Quick links: Who is Dr. Jerz Video, My Vitae, Courses taught at The University of Iowa, Courses taught at St. Ambrose, my Ph.D. Dissertation, Examples of Lecture Videos
Teaching is my passion, so I would like to share some information with you.
Currently, I teach full-time at The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, in the Tippie College of Business. My current teaching assignments are Operations Management, Foundations of Business Analytics, and Information Systems at the undergraduate level, and Business Analytics at the graduate (MBA) level.
Previously, I taught full-time at St. Ambrose University, Davenport, Iowa. My assignments included Operations Management at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, undergraduate Business Statistics, and undergraduate Quantitative Reasoning. I taught in the College of Business within the Management Department. I taught Business Statistics since 2007 and Operations Management since 1986. Quantitative Reasoning began in 2013. Prior to my assignment in Management, I taught in the Industrial Engineering department. I have a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering, a Masters in Business Administration, and a BS in Industrial Engineering.
I especially enjoy teaching with technology. Here are a few significant dates that relate to my use of various technologies in the classroom. In 1998, I began my own website using Microsoft Frontpage to support my courses with instructional materials. In 1999, I created my first instructional digital videos. In 2002, I began using Blackboard. In 2003, I delivered my first "electronic" lecture week for MBA670 in Muscatine, Iowa. I used wireless Internet for the first time in 2004. In 2004, I switched to using WebCT instead of Blackboard at The University of Iowa. In 2005, I began using "clickers" in my classes. In 2005, I began using Desire2Learn at The University of Iowa. In 2006, I moved my videos to iTunes and began podcasting my lectures. In 2007, I moved my website material to self-hosting using GoDaddy. In 2008, I began using Moodle as my main course management system (CMS), hosted on my own server. In 2008, I switched to Dreamweaver and redesigned my website. In 2011, I switched from a hosted server to a "virtual private server" for my website content and Moodle. In 2011, I upgraded Moodle to version 2. In 2013, I redesigned my website to being "responsive." In April 2013, I switched to using a Macintosh computer. At St. Ambrose, I taught Business Statistics completely online in summer 2014, and my MBA Operations Management Course completely online in Spring 2016.
Based upon what I have done (above), it should come to no surprise that when I teach, I provide my own technology and support. I have been doing this since 2008. I am able to deliver many of my courses electronically, or "online", as needed. I have made most of my lecture videos publicly available on iTunes, and I am pleased that I get emails from people all over the world thanking me for them.
I had the pleasure of being an adjunct professor at The University of Iowa for both the College of Engineering and the College of Business, teaching courses on an intermittent and as-needed basis. I have been teaching the undergraduate Operations Management course for their online BBA program since Fall 2011, and have been teaching "Information Systems" online since Spring 2014. I also taught Business Analytics in their MBA program since Fall 2014.
Philosophically, I am a believer that high quality instruction requires significant interaction between students and the instructor (i.e., myself). When I teach electronically, I have found that the ideal class size is between 15 and 20 students. I am also a believer in asynchronous delivery, which is why I create my own carefully edited videos and utilize the Moodle CMS product for delivering quizzes, exams, discussions, and assignments. I want my methods to mirror the latest technology and business tools students should be learning to use in real life business. I obtained Quality Matters certification for my current Business Analytics course in 2019.