Entrepreneurially-Minded Program Assessment During Emergency Situations: Using Photovoice to Understand Customer (Engineering Student) Needs

ABSTRACT

CONTEXT Innovation, design, and entrepreneurship are economic drivers promoting competition and growth throughout the world, many of which would not exist without well-established continuous improvement and new product development processes. Continuous improvement and new product development processes, such as the lean start-up methodology and design thinking, are well known and thriving in the business world due to the vast amount of empirically-grounded research. Unfortunately, educational institutions and researchers, alike, are lagging when it comes to these processes. Although the quantity of new and transformative degree offerings has increased substantially over the past several decades, limited research has been conducted to document key procedures associated with continuous improvement and the creation of new programs. This problem is only exacerbated when considering the role of innovation during emergency situations. PURPOSE OR GOAL The purpose of this study is to show one approach (using photovoice) to understand how student voices can be incorporated into the continuous improvement and new program development process, specifically during emergency situations. In contrast to traditional passive data collection methods, such as a survey or focus groups, photovoice is an active data collection method where students engage in the information sharing and interpretation process at a deeper level. Using photovoice, researchers and practitioners, alike, can gain greater insights into the who, what, and how of educational effectiveness. The guiding research question is as follows What are the factors which can influence the discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of continuous improvement and new program development during emergency situations? APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODS: This approach uses participatory research, wherein students act as researchers and actively participate in the data collection and analysis process. Under the umbrella of participatory research, the study uses photovoice for collecting qualitative data. The study was implemented in a software engineering course at a university located in the United Kingdom. Students responded to the photovoice prompts by supplying both picture and narrative. The prompts target student perceptions (positive and negative) with respect to blended learning perceptions, technology integration, and career preparedness. The qualitative data was analyzed for themes using NVivo. ACTUAL OR ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES: Analysis of the qualitative data led the researchers to identify three core themes related to the blended learning approach implemented as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic (1) Institution - macro level, (2) Instruction - mezzo level, and (3) Student - micro level. CONCLUSIONS: The study concludes with recommendations for various higher education benefactors of the user generated data including administration, faculty, marketing, recruitment, advisors, and the students, themselves. It is intended for the overall recommendations to have a direct impact on improving the student experience. Copyright © Lisa Bosman, Usman Naeem, Eranjan Padumadasa, 2021.