on chilled water, which is cooled at night (rather than during the day) and this saves a significant amount of electricity. These are interesting instances of problem solving, in their own right, and you might like to have a closer look at other interesting eco-features at Republic Polytechnic).

From there, we moved onto a practical exercise. This exercise consisted of four tasks, and I encouraged you to think deeply (aka ‘reflect’) on what is happening during this exercise. Along the way, I mentioned several PSDM-related things of interest. One of these things was the ‘5 Whys’ model, which is a useful PSDM technique for drilling down to find a root cause to a problem. I also mentioned brainstorming and evaluation.

The first task was the (apparently) simple task of splitting the class into three random groups. The class made a few suggestions about how we could do this (e.g. self-selection, democratic voting, assigning group numbers, etc.). However, choosing between these alternatives also created a potential problem, in that we still had to make a choice between alternatives.

The second task was for your group to decide on three problems and to write down each problem in about 25 words. We wanted these problems to be real, relevant and capable of being solved in some way. When you reflect on the way that you group did this task, think about what style your group used (e.g. democratic, consensual, arbitrary, etc.)

The third task was to take one of the problems from another group and to try to find one or more solution to their problem. In itself, this can be a good way to solve problems by increasing the number of people and perspectives involved in finding solutions.

The final task on Tuesday was to organise your group so that it could present a brief report on the problem and identify one or more solutions, in just 120 seconds. This task was intended to test your ability to organise effectively, in order to achieve a particular end in a specific timeframe (all of which, of course, is another potential problem, requiring a solution).

When we returned to class on Thursday, I began by checking that all students had access to the PSDM page on Moodle. I have now posted the following documents to the PSDM Moodle page:

* The Course Outline (version 1)

* The Resource Book (version 2)

* APA Referencing Guide

* Assignment 4 (Review).

You should read all of these documents and you can make a start on Assignment 4 as soon as you are ready. Each week we will cover some of the material that you need for Assignment 4, so you should complete as much of this, as soon as you can. If you leave Assignment 4 until the end of the semester then you will probably struggle to get a good mark!

We started today by taking a quick look at some of the ways in which we learn. In particular we looked at:

* Learning through association – Classical Conditioning

* Learning through consequences – Operant Conditioning

* Learning through observation – Modeling / Observational Learning

We then moved on to look at a one of the most interesting paradoxes in problem solving and decision making. This is the Monty Hall problem, named after game show host Monty Hall. In the classic Monty Hall problem, Hall would present contestants with three closed doors. Behind one door would be a new car while the other two doors had goats behind them. The contestant would be asked to choose a door, after which Hall would open one of the remaining doors to reveal a goat. He would then ask the contestant if he wanted to change his choice of door to the other closed door. The correct answer (whether to change doors or not) is really interesting and I would encourage you to read more about it. There is a lot of additional discussion around the outcome when ‘Monty’ is assumed to be ‘good’ or ‘evil’ or ‘ignorant’.

We then talked a bit about the things that affect our ability to make good day-to-day decisions. We often address problems by making assumptions about how the world works. For instance, we might assume (in the absence of other information to the contrary) that we have all the information that we need, or that people are being open and honest with us, or that things that worked for us yesterday will continue to do so today. These short-cuts help us to quickly cope with complex situations and to arrive at reasonably ‘workable’ solutions.

I then gave you a couple of participatory problem-solving exercises, looking at issues that affect student work.

* How do we get students to buy and read the course textbook?

* What can students do to get the best possible result for their assignments?

See the slides on Moodle (under Week 1) for the answers that students came up with.

I then introduced you to a very simple problem solving model (the IDEA model, which consists of Identifying the problem, Defining the parameters of problem, Exploring options and deciding on an Action).

Often, we use these models without realising it and I suggested to you that some of our responses to problems are ‘automatic’. To explore this idea further, we did a practical demonstration in which a student had to pick up a pen from a table. To begin with, our volunteer picked up the pen in her right hand. Then we asked the student to pick up the pen again without using her right hand. This time the student picked up the pen in her left hand. The next time through, the student couldn’t use either his right or left hand and, as we continued on with the demonstration, we eliminated more and more options. In the end there were some quite clever ways suggested to pick up the pen!

We noticed several things as we did this experiment:

* The first few responses were the quickest (where problem solving is automatic, based on pre-rehearsed assumptions and responses)

* As we eliminated the easy options, the time between instruction and decision got longer (there was more problem solving going on as known options reduced)

* Solutions became harder to find

* New ways needed to solve the problem (different thinking?)

We then did a similar experiment with a student opening an imaginary door. The first time through the door opened by a lever (or by turning a knob). Next, the door opened like a roller door on a garage, and so on. Again (in theory, anyway!), it took longer to come up with solutions as we eliminated the things that we are familiar with and started to explore different thinking options.

Think about the sort of thinking that you commonly use to solve problems and make decisions. Some of it may be rehearsed, some logical, some creative, some lateral or something else. You can also try playing around with different styles in different situations (for instance, try coming up with creative and innovative ideas to routine problems such as ‘what shall I have for dinner?’)

Finally, we moved on to the Great Jellybean Challenge. This is a simple game which some of you might have played before in one form or another. The challenge is to work out how many jellybeans are in a jar. Typically, you can see some of the jellybeans and you can see the size of the jar so you have some clues that you can use when trying to find the correct number of jellybeans.

We will return to the Great Jellybean Challenge throughout the semester. Have a think about different ways in which you could arrive at the correct number of jellybeans without opening the jar and counting them out. Some of the ways to do this include:

* Guesswork

* Rules of thumb (heuristics)

* Estimate / sampling

* Previous experience

* Measurement (volume; weight?)

* Make your own model, measure it and extrapolate.

* Ask lots of other people and average the results (statistical)

Some of these methods are better than others!

This discussion led us to think about similar situations (in business) where problem solving and decision making skills are needed. For instance, if we substitute a mound of earth for the jar of jellybeans then we have a situation in which we need to be able to correctly cost out trucks, diggers, labour, transit times and other logistical issues in order to remove the mound of earth, on budget and within the required timeframe.

We see this sort of situation in job estimates, logistics and supply and workloads and workflows. In these cases we need information and models to help us resolve problems and to make the right decisions.

(By the way, the Great Jellybean Challenge jar will be kept in the School of Business admin office, in E block, and you can inspect it during office hours. The jar will live in the admin office for the next two months and you can see and handle the jar if you like (but do not open it or take it away). During the term, each student will have the opportunity to pick a number that they believe is closest to the number of jellybeans in the jar. The winner will be announced in the last week of term 3 and that person (or persons) will get to keep the jar!)

Hopefully, today was a fun and informative introduction to problem solving and decision making! We will continue next Tuesday when we will pick up on some material that we didn’t get time to cover today. In the meantime, you should read through the Course Outline, Resource Book, APA Referencing Guide, and make a start on the assignments.

If you have any difficulty with Assignment 1 then let me know right away so that we can sort things out.

Cheers

Phil Sales

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SPECIAL NOTE: Textbook and Assignment 1

Last year we tried something different with the textbook.

Rather than asking students to buy a compulsory textbook (at $100 or more!) we trialled the idea of making our own textbook (the Resource Book). This book is available as a softcopy (PDF) on the Moodle site, and it consists of links to interesting and authoritative sources, available on the internet. These sources may include articles, video clips, sound clips, journal articles, etc. Students are invited to recommend sources to me for inclusion in this Resource Book so I am anticipating that the Resource Book will be continually revised and updated during the semester. You can download the latest version through Moodle (and how often it updates will depend on you!)

Please note that Assignment 1 is about the Resource Book so please familiarise yourself with this PDF and start early on this assignment!