After the presentations on Resumes Thursday, I would advise your group to have a conversation about your project. As you move along, your task is to gain clarity and focus on your objectives.
You have all done some individual research, so it will be useful for you to discuss what you know so far. Next, identify the additional questions created by your research. I would take a look at the Situation Analysis Assignment Instructions (Course Schedule/Week 4/Class 4A) and use that as a guide to frame your project. That document outlines the main areas you need to focus on for the next week. Your situation analysis should inform your understanding of the problem or opportunity. A clear definition of the problem or opportunity is necessary to move forward. From there, you will then identify a clear set of objectives for your project (What results do you want to achieve with your project?). Once your objectives are identified, you will need to better understand the underlying factors that are contributing to the issue. Understanding those factors will inform the set of solutions that will make the most sense.
For example (this example is completely made up and not supported by research):
Problem: The LCB does not currently have enough students from Mars enrolled. (Notice that this statement has assumptions embedded in it. It assumes that more Martian students would be better. Therefore, the problem statement needs to explain why that is the case.) The LCB needs more Martian students enrolled because Martian students are currently underrepresented in the College (Another assumption and more clarification needed. Need to define what you mean by underrepresented and why that is a problem). Martians currently makeup 15% of the Oregon population, where 60% of UO students come from, and they only comprise 3% of the LCB population. In addition, American companies are doing business with Martian companies at an increasing rate – Martian companies doing business with American companies has grown 10% every year for the past 5 years. We need to provide opportunities prepare LCB students for this global economy.
Objective: Through our proposal, we wish to increase the % of Martian students in the LCB from 3% to 10% in the next 5 years.
Factors contributing to the issue:
We have identified 3 factors that contribute to the low rate of Martians coming to the LCB:
- Martian students get very good high school preparation in rocket science and space travel, but are less prepared to handle the quantitative pre-business courses such as calculus and accounting
- Martian students pay an exorbitant amount in out-of-planet tuition
- Martian students are very connected to their community and family, and have a hard time when they are away from home.
You would then need to try and analyze how much each of these factors figure into the problem. For instance, if you solved 1 and 2, would 3 be less of an issue? Not until you have at least this level of understanding, can you begin to brainstorm solutions. As you can see, there might be a number of ways to address these factors but once you identify them, you must address them. Your set of solutions (most complex problems require multifaceted solutions) must address preparation for pre-business core, tuition and community/family connection, OR you must explain convincingly which ones you will address, which ones you won’t and why.
So, get with your team after the resume presentation and begin sketching out what you know, what you need to know and where you are going next. Work on the Situation Analysis Assignment that is due 4A. I will go over Presentation skills in 4A and prep you for Thursday’s presentations.
