175 - Tell Me More About That : Visual Ideation Exercises for Facilitating Online Student Focus Groups in STEM Education

Abstract Information: Focus groups can be effective evaluation tools for assessing the quality of students’ experience in STEM education programs, as well as to generate ideas for the purpose of program improvement. Ideally, focus groups offer rich discussion that is divergent while staying topically focused, allows for varying perspectives, and is inclusive of the voices of all participants. The sudden move to online focus groups has introduced challenges for facilitators, particularly in keeping students engaged and interacting in an online meeting. This session will include an overview of research into the value of including visual ideation exercises into focus groups protocols as a way to enrich the discussion, and a demonstration of methods for moderating online focus group ideation by combining graphic organizers with tools such as Google Jamboard.

Relevance Statement: Focus groups are one of the most common ways to collect evidence for program progress and impact. One of the consequences of the COVID pandemic restrictions was the move from in-person to online data collection methods, and especially with student focus groups. Ideally, focus groups offer rich discussion that is divergent while staying topically focused, allows for varying perspectives, and is inclusive of the voices of all participants. While the advantage of an online format is that it can be more convenient and cost effective to gather in a ZOOM Room rather than a campus lounge to conduct a focus group, online focus groups have introduced challenges for education evaluators, particularly in keeping students engaged and interacting in an online meeting. Like other forms of Arts-Based Evaluation, the introduction of visual ideation exercises can support broader focus group participation and deeper, more elaborate responses. This session will include an overview of research into the value of including visual ideation exercises into focus groups protocols as a way to enrich the discussion, and a demonstration of methods for moderating online focus group ideation by combining graphic organizers with tools such as Google Jamboard.
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