Collaborative Research: Developing Business Communication Skills in Manufacturing Technician Education

先进的制造和生产领域对能够在团队中有效沟通的熟练技术人员的需求日益增长。 为了满足这一劳动力需求，项目团队将开发和测试一个自适应虚拟现实（VR）平台，以帮助制造技术学生学习商业沟通技能。 该平台将提供交互式案例研究，让学生练习智能工厂环境中所需的商业沟通技能。 为了支持这些自适应VR案例研究在课程中的整合，先进制造项目的教师将参与广泛的专业发展，因为他们合作开发新的VR商业沟通案例研究。 此外，该项目还将支持教师在工业界的实习，以提高他们对先进制造业当前趋势，技能要求，新工具和职业机会的了解。 这些知识将帮助他们提高教学水平，更好地为学生服务。 为了加强课程和工作任务之间的一致性，该项目借鉴了印第安纳州常春藤科技社区学院、普渡大学和行业合作伙伴之间的长期合作关系。 认识到现有的制造业劳动力正在成熟，该项目还侧重于培养和调查沟通技能，促进高度专业化的技术技能，知识和专业知识在制造业劳动力的多代人之间的转移。项目的智力价值在于实施一个研究和开发周期，促进项目活动和可交付成果的开发、测试、调查和修订，以改进和实现目标（例如，高级制造技术人员，他们发展技术知识和技能，以及在现代制造业中有效工作的软技能）。 为了回答先验和新出现的问题，该项目将进行混合方法研究，以增进对将技术知识/技能的学习与课程和教育材料中的软技能相结合的有效性的认识（即，虚拟现实平台中的案例研究）。 这项定量和定性研究将通过事前结果评估、结构化访谈和焦点小组、描述性和趋势分析、可交付成果和产品质量分析以及对访谈、焦点小组讨论和开放式调查问题中的信息进行主题内容分析，研究制造和通信工作任务的整合。该项目由先进技术教育计划资助，该计划侧重于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.