Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Initial Reflection
Reflecting back on my initial expectations for this course has revealed that I have
gained more knowledge, ideas and business perspectives that I can apply to my current
position as a Continuing Education Program Coordinator. One way that this has been
achieved was by developing all the components needed for a business case. The institution
where I work at also has a template that we use to initiate a business case, so this topic was
very relevant to my associated work tasks. Understanding the importance of all the
components involved in developing a business case, such as identifying the target market,
stakeholders, customers and financial factors helped to assess everything involved to advocate
a successful proposal. Also, coincidently, I have worked on developing a business case in the
past to initiate a new online scholarship application resource, so this has helped me realize the
importance and why all these components are needed to be researched, aggregated and
presented.
FINAL JOURNAL ENTRY 2
Most Enjoyed
DEPM 622 included two tasks that I enjoyed working on during the course. One of the
enjoyable tasks was developing the elevator pitch for one of the journal entries. I do not recall
working on one of these previously so I am glad I gained the experience to use this for future
business cases. Developing an elevator pitch is a part of a career development class that is
taught at my institution, so now I feel more confident with understanding its usefulness. The
other task that I enjoyed the most was working on the business case activity, because it is
relevant to tasks in my current position. I feel that this is an essential skill to be able to
Least Enjoyed
The DEPM 622 provided a wealth of knowledge and insight that should help to
advance my professional expertise, however there was some things that I did not enjoy. I did
not enjoy doing the market research for the business case. This is because there is not a lot of
information available that I need and it is challenging to ensure that it is relevant and
meaningful to the business case. I also did not enjoy doing the financial aspects of the
business case because it is difficult to identify where funding sources may be coming from,
The DEPM 622 class does not need any major improvements, however, if I was to
choose an area of improvement it might be to show some more examples or insight on the
financial developments for the business case. This is something that is challenging in my
FINAL JOURNAL ENTRY 3
business case because of its complexity in determining the estimates and resources. Also,
some the content in the class may need to be updated or corrected in the Assignment content. I
believe all the topics were relevant to the DEPM 622 course and balanced in how they were
presented. I liked most of the readings and media because they were understandable and
relevant to the topics presented. I would not remove any of the topics because the content all
Outcomes
The DEPM 622 outcomes appear to have been achieved. This is especially relevant to
the outcome topics of marketing, roles of distance education, value chain analysis, the
business practice (University of Maryland University College, n.d.). This was contributed by
the readings provided and participating in the assignment and activities for the course.
Learning about the student as a customer was a very influential outcome, which is highlighted
by this statement from Guilbault (2017) “instead of continuing to debate whether students are
customers perhaps what needs to be considered is how to best treat them as customers (and
not lose academic integrity)” (p. 297). I feel that I have gained the knowledge and experience
that I needed from DEPM 622 to proceed further with practicing the business of distance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh_DH8v2bqw
FINAL JOURNAL ENTRY 4
Anthony Pannozzo gives a brief perspective on how to reassess the term customer by looking
at the type of experience that you want a student, or patient, to associate to your organization,
company, facility, etc. (Continuum, 2015). The Continuum (2015) video is also relevant in the
terms of identifying education as a business because it explains that you should examine how
you are defining the experience that you want the student or patient to have and aligning that
References
Continuum. (2015, June 4). Students and patients are not customers [Video file]. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh_DH8v2bqw
needs to end. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 40, 295-298. Retrieved
from https://ac-els-cdn-com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/S0969698917301303/1-s2.0-
S0969698917301303-main.pdf?_tid=5ac50b77-42cf-4bf8-8165-
96264fc24a9f&acdnat=1552767947_b77c537035a6d0842c54b2a980dc4859
University of Maryland University College. (n.d.). DEPM 622 9040 Business of distance
education & e-learning (2192) DEPM-622 [Course syllabus]. DEPM 622-9040, Spring
Retrieved from
https://learn.umuc.edu/d2l/le/content/354229/viewContent/14382250/View