More Than Fun and Games

LSU's Kerry Sauley may use rock and roll and other gimmicks to get his students' attention, but the learning is serious stuff

by John Peabody

Kerry S. Sauley
Marjory B. Ourso Center for Excellence in Teaching Professor, Instructor in Rucks
Department of Management, E.J. Ourso College of Business
Louisiana State University

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BusinessWeek asked business undergrads to tell us about their favorite professors. Here's another installment in the series

Lynyrd Skynyrd's Simple Man blasts from the stereo as students trickle into the Louisiana State University classroom. It's not your typical start to a business class. Then again, Kerry Sauley isn't your typical professor.

"I want to get them jazzed up," says Sauley. He adds that his classroom, which accommodates the more than 900 students who take his management class, has a "really great sound system."

A Legend at LSU

Rocked-out classes might have something to do with the vote of confidence Sauley received from students who responded to the 2007 BusinessWeek survey. They ranked him among their favorite undergraduate business professors.

A born entertainer, Sauley immediately took to being in front of students, he says. Within a year he hit his stride. "I thought I was going to be a management consultant," he says "I got in there, I was like: 'Man, I love it'." Sauley has been teaching for 20 years.

Now his students say he's become a legend. He has won numerous teaching awards and maintains a Facebook page on the LSU network called "Kerry Sauley is the man," says Keith Fernandez, who switched his focus to management and became one of Sauley's teaching assistants after taking his class.

Abundant Enthusiasm

"He's become larger then life," Fernandez says. "Even though he does all that stuff, that's maybe 10% of what makes him the good teacher that he is. When it comes down to it, if a kid needs him, he'll sit with him for hours. He'll come up with other examples to help. He wants to do what it takes."

Sauley did not entirely give up his management consulting career. Keeping a hand in business keeps him fresh and relevant, he says. As for his approach to education, Sauley says having fun is crucial to the learning process. "I'll do anything to entertain [students] to make a connection so they'll remember it," he says. "I think if you just present it straight, it could be boring."

Indeed, there never seems to be a dull moment. "I've never had anyone who had quite as much enthusiasm as he did," says Katherine Fossier, an LSU alum who now works in financial consulting. "Management isn't an easy class to get into, but he got people involved." Fossier recalls Sauley donning an LSU football jersey, helmet, and eye black for her class's final exam, which he dubbed "The Big Game."

Who Wants to Be an MBA?

Getting students psyched for exams is part of Sauley's philosophy, which holds that if learning is entertaining, students will engage more easily with tough concepts. As students enter the classroom—theme music pounding—Sauley clicks through "Did you know?" slides of the day's business news on a PowerPoint presentation.

Because Sauley's classroom is also equipped with clickers like those used by the audience in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, students can answer the PowerPoint questions instantly and in game show-style format. The added bonus is that Sauley can quickly address misunderstood concepts. The slides have been so popular, students show up 10 minutes early for the hour-and-20-minute class to see what Sauley will put up.

The fun and games serve a purpose. Sauley says he hopes his students leave with a deeper appreciation for business and a critical eye for its inner workings. "Why do people do what they do? What makes people tick at work?" Those are the questions Sauley hopes his students will ask.

Still, students have to earn their grades. For Sauley's Management Principles course, students have to take three multiple-choice exams that test their understanding of relevant definitions; relationships between concepts; issues, and theories; and application of those concepts in the real world.

Even though he doesn't take himself too seriously—"I'm a bad nightclub act," he says—Sauley's technique resonates with an incredible number of students. With all the fun they're having, some students don't even realize they're learning. Sauley says it just sneaks up on them.