PI: Bev Watford, Associate Dean - Academic Affairs

Project Goals or Needs Addressed: "… [industry] in some cases really dinged our students for their lack of ability to communicate and I think that …caused some faculty and some departments to try and increase the level of communication skills required in different classes."
Project Grants and Expenditures: $9000 (year 8), $2000 (year 9), staff wages to conduct/analyze focus groups, "…it was literally 8 hours a day for two days to do one set of focus groups and then the transcribing and then the analysis of the qualitative data…"; food was provided for focus group participants



 


Project staff conducted focus groups with industry representatives (e.g., General Motors, Intel) who were on campus interviewing students to determine the type of students they wanted to hire and the qualities they were seeking. Written reports were developed and provided to faculty. In some cases, faculty shared report comments with students to communicate industry expectations.

The project team initially conducted focus groups with a mix of industry representatives, but then changed their strategy to conduct focus groups with representatives in specific curricular areas (e.g., electrical, mechanical). "...there were two focus groups on electrical engineers ... one on civil engineers ... one on mechanical ... two or three on computer engineering…."