Program Overview

The Leadership and Organization Behavior (LOB) program gives busy professionals the opportunity to complete their undergraduate education at a world-class institution. Students complete an interdisciplinary major in Organization Behavior, which is the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations. Students learn not only about organizations, but also how to maximize performance within organizations, as they develop communication, teamwork, analytical, and problem solving skills.

The program capitalizes on the advantages of a two-and-a-half-year cohort learning plan, allowing the personal interaction and social bonding that occurs among classmates to create a supportive community of working professionals that are working toward similar goals. The cohort classes follow a regular, predictable schedule of Saturday morning and afternoon courses while also providing the convenience and ongoing communication of online learning. Students make use of instructor-facilitated online sessions and collaborative work with their classmates to apply what they have learned in the classroom, extend their learning, and produce meaningful work.

Leadership is a key component of the program. Many of the instructors and mentors who contribute their time and knowledge to the program come from leadership positions in the corporate and nonprofit arenas. Students are challenged to define their own vision of leadership and learn strategies and skills that help them become effective leaders in the workplace.

The majority of the courses are an equal mix of on-campus lecture and discussion and online sessions. For example, students may be introduced to current theories of leadership in an on-campus class meeting, then work in teams to investigate the theories in greater depth, working collaboratively via real-time online sessions. Students might then report their results in the following on-campus class meeting.

Educational Technology

The LOB program will utilize Northwestern University's Course Management System (CMS), a web-based forum available for all classes taught at Northwestern. CMS (based on Blackboard 7.0) allows for all manner of electronic interactions between faculty and students: class announcements, syllabi, assignment drop-boxes, and email communication. Primarily, CMS will be used for the sharing of course documents and information.

For real-time communication via on-demand web meetings and audio conferencing, students will utilize Adobe Connect Pro Web conferencing software. Adobe Connect Pro uses Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for the audio portion of the Web conference. This means that you will need a headset with microphone so you can listen and speak via your computer. Please ensure you have a working headset to use Adobe Connect Pro. If you do not currently have a working headset, we have tested out the following USB headset and it seems to work well with most computer systems: http://www.cdwg.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=528413.