Welcome to Organizational Psychology & Behavior

Any blended course requires some tweaking from time to time and this one is no different.  Changes are to be expected throughout our short 8 weeks together.  I'm excited about the flexibility of teaching a subject I'm familiar with both the personal touch of face-to-face interaction and the convenience of new online tools.  It appears to be the best of both worlds educationally.  Among other things, electronic mediums applied in academic settings offer incredible flexibility related to integration with your existing schedule, vast improvement in audio/visual support, connection to the class from almost everywhere and timely communication between instructor and student.  In a blended setting, however, neither of us will lose the personal touch.  We can still get to know one another in our traditional class scheduled dates as well.  There is nothing to complain about in this list; this plan is all very good!

Regardless of what you perceive about your own academic success thus far, each successive course, whether online or traditional, brings renewed challenges inherent in new expectations. As long as these are clearly expressed to you, you will know where to devote your attention.  Thus, this blended method of learning enhances the need for very effective two-way communication.  

There are many ways to ensure that this happens in a timely way. During our face-to-face class time, I will reach farther ahead when explaining upcoming assignments, etc., so that you will have an opportunity to ask questions and receive clarification in person, while it is easiest to communicate.  My contact information is included on the course site.  Please feel free to contact me personally when you have questions but only after you have been unsuccessful finding the answer in the information that has already been provided to you, both in the module and on the course site. When I receive several questions from different students with virtually the same theme, I will communicate the answer "globally" to all of you via a new post or tweet, depending upon the complexity required.  E-mail is the easiest way to get in touch with me.  I check it daily and will respond to you ASAP.

Some of you are versed in the rigors of online learning but others may be trying this out for the first time.  I speak to both of you when I recognize that there are some additional challenges related to it for all of us.  Once again, meeting in person for the predominance of our 8-week session will help lessen this confusion.  

Some students naturally like to be provided with more detail before they feel comfortable beginning a task.  Others don't feel the need for as much detailed instruction. This can be due to differences in levels of school experience, as well as differing personality styles.  In explaining assignments, you will find that my instructions are most often tailored toward the students who wants additional instruction.  I always attempt to communicate more rather than less.  If, however, anything in my instructions is unclear or incomplete, feel free to contact me and I'll be happy to clarify the issue for you. 

In addition, you may have a question, observation or suggestion about the content of this class or mode of communication.  If so, I want to hear from you.  Every attempt will be made to continue to improve the blended way this class functions. 


As I receive questions from students pertaining to the content or requests for clarification I will most likely respond back to you in the medium you used to communicate with me. Personal questions will be handled as such but if the same general question is received from more than one person, I may choose to send out a response to the entire class via Twitter (if it is short, of course), a new blog or course announcement.  During the weeks we are online only, please check the class site several times each day for new posts.  This is very important.  Asking forgiveness for missing an important date change or a communication I send out that is fundamental to an assignment when it was readily available to you simply won't work to remove the penalty in most cases.

To those of you who are new to this varied form of learning let me say that it does require some additional patience at times but it can be a very convenient form of education, melding easily into your existing schedule.  I caution you, however, not to take this flexibility for granted.  Allocate plenty of time to accomplish the required activities when we don't meet face to face.  It is easy to put off what must be done when there is no class time to report to.  The deadlines provided for each online activity are as inflexible as they are when we meet traditionally.


If you haven't done so already, join Twitter.  This will help to keep you and I connected.  I will use it primarily to point you to information that I have changed or reposted and I will often remind you of deadlines you might miss otherwise.


This is going to be a very beneficial eight weeks.   I expect that each of you will exercise patience and professionalism in working with each other and (especially) with me.   I'm here to help you achieve your academic goals so let me know how I can assist you.  My contact information is listed on our course home page.


Anticipating your success,
Diane Waisner