Students have all the fun. They have a front-row seat to the best instructors in the world and first-hand access to pathbreaking research. Now, that learning may be on demand from your devices.
Marshall Minds, launching this February, is a new video series providing illuminating research from Marshall professors covering a wide variety of topics. The five-minute videos offer audiences a glimpse into the latest work coming out of Marshall. Whether you’re a seasoned researcher or a first-time learner, Marshall Minds will provide a snapshot of complex issues made simple.
Beyond the general public, these faculty insights are beneficial for the wider academic community and for Marshall faculty to learn what their colleagues are working on.
“It seems to me that our research is super high quality, yet it’s almost like a well-kept secret,” noted PEER FISS, the Jill and Frank Fertitta Chair in Business Administration and associate vice dean for research. “What’s the point of having a high-quality differentiation strategy if you don’t tell your [stakeholders] about it?”
That’s about to change. Each Marshall Minds presentation is designed to synthesize often technical and detailed findings into easily understandable content.
“Marshall Minds is very much a community building and collaborative opportunity for our faculty. In the end, it’s faculty-driven,” Fiss added. “It’s their work, and we’re enabling larger audiences to experience their work.”
The selection of topics covered in the Marshall Minds episodes have been curated to strike a balance between faculty interest and public appeal.
“Faculty want to have impact and be able to share what they’ve learned with the wider world,” said TOM CHANG, associate professor of finance and business economics. “[The series] comprises a mix of research from what they’re currently working on and excited to talk about, to others who have a body of work or research line on a topic that can cover multiple papers.”
Fiss and Chang are the masterminds behind the new series that includes a creative team of Marshall staff members including Philip Cole (Instructional Designer) and Jae Hwan Yoo (Digital Media Producer). Music, graphics, and topical video all complement the faculty presenting their research in a fun and engaging way. According to Chang, that was a goal.
“If, as academics, we focus only on talking to academics, it greatly limits the impact of what I think research is,” he added.
Chang combed through faculty CVs, searching for candidates with innovative research potential that’s also translatable to a wide audience. He approached a diverse group for the series, including junior faculty who may have been reluctant to step forward on their own. After a conversation of the research topic, he worked closely with each presenter to hone their style, especially those whose research is more abstract or theoretical.
“I’ve been working with [one colleague] for almost a year and a half to refine her presentation to get it to the point where she can say it and people won’t just think it’s math,” Chang shared. “And, I think it’s not just math, but a very clever tool applicable in a lot of settings.”
The series kicks off with Assistant Professor of Finance and Business Economics KRISTY JANSEN who asks and answers, “Do teams reduce biased beliefs in the stock market?” Along with her two co-authors (Ricardo Barahona, Stefano Cassella), Jansen first began the research as a PhD student at Tilburg University (Netherlands). Though her study’s results are not yet published, her Marshall Minds episode offers audiences a sneak peek of her multi-year research.
“We often tend to have a certain way of writing things down in academia. If you read my title or if you even read the paper, it can get complicated,” Jansen said. “My research is actually super relevant and topical, but it’s technical. I think a video like this would help people understand and get a sense of what you’re doing. The fact that you’re actually seeing the professor speak is a lot more engaging for people to watch.”
Jansen’s study set out to determine whether teams attenuate or exacerbate individual biased beliefs in the stock market. The researchers’ findings are based on field data, focusing on the mutual fund industry, that allowed them to compare behavioral biases in team-managed funds with the biases displayed in solo-managed funds.
