Collaborative Research: Developing Business Communication Skills in Manufacturing Technician Education

协作研究：在制造技术人员教育中培养业务沟通技能

• 批准号: 2000779
• 负责人: Kris Acheson-Clair
• 金额: $ 36.31万
• 依托单位: Purdue University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-15 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2000779&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Developing; Business; Communication

The advanced manufacturing and production fields have growing need for skilled technicians who can communicate effectively in teams. In response to this workforce demand, the project team will develop and test an adaptive virtual reality (VR) platform to help manufacturing technician students learn business communication skills. The platform will deliver interactive case studies that allow students to practice business communication skills needed in a smart factory context. To support integration of these adaptive VR case studies within courses, faculty in advanced manufacturing programs will participate in extensive professional development as they collaboratively develop new VR business communication case studies. In addition, the project will support faculty externships in industry to enhance their knowledge of current trends, skills requirements, new tools, and career opportunities in advanced manufacturing. This knowledge will help them improve their teaching and better serve their students. To strengthen the alignment between coursework and job tasks, the project draws on the long-standing partnership between Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, Purdue University, and industry partners. Recognizing that the incumbent manufacturing workforce is maturing, the project also focuses on fostering and investigating the communication skills that facilitate the transfer of highly specialized technical skills, knowledge, and expertise across the multiple generations in the manufacturing workforce. The intellectual merit of the project rests on the implementation of a research and development cycle that facilitates the development, testing, investigation, and revision of project activities and deliverables for improvement and goal attainment (e.g., advanced manufacturing technicians who develop the technical knowledge and skills, as well as the soft skills to work efficiently and effectively in modern manufacturing). To answer a priori and emerging questions, the project will conduct a mixed methods study to advance knowledge of the effectiveness of integrating the learning of technical knowledge/skills with soft skills in curricular and educational materials (i.e., case studies within a virtual reality platform). The quantitative and qualitative study will examine the integration of manufacturing and communication job tasks through pre-post outcomes assessments, structured interviews and focus groups, descriptive and trend analyses, analyses of the quality of deliverables and products, and thematic content analyses of information from interviews, focus group discussions, and open-ended survey questions. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

先进的制造和生产领域对可以在团队中有效沟通的熟练技术人员越来越需要。 为了响应这一劳动力需求，项目团队将开发和测试自适应虚拟现实（VR）平台，以帮助制造技术人员学习业务沟通技巧。 该平台将提供互动案例研究，使学生能够在智能工厂环境中练习所需的业务沟通技巧。 为了支持这些自适应VR案例研究在课程中的整合，高级制造计划的教师将在共同开发新的VR业务传播案例研究的过程中参与广泛的专业发展。 此外，该项目将支持行业的教师实习，以增强他们对当前趋势，技能需求，新工具和高级制造业的职业机会的了解。 这些知识将有助于他们改善教学并更好地为学生服务。 为了加强课程工作和工作任务之间的一致性，该项目借鉴了印第安纳州，普渡大学和行业合作伙伴之间的长期合作伙伴关系。 该项目认识到现任制造业劳动力正在成熟，因此该项目还致力于培养和调查沟通技巧，以促进制造业劳动力中多代高度专业的技术技能，知识和专业知识的转移。该项目的智力优点在于实施研发周期的实施，该研究周期促进了项目活动和可交付成果的开发，测试，调查和修订（例如，发展技术知识和技能的先进制造技术人员，以及在现代制造业中有效地工作，有效地工作，并有效地工作）。 为了回答先验和新兴的问题，该项目将进行混合的方法研究，以提高将技术知识/技能与软技能学习在课程和教育材料中（即，在虚拟现实平台内的案例研究）的有效性。 定量和定性研究将通过验证前结果评估，结构化访谈和焦点小组，描述性和趋势分析，交付成果和产品的质量分析以及访谈的主题内容分析，访谈，焦点小组讨论以及开放式调查问题的主题内容分析来研究制造和通信工作任务的整合。该项目由先进的技术教育计划资助，该计划的重点是推动国家经济的高级技术领域的技术人员的教育。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的智力优点和更广泛影响的审查标准通过评估来通过评估来支持的。

项目成果

A Review on Virtual Reality Skill Training Applications

• DOI: 10.3389/frvir.2021.645153
• 发表时间: 2021-04
• 作者: Biao Xie;Huimin Liu;Rawan Alghofaili;Yongqi Zhang;Yeling Jiang;F. Lobo;Changyang Li;Wanwan Li-Wan