Online Business School Tips: Improving Recall

Naomi Dunford’s Online Busines School has now officially been open for a week. If you are a student, you most liekly have listened to at least one section thus far.
To help you succeed, we’ll be gathering here to share tips, ask questions, and just gab about the courses. I think Naomi is planning a forum section at some time, so if that opens, we’ll move the party to Itty Biz.
The first tip I have for OBS students has to do with tried and true study tactics. If you can’t recall the information from OBS when it comes time to put it into practice, well, what’s the point?
Study Tactics to Improve Your Recall
I’ve been in school a long, long time. I have two degrees and am working on my third. I’ve picked up a few habits along the way that cut down on my study time and greatly improved my recall, and am willing to share my brain and my cookies. (Chocoalate chip is the flavor of the day, we’ll have ones with sprinkles next week for Dave.)
These habits can help you succeed with OBS if you apply them. They do you no good if you read them and leave them looking pretty on the screen. Give it a try, you’ll be amazed.
Know your learning style. Most people are visual learners. This means you retain more information by reading or watching a video. Fewer people are auditory learners. They learn best by hearing the spoken word. Most of us have adapted enough to use a combination of styles, but knowing your strengths will help you get the most from the course. Naomi and Jamie provide recordings, PDF transcripts for reading, and tutorial videos to meet everyone’s learning needs. Focus the majority of your time on the media that suits your individual learning style.
If you have an iPod, put it to use. The audio files are in MP3 format so they will transfer with a sync. Listen to the files in the car, while you exercise, while you sleep. Listen over and over until you can hear Naomi’s voice telling you, “You can do this. I’m handing you the freakin’ tools, go build your dreams.”
Read, rinse, repeat. The next tip for improving recall comes from John MacArthur. (You don’t have to be a Bible scholar, a MacArthur fan, or even a Christian to use this one. No worries.) Mr. MacArther tells his students to read one book of the Bible from begining to end, in one sitting, everyday for 30 days. This creates a visual imprint of the written words on your brain. At the end of 30 days, you will know that material forward and backward, inside and out because you can picture the words in your head. Do this with the Online Business School transcripts.
Give these a try and stop back or email me if you you find something that works for you that you want to share.
Next up is a tip for all current and potential business owners that comes from one of the greatest building projects ever undertaken.

Business School entrepreneurs compete to win $50,000

The Ross School of Business likes to bill its classes as “action-based learning,” in which students can grapple with real-world business quandaries. And for Andrew Charnik and Jeffrey Richman, such was the case when they were asked to create their own business venture.
The result for the two Ross School of Business graduate students is “Relive” — a business plan that melds the atmosphere of live, small-scale concerts with the struggles of up-and-coming artists in an online community.
The idea afforded them the chance to compete for $25,000 to make the business a reality. Their team was chosen out of 160 teams as a semi-finalist in the New Venture Championship competition, which started yesterday and will continue through the weekend.
The competition — which is in its 17th year — is hosted by the University of Oregon’s Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship. It pits student entrepreneurs against one another for the chance to win prize money.
Charnik said the goal of their music industry-centered business is to create a more accessible online community of fans, lesser-known artists and venues with a website.
"[Relive] is a concept that records live performances, markets them and then distributes them for the benefit of small concert venues and emerging musicians," he said. "In the long term, we want to develop an online community that really connects people with live performances. This would create a medium for artists and venues to have instant access to their fans and vice versa."
Charnik said the two came up with the plan as part of one of their classes in the Business School.
"We, as a team, sculpted our ideas into a viable business for our class, New Venture Creation ES615," he said. "My personal interests are in the music industry in general, so I was happy to help create something that would bring new value for emerging artists."
Richman said after they came up with the initial plan for the business, they spent considerable time consulting with experts in various fields. Though they plan to run the business themselves, they have taken full advantage of the resources the University has to offer, Richman said.
"We've spent a lot of time talking to all sorts of people: professors, people in the music industry, those who operate venues and produce music," he said. "We also have a music industry adviser with 30 years experience — we're hoping that it all pays off."
Richman said it could take a while for the business to get off the ground, but that making the competition is an important first step.
"The one thing we're doing right now is going to these types of competitions to network a little with different investors and to hopefully win some money to start moving ahead in our planning," Richman said excitedly. "We're hoping to use (the prize money) to launch a beta version of our website, find financial partners and start to bring on additional staff."
Following the competition, Charnik and Richman said they hope to work with students at the University interested in computer science or programming to get going with their business plan.