School Of Communication (SOC) Diversity Committee
The client, American University’s School of Communication (SOC) Diversity Committee, aims to create an atmosphere that supports and encourages diversity within the school’s student body, staff, academic programs, and service. To do so, the Committee hosts events for students specifically to improve diversity and inclusion efforts in SOC. However, the SOC Diversity Committee has had difficulty with student turnout at its events. In fact, the client noted that many SOC students do not know what the SOC Diversity Committee is. As a result, the School of Communication would like to increase awareness within the SOC community to allow students to not only know about the committee, but also encourage them to engage with it to promote diversity and
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In-depth interviews are a type of qualitative research method that generally take between 30 minutes and an hour. In-depth interviews help identify overall attitudes and thoughts on topics. In-depth interviews are generally held over the phone or in person. However, in this study, all the in-depth interviews were held in the McKinley building at American University. Each in-depth interview in this study took place between February 14, 2017 and February 24, 2017. Although in-depth interviews can provide multiple perspectives that may help understand individuals’ decision-making process, it is important to note that the results from this study are not generalizable to the entire SOC population. Another limitation to this study is the self-selection bias, which means that those who participated in the in-depth interviews likely did so because they had strong opinions about SOC and diversity. While the information in this study can be particularly useful for reaching such students, this study does not thoroughly address SOC students who may feel as strongly about diversity as participants in this study. As a result, this study does not address the SOC Diversity Committee’s entire target market. Observer bias, inappropriate application of results, and misinterpretation of interview responses are also possible limitations that could affect the results of this study.
While the participants in this study each brought up several unique points, all the in-depth interviews shared some common ground. First, none of the participants could identify or correctly what the SOC Diversity Committee was. One of the participants thought that the SOC Diversity Committee was another name for the Center of Diversity and Inclusion (CDI), which is a separate organization that focuses on diversity and inclusion of students as a
In-depth interviews are a type of qualitative research method that generally take between 30 minutes and an hour. In-depth interviews help identify overall attitudes and thoughts on topics. In-depth interviews are generally held over the phone or in person. However, in this study, all the in-depth interviews were held in the McKinley building at American University. Each in-depth interview in this study took place between February 14, 2017 and February 24, 2017. Although in-depth interviews can provide multiple perspectives that may help understand individuals’ decision-making process, it is important to note that the results from this study are not generalizable to the entire SOC population. Another limitation to this study is the self-selection bias, which means that those who participated in the in-depth interviews likely did so because they had strong opinions about SOC and diversity. While the information in this study can be particularly useful for reaching such students, this study does not thoroughly address SOC students who may feel as strongly about diversity as participants in this study. As a result, this study does not address the SOC Diversity Committee’s entire target market. Observer bias, inappropriate application of results, and misinterpretation of interview responses are also possible limitations that could affect the results of this study.
While the participants in this study each brought up several unique points, all the in-depth interviews shared some common ground. First, none of the participants could identify or correctly what the SOC Diversity Committee was. One of the participants thought that the SOC Diversity Committee was another name for the Center of Diversity and Inclusion (CDI), which is a separate organization that focuses on diversity and inclusion of students as a