The Waite Research Group’s coaching program was designed to offer students support while making co-op related decisions. The purpose of this research is to see if this program was beneficial.
Two cohorts are involved in this research project, one as a control group, another as the intervention group.
Control group
The control group completed a self-assessment and focus group.
- Self assessment: survey to determine how students make decisions about co-op
- Focus group: discussion about decision making and co-op, specifically, if they would have found having a coach helpful (only some people participated in this, less than 10)
Intervention group
The intervention group participated in the coaching program. The class was divided into 12 groups (approximately 10 students in each group), with one coach per group. The program consists of two sessions. Each session consists of three main activities —
- Self assessment
- Individual meeting with coach (and follow up survey to provide feedback on the meeting)
- Group meeting with coach (and follow up survey to provide feedback on the meeting) Some members of the intervention group also participated in a focus group (less than 10), to provide feedback on the coaching program.
- Finally, the intervention group will complete another self assessment in spring 2013