ICCD and two community colleges partners examine the issue

By Ruth A. Hopkins
Institute for Community College Development
Spring 2008

The Institute for Community College Development encourages colleges to send teams to its programs in the belief that sending a team is more likely to result in action plans benefiting the college. In 2007, ICCD commissioned research to test this belief in collaboration with Delta College in Michigan and Gateway Community Technical College in Kentucky. Teams from each of these campuses, including the college presidents, had attended "The Entrepreneurial College," one of ICCD's leadership programs. "We have been sending teams for a number of years because we've seen the benefits. We wanted to share our experience with others and be able to back it up with some applied research," Presidents Jean Goodnow and Ed Hughes explained in their support for the study.

The purpose of the study was to examine the differences in the outcomes achieved by those attending a learning conference as a sole attendee and those attending with others from their college, or as a team. Barbara Viniar, executive director of ICCD, had similar interests in pursuing this research because "we are frequently asked to advise community colleges on the most effective use of training dollars." Viniar and the two college presidents felt such a study would help community college leaders see the benefits of sending teams, particularly if they wanted to initiate campus-wide initiatives or improve college programs by involving a cross section of faculty and staff.

The study was performed by Ruth A. Hopkins (pictured above), an ICCD Research Associate and Training Consultant. An on-line survey and telephone interviews were used to assess the experience of attendees at two separate conferences provided by ICCD during 2007. The questions were designed to measure the extent to which attendees engaged in learning, planning, and action behaviors and to obtain voluntary reflections about the attendee’s experiences before, during, and after the conference.

Findings support our observations while adding insights

The major findings of this study are that teams are more likely than individuals to attend the conference with a conscious goal of working together to advance ideas gained from the conference and apply those ideas to college goals. They are less likely to attend the conference for purposes of gaining knowledge that applies directly to their own job. Teams are more likely than individuals to work with others during the conference in making plans for using new knowledge. And, whereas individuals are more likely to make a presentation about the conference to staff in their own departments, teams are more likely to work with others to construct actions plans for the college that incorporate the knowledge gained from the conference.

While notable differences were observed between teams and individuals, more than half of the responses were similar for both groups. Teams and individuals were equally likely to set goals for the conference and then indicate they met their goals. They were equally likely to find their interactions with others during the conference beneficial and to begin planning ways to use their new knowledge during the conference. After the conference they were equally likely to talk with others on their own and other campuses about issues related to the conference and to use knowledge gained at the conference to take action in their own areas of responsibility. 

Reasons for similarities between individual and team respondents were revealed in the interviews; those who expressed highest satisfaction with experiences during and after the conference also said they set expectations and goals prior to attending the conference. This was noted in interviews of both individuals and teams. Several interviewees expressed strong convictions that setting goals for themselves or their teams was important to achieving those goals, particularly for conferences where time is short.

Because of the consistent responses from the interviewees about the importance of setting goals prior to the conference in order to gain maximum benefits, our research report includes a summary of suggestions for pre-conference preparations. The suggestions are fully outlined in the complete report available on the ICCD website. The suggestions are intended to serve as a tool both for individuals and for college leaders to use in enhancing individual and college benefits from a learning conference.

The complete report can be accessed on the ICCD website. The report contains the statistical and interview summaries that are used to support our findings. For more information, contact ICCD at ICCD@cornell.edu.

Ruth A. Hopkins is a consultant and research associate for the ICCD.