Using Focus Groups to Listen, Learn, and Lead in Higher Education

Using Focus Groups to Listen, Learn, and Lead in Higher Education presents an easy-to-use 6-step guide to help leaders in higher education listen to and learn from their stakeholders in order to enhance decision making. The big questions facing institutions today--especially those surrounding access, affordability, and accountability--require more than dashboards. Metrics and quantitative data alone do not offer lasting solutions and improvements. Using qualitative methods to listen to the voices of those involved, especially students and staff, is critical. Focus groups constitute the most appropriate, rigorous, and relevant qualitative research tool for this purpose, and one that is cost-effective and builds community when conducted using the ODU Method described in this book.

Using Focus Groups is a single, comprehensive, and practical resource that describes why, when, and how to use focus groups. The authors provide detailed guidance for using focus groups, from developing the research questions with stakeholders, through training and recruiting moderators, and identifying and recruiting participants, to the logistics of conducting focus groups, and ultimately analyzing data and developing final reports. Conversational vignettes illustrate the discussions that regularly occur in each step and help the reader better understand the process. Fifteen appendices provide templates and examples of every part of the process.

Written particularly for institutional research and assessment staff and upper-level administrators, this book will also appeal to deans, department and program chairs and directors, faculty leaders, and administrative unit directors, including those in auxiliary and student services, alumni associations, and university foundations. It also serves as an excellent resource for higher education research methods courses.

The authors are uniquely positioned to guide readers in this process. The team developed and refined this technique over two decades at Old Dominion University. They have conducted over 100 focus groups with campus, nonprofit, local, and international community organizations to assist them in assessing student learning, transition, and preparedness for the workforce, as well as evaluating organizations work and planning future projects.

Mona J.E. Danner is Professor and Chair of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Old Dominion University. Dr. Danner has also served as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Letters, Director of the MA in Applied Sociology and the PhD in Criminology & Criminal Justice programs, and has been active in service at all levels throughout the university including working with focus groups across campus. Social inequalities, crime control policies, and globalization comprise her teaching and research interests. She has published in those fields and presented research at conferences throughout the U.S., in Europe, Latin America, and Australia, and at the NGO Forum held in conjunction with the United Nations Conference on Women in 1995 in Beijing, China. Dr. Danner has also published op-eds and been featured in television and radio interviews and been quoted by the popular print media.

J. Worth Pickering retired as Assistant Vice President for Assessment at Old Dominion University where he worked for more 30 years. He now works for ODU as a part-time consultant. Prior to his appointment as AVP, he held the position of Director of Assessment and has also worked in Student Services Research and served in the Counseling Center as a career counselor. Dr. Pickering co-led the development of the focus group process at ODU over the last 20 years and has led a variety of focus group projects in which we have conducted more than 100 focus groups during that time. Dr. Pickering has taught graduate courses in career development and student development as well as research and assessment at ODU. His primary research interests are in the areas of student success and student learning. In addition to his work at ODU, Dr. Pickering regularly consults with other institutions and conducts workshops at regional and national conferences. He has published articles and book chapters in the areas of student learning, student success, and assessment.

Tisha M. Paredes is Assistant Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment at Old Dominion University where she has worked for 12 years as a Research Associate, Senior Research Associate and Director of Assessment. While pursuing her doctorate in higher education administration at ODU, she began her career at ODU in 2003 in the College of Health Sciences as an advisor. Over the next decade, Dr. Paredes transitioned from Health Sciences to Teacher Education Services in the College of Education and then Assessment and Evaluation in Student Affairs. She has conducted over 50 workshops and trainings sessions for ODU faculty and staff, multiple internal and external focus groups, and she frequently provides consultation services on academic and administrative assessment (including general education assessment programs), first-year student success, data collection techniques and survey development for colleges and universities across the country. Her primary research interests include first-year student success and assessment of student learning.

Jillian Kinzie is Associate Director of the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Institute. She is also a senior scholar with the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) project.