How to incorporate the needs and expectations of the employers into quantitative courses

Abstract

[Abstract]: Model building applications using mathematical programming techniques are discussed widely in the majority of the textbooks on Operations Management and related fields. For instance, Linear Programming and its derivatives are applied to a variety of situations which range from machine shop scheduling to health and education management. To what extent the industries rely on these techniques to manage and allocate their resources to achieve optimal results needs to be investigated. Teaching approaches also have a significant effect on students' learning and meeting the employers' needs. Feedback from the students and employers will certainly help with teaching materials and formal assessment improvements. This paper reports the findings of investigations on the students' learning preferences and the employers' requirements with regard to Operations Management tools and techniques. The paper also presents procedures and findings of an experiment on teaching basic mathematics concepts to Business undergraduate students by employing very practical aids.