The Problem Looking at our core Digital Film and Television curriculum, when, and to what extent, are our students learning the "mindset" needed to be successful as they enter their profession. We have been effective at teaching the necessary theory and practice, but are less clear on how effective our classes are is in terms of developing our in our students the attitudes and perspectives needed by media production professionals. In Pat Hutchings "taxonomy of questions," this would fall under understanding "what is."

Methodologies & Types of Evidence of Student Learning Gathered May 14, 2008 Project Update: I have begun to collect the necessary data from professionals currently working in the field. I have data collection sites confirmed at several television stations and corporate production houses. I will also be collecting surveys from independent producers. This should give me 25-40 completed surveys from professionals to compare, in that 'pilot study, small sample size' kind of way, with the initial results from the students. I plan to start processing the data this summer and fall, with initial results available for presentation next spring. Jan 31, 2008 Project Update: I am just finishing the student data collection in what I'm coming to consider as "Round 1." So far it has been given to students who are at the very beginning of our core course sequence; students ~halfway through the sequence; and students at the end of the sequence (which comes around only every other year). I have also given the survey to a baseline of non-media production students. I am currently in the process of deciding how to best collect the data from media professionals, but hope to have that accomplished during the current semester. I plan to process all these initial data results this summer/fall. Nov 15, 2008 Project Update: A quantitative survey will be given to CSTA:Digital Film and Television majors at specific points in their progression through the core curriculum: before CSTA 160 (first course), at the end of 160, the end of 260 and the end of 360 (currently the final course). The same survey will be given to a number of media production professionals and to a random sample of non-DFT college students. This data base will us to both track the amount of change over time and, if change is occurring, to better understand what part of the curriculum is likely causing the effect. Fall 2007

Project Summary Looking at our core Digital Film and Television curriculum, when, and to what extent, are our students learning the "mindset" needed to be successful as they enter their profession. We have been effective at teaching the necessary theory and practice, but are less clear on how effective our classes are is in terms of developing our in our students the attitudes and perspectives needed by media production professionals. In Pat Hutchings "taxonomy of questions," this would fall under understanding "what is." Summarize your project for multiple audiences (future WTF/WTS, UWS administrators, legislators, colleagues in other disciplines, SoTLers in your discipline looking for disciplinary projects, et al). This paragraph will probably come together most clearly late in the project, but do your best to begin a draft. Think of it as an "elevator speech": a concise overview as if explained to someone in a short elevator ride. Ongoing

Annotated List of Helpful Resources & References Improving Survey Questions: Design and Evaluation Floyd J Fowler, Jr How to Conduct Surveys Arlene Fink Jacqueline Kosecoff The Survey System: Survey Design Creative Research Systems http://www.surveysystem.com/sdesign.htm

Preliminary Findings, Results, Conclusions, & Implications May 14, 2008 Project Update: As I begin to collect the comparison data fromprofessionals, this clearly is a pilot study. Creating a meaningful assessment of the "professional mindset" would require a sample much more extensive than I will be able to do in Round One. However, I will be curious to see if there are inklings of trends that might exist. I will be processing the data this summer and fall, with presentation of the pilot study results next spring. Jan 31, 2008 Project Update: I am coming to think of this work as a first round, or pilot study. I think that the data that I am able to collect on this initial small scale will be meaningful in seeing "trends" in our core classes (something we have done none of up to this point) and helpful in being able to share the idea/concept and initial results with others in the field. But because of the small sample sizes available from our program, definitive results may be harder to extract. If, however, this first round produces some interesting results (in terms of concept and/or data) I think there might be an interest in taking it to a larger scale through organizations such as the Broadcast Education Association. Spring 2008

Examples of student work Career Relevance & Impact I will be updating my department on my research project as part of my upcoming retention defense. My involvement in the Teaching Fellows program has been seen as a very positive part of my development as a teacher, and this kind of research is an excellent addition to the creative endeavor that makes up much of my portfolio.