NDSU GDC - Outreach: 2004 Profile

2004 GDC Activity Report

GDC Purpose

The GDC will provide the only student-focused group system support facility in the Northern Plains (50% time committed to students). This system facilitates group problem solving in a meeting atmosphere characterized by open, collaborative, and criticism-free idea generation and objective evaluation. Central to the facility is the interactive computer-base environment provided by the GroupSystems Software.

Summary

August 2004 marks the end of sixth very successful years of the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Group Decision Center (GDC). the GDC is a technology laboratory consisting of a 24 laptop computer network linked by the GroupSystem software for electronic meetings and surveys. The purpose of the GDC at NDSU is primarily for student, faculty, and administration use; secondarily, for research and service/outreach projects. The GDC provides the only student-focused facility using GroupSystems software in the Northern Plains. The activities of the GDC provide students with 1) an introduction to electronic discussion system; 2) training in the use of GroupSystems software, and 3) classroom discussions, program feedback for curriculum accreditation, clubs/organizations and 4) research projects resulting in hands-on experience using state-of-the-art technology. In addition to the development of student skills, the GDC is used by faculty and administration for planning, evaluation, research conducted in the GDC is closely tied to NDSU's purpose of education and service. The community service and outreach activities are enhanced by four years of the Cargill Scholarship Program support. The scholarship hours result from Cargill's in-kind user hours based on a percentage of contributions to the GDC. The GDC's FY04 Activities by User Category are profiled on the below and described in this Annual Report.

	Hours	Events
Administration	62	34
Administration Survey	182.75	83
Class	100.95	81
Class Survey	91.25	56
Outreach (Community)	102.5	49
Outreach Survey	37.75	16
Student Org's	44.75	28
Student Org's Survey	1.5	1
Tri College	1.5	2
Partners	11	5
Total Hours	635.95	355

FY99 Activity Totals	431	197
FY00 Activity Totals	486.25	306
FY01 Activity Totals	716.8	332
FY02 Activity Totals	760.17	355
FY03 Activity Totals	508.75	303
FY04 Activity Totals	635.95	355

FY2004 GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Overall Goal:To enhance the land grant mission of NDSU - Teaching, Research, Administration and Outreach. The program goals are to:

Increase the quality and number of services to students, faculty, staff and administration and off-campus clients.
Develop alternative delivery system to increase the access to the on and off-campus clients.

Overall Accomplishments: Quantity and Quality: The number of GDC Activities continues to increase in most areas from 303 events/508.75 hours last year to 355 events/635.95 hours this year. The GDC event evaluations continue to reflect satisfaction with the meetings design and process.

This increase is due to successful meetings and continued changes in the types of GDC applications. Meeting Applications: Demonstrations and short meetings continue to be replaced by longer and more complex meetings. Diverse groups are realizing the value of "electronic discussion" to maximize meeting effectiveness which allows everyone to share ideas simultaneously and anonymously. GDC polling and reporting tools enhance meeting outcomes.

Survey Tool Applications: This tool is widely used, and is still growing in popularly. This year we started doing Advisor and SROI surveys. Survey numbers grew from 53 surveys/5449 responses to 71 surveys/9064 responses. This use ranges from undergraduate class survey to graduate student research to business surveys.

2004 bar chart of surveys

Alternative Delivery Systems: We are still investigating the virtual meeting delivery. The software that GDC is looking at is Grouputer Net. The fund raising will be addressed in FY 2005.

TEACHING, RESEARCH, ADMINISTRATION AND OUTREACH GOALS:

Teaching Goal: To develop a variety of skills in problem solving, communication, teamwork, research and consensus building. The students are involved with the GDC on the following levels: 1) an initial exposure to GroupSystems technology through class sessions; 2) class instruction using the laboratory through the entire course; 3) student research projects including surveys and focus groups; 4) training sessions with hands-on experience using group decision software and actual facilitation hours in GDC events.

Teaching Accomplishments: 1204 students used the GDC for class/organization meetings and surveys. This is the 3rd year that the students used the survey tool. In addition to classes, 57 students designed, tested and administered __________ survey in the GDC, which involved _________ responds to the surveys and 332 students used the GDC for 28 club and organization meetings.

This is the first year faculty have their classes meet once a week in GDC.

Research Goal:To focus on student research projects and cross-discuplinary research. Planned research projects include: 1) develop objective measures of group performance, 2) comparative studies on the learning and retention benefits of GDC technology vs. the more traditional instruction methods; and 3) case studies on the impact of GDC technology in the organizations.

Research Accomplishments: Undergraduate and graduate student used the GDC for 14 focus group discussions.

Administration Goal: Administration's use of the GDC show an increase nearly doubled from last year 35.25 hours to 52 hours this year.

Outreach Goal:To directly impact decision making and consensus building efforts when addressing current local, state and regional problems. Cargill and NDSU initiated a Cargill Scholarship Program October 1999. This program directly enhances the NDSU land grant mission and provides GDC users a percentage of free time donated from Cargill hours. As a land grant institution NDSU plays an extensive outreach role statewide. The GDC is playing a key role in this mission. The GDC allows us to take the technology to the people.

During FYO2, the three steps were taken. First, a wireless network is in place making the out-state meetings more effective and efficient. The laptop lab is greatly enhanced by the application of wireless technology for these meetings. With a wireless network the GDC meetings can accommodate various meeting formats, i.e. multiple focus groups, breaking the participants into small groups, or separating groups during meetings for multiple activities. This wireless network improves the professional, high-tech image of the GDC.

Second, the web survey tool is available to on and off campus clients both in the GDC and on the web. As indicated in the previous section of this report the use of this tool nearly tripled.

A third step in developing an alternative delivery system is the development of virtual meeting capacity. The number of requests for virtual meetings in on the increase from on and off campus clients. The GDC staff with assistance from ITS staff and MIS faculty and students will be researching the possibility of distributive meetings on campus and in communities where the GDC has already been used. The distributive format may be a key to developing a "sense of community" in a sparsely populated state where repeated travel is time consuming and costly.

Outreach Accomplishments: 49 Events these meeting range from Bowdel Health Care in Bowdel, SD to Horizons - Eureka, Ellendale, Ashley to Extension Conference.

GDC EVALUATION
The following methods describe the on-going evaluation of the GDC Activities: 1) obtain and review comments and evaluations from all users; 2) compare meeting objectives to client's stated outcomes/benefits; 3) compare participants expectations at the start of the meeting with the level of realization of those expectations; 4) track all Center events; 5) monitor the GDC's financial status. The Development Team reviews the GDC activity. The NDSU Vice President of Academic Affairs and Cargill.

FY 2005 Project Goals
OVERALL: Continue to increase the quality and number of GDC activities. Develop alternative delivery system. Develop solid facilitator base including students. Continue to develop income base.