2008 PROCEEDINGS - Public Relations Society of America

messages and she never even called me back once. This is depressing”. –Member External
Research.
Post-assessment surveys support learning occurred. The majority of students indicated
the experience was challenging, an opportunity to link course theories and concepts with
practical application. Students indicated they had a better sense of how research grounds all
aspects of public relations. “This project made me realize that an individual perception of a
situation can be very misguided, even downright wrong. When we started analyzing the openended
questions from the survey I realized the extent of the diversity of opinions held by my
colleagues. I can only imagine what cost and damage to a company’s reputation occurs when
research is inaccurate.” –Member, Formal Research.
Students indicated they enjoyed relatively strong communication within their work teams
but were most frustrated with the lack of communication between groups and sometimes with the
members of their individual groups.
Solution: A key role in any service learning project is the project manager. He or she
must be assigned to oversee all aspects of the individual group tasks, such as securing permission
to conduct research (Institutional Research Review Board), interfacing with the administration
on permission to survey students, obtain student e-mails, communicate with students about the
project, posting information on university property). While the instructor typically performs this
role, it is beneficial to have another class member coordinating intricate details in cooperation
with the instructor. The situational analysis team working diligently early in the project and
would be appropriate to serve in this role.
The Bad
Recall that service-learning was added to the course approximately five weeks into the
semester. While points were ascribed to specific contributions, the instructor failed to think about
the worst case scenario: a dysfunctional group. Students self-selected teams. Despite the request
of the instructor to select teammates who had different strengths, in certain situations, “friends”
were together. Not all friends share a similar work ethic, intellect and willingness to
compromise. There were several personal arguments that impeded completion of professional
work.
Solution: Each student creates a cost-benefit analysis of their research, writing, public
speaking, communication, conflict-resolution and team skills as well as course content
preferences. The analysis section should focus on what group members are needed to create a
productive team. The instructor then formulates teams based on self-identified strengths and
weaknesses.
The Ugly
The instructor admits that she was naïve to believe that all students would embrace
service-learning. One team simply didn’t perform the tasks they were assigned until the last
week of class. Unfortunately, the promotions team had to be threatened (incomplete grade) to
motivate them to contribute. While they were able to pull through at the last minute, they
created absolute chaos for several weeks and eroded the excitement and enthusiasm the class
started the project with.
Three teams “got it” (the interdependency of the teams) over the course of the semester
and their oral presentations were outstanding. The Dean of Students was extremely impressed
with the data collected and interpreted for him during the presentation. Students had three days
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