University of Wisconsin- Madison

1
University of Wisconsin- Madison

• Adam Fiedler, Tami Lasseter, Erin McElroy, and
  Lenny Sheps- Graduate Students
• Judith Burstyn, Charles Casey, Lloyd Smith, Jim
  Taylor, Howard Whitlock, and
• Arun Yethiraj - Faculty

2
Purpose of the WI Ph. D.

• Train for self-teaching/learning.
• Find, define, and solve new problems.
• Develop communication skills both written and
  oral.
• Develop leadership and teamwork.
• Develop depth in a domain and breadth in several
  areas.

3
WI Program Similar to Others

• Focus on research.
• Minimum coursework.
• Progress exams cumes.
• Present seminars, talks, and a research proposal
  on the research.
• Write dissertation and defend.

4
Major Discussions See HO

• Issues of balance and responsibility of the
  student to select and self learn.
• Mass of material to cover and efficiency while in
  graduate school led to ideas of mini-courses.
• Whatever changes are made, the importance of the
  degree lies in the output traits and their
  evaluation.

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Innovation

• Explore mini-courses to introduce critical topics
  and provide reading and/or case studies for
  depth.
• Give motivated students choices to guide their
  educational development and involve older
  students as mentors.
• Test to see effectiveness of achieving desired
  traits of output.
• Yearly career development symposium to help
  students recognize the importance of and learn
  leadership skills and teamwork.

6
Novel Idea Focus on Traits

• Independence and ability to self-teach in new and
  unknown environments.
• Communicate clearly and logically in writing and
  in oral situations, including ability to analyze
  critical comments and respond.
• Demonstrate depth of knowledge in a selected
  discipline and breadth in others.
• Demonstrate leadership and teamwork teamwork
  remains a problem for us.