Employers Expectations for Coop Students: Ways to Identify Expectations and Incorporate Them into Cu

1
Employers Expectations for Co-op Students
Ways to Identify Expectations and Incorporate
Them into Curriculum Decisions

• Presented by
• Cathy Maltbie, Jan Matulis, and Cheryl Cates
• University of Cincinnati

2
Presentation Outline

• Background
• Identification of Employer Expectations
• Methodology
• Key Overall Findings
• By Academic Discipline
• Curricular Changes
• Next Steps

3
Background

• UC Co-op Education Program
• Full-time alternating quarters of study and
  employment
• Begins Sophomore year
• Extends over three years
• Mandatory and voluntary programs by
  discipline/program

4
Background

• Assessment Process
• Feedback from
• Students
• Employers
• Professional Practice Faculty
• Reporting
• Review individual student assessments
• Obtain aggregate reports of student performance

5
Background

• FIPSE Grant Developing a Corporate Feedback
  System for Use in Curriculum Reform (84.116A)
• September 2004 ? August 2007
• Accounting
• Architecture
• Civil Environmental Engineering
• Construction Management
• Information Systems
• (Faculty liaisons between project program)

6
Background

• FIPSE Grant Developing a Corporate Feedback
  System for Use in Curriculum Reform (84.116A)
• Identify curricular activities exhibiting a
  strong correlation with student co-op performance
• Design and implement processes allowing the
  systemic use of employer assessment in curriculum
  design

7
Background

• FIPSE Grant Developing a Corporate Feedback
  System for Use in Curriculum Reform (84.116A)
• Evaluate impact of changes in curriculum design
  upon student work performance
• Pilot and contrast projects in different academic
  fields/colleges
• Develop a set of best practices for refinement
  and dissemination

8
ID of Employer Expectations

• Electronic employer survey UC Professional
  Practice Student Skills Assessment
• Identify skills important in evaluating co-op
  students
• Determine work experience term(s) most
  appropriate for evaluating specific skills
• 11 general skill categories
• 41 specific skills across categories

9
Methodology

• Electronic employer survey
• Emailed to 500 employers - August 2005
• Total respondents in five collaborating
  departments 115
• Accounting (18)
• Architecture Bachelors (29) Masters (14)
• Civil and Environmental Engineering (26)
• Construction Management (24)
• Information Systems (4)

10
Methodology

• Employer focus groups
• Five employer focus groups - August 2005
• One focus group per department
• Purpose
• Identify characteristics of successful and
  unsuccessful co-op students
• Identify skills important in evaluating co-op
  students
• Determine work experience term(s) most
  appropriate for evaluating specific skills

11
Key Overall Findings

• Several skills important for all co-op
  students across disciplines
• Attendance
• Punctuality
• Professional attitude toward work assigned
• Work effectively with others
• Respect diversity
• Honesty, integrity, personal ethics

12
Key Overall Findings

• Several skills not important or only important
  beyond first co-op year
• Dependent on department/discipline
• Opportunity for further refinement of assessment
  instrument

13
Accounting

• Skills Most Important in 2nd or 3rd Co-op Year

14
Accounting

• Skills Not Important for Students

15
Accounting

• Focus group findings
• Employers expect different skills based on number
  of co-op terms student has worked
• Skills highly important 2nd 3rd terms
• Conceptual/analytical ability
• Professional qualities
• Teamwork

16
Architecture - Bachelors

• Skills Most Important in 2nd or 3rd Co-op Year

17
Architecture - Bachelors

• Skills Not Important for Students

18
Architecture - Masters

• Skills Most Important in 2nd or 3rd Co-op Year

19
Architecture

• Focus group findings
• Strengths of UCs co-op students
• Highly creative and innovative
• Excel in design
• Strong appreciation of firms work culture
• Concerns about UCs co-op program
• Emphasize construction detailing
• Co-op limit of two quarters per employer too
  restrictive
• Assessment of students too time consuming

20
Civil Environmental Engineering

• Skills Most Important in 2nd or 3rd Co-op Year

21
Civil Environmental Engineering

• Skills Not Important for Students

22
Civil Environmental Engineering

• Focus group findings
• Co-op students need to be well-grounded in theory
• Employers want to retain quality co-op
  students for whole work experience
• Assessment of students too time consuming

23
Construction Management

• Skills Most Important in 2nd or 3rd Co-op Year

24
Construction Management

• Skills Not Important for Students

25
Construction Management

• Focus group findings
• Employers want to retain quality co-op students
  for whole work experience
• Students need to be well prepared in core
  curriculum
• Technological skills targeted for 3rd year
• Scheduling software use
• Exhibiting line and grade skills

26
Information Systems

• Focus group findings
• Employers want to retain quality co-op
  students for whole work experience
• Little concern for specific skills in entry level
  co-op jobs
• More interest in students intelligence and work
  ethic
• Company-specific skills gained via on-the-job
  training
• Ability to work both independently and on teams
  is essential

27
Curricular Changes

• Surveys and focus groups ?
• Departments made curricular changes
• Architecture Winter 2006
• Civil Environmental Engineering Winter 2006
• Construction Management Fall 2007
• Departments are reviewing entire program
• Accounting
• Information Systems

28
Curricular Changes

• Architecture
• Two courses were modified
• Sophomore level courses
• Coordinated the following topics
• AutoCAD
• Construction and building
• Courses have common lectures, laboratories, cadre
  of graduate assistants and one joint project

29
Curricular Changes

• Assessed via new survey for Architecture
  employers
• Technology and building construction skills
• Digital technologies
• Complexity of building construction
• Complexity of detailing
• Translation of modeling and drawing into a
  structure
• Fall 2005 Winter 2006 baseline data collected

30
Curricular Changes

• Civil Environmental Engineering
• Two courses were modified
• Focus was on fundamentals of civil engineering
• Structural Analysis I and II
• Courses taken junior year
• Fewer topics in more depth
• Bending and shear stresses
• Determinate structures
• Influence line

31
Curricular Changes

• Assessed via new survey for Civil Environmental
  Engineering employers
• Importance of understanding fundamental
  principles of structural engineering
• Performance of co-op students on each principle
• Data collected Fall 2005 and Winter 2006

32
Next Steps

• Evaluate effect of curricular changes
• Modified employer assessment instrument
• Student, faculty and employer feedback

33
Next Steps

• Customization of Employer Assessment of
  Professional Practice Student instrument
• Discipline-specific
• Related to student experience
• Based on
• Historical 7-year data
• Data from this project

34
Next Steps

• Systemic changes
• Create feedback cycle
• Continuous alignment of co-op assessment data to
  curricular development
• Communication between Professional Practice and
  individual departments
• Automated report generation of assessment data in
  a usable format for faculty

35
THANK YOU!

• Our contact information
• University of Cincinnati
• Cathy.Maltbie_at_uc.edu
• Janet.Matulis_at_uc.edu
• Cheryl.Cates_at_uc.edu