Conduct a SWOT analysis of this course. SWOT means: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities (to make this course better), and Threats (what are any serious issues that could affect the quality of this course). Discuss each.
Strengths
- Portfolio Project – the course provides students an opportunity to create a project they can showcase to employers. The ability to work on the same project over the course of three months with other students means the project may be larger in scale than previous projects a student has worked on, and may be more impressive to employers.
- Managing Priorities – The expectations of the course are not unlike industry. Having to manage progress on the group project and also complete course assignments resembles the need to balance actual work completed, meetings, and various status updates and progress reports.
Weaknesses
- Providing Support – due to the nature of the course, where students can pick virtually any technology and framework, providing resources and support for students facing issues is a significant challenge. A student may pick an unfamiliar technology and face issues late into the project, which could be difficult to overcome.
- Equitable Distribution of Work – Determining if students are contributing to a project equally is difficult. Even with check-ins from the students, it would be dependent on the students to disclose if a group member were not contributing to a project. Students not contributing to a project detract from the experience for other students, which defeats the purpose of the course.
Opportunities (to make this course better)
- Corporate sponsors / partners – The ability to have students work on a 3-month project is an excellent opportunity for companies to provide training in a very cost-effective manner. Finding ways to increase the number of company-sponsored projects, or allow projects to resemble the types of take-home projects a company would hire from, would provide an excellent opportunity for students to align their skills and portfolio with projects companies are interested in.
- Student Reimbursement – The reimbursement policy for student projects was unknown to me, and I imagine most students don’t know about it. For my group, it was a significant headwind in terms of the quality of our project and our ability to make progress quickly. I expect the quality of student projects would be improved if the reimbursement was utilized more. Improving the visibility of this benefit would be a great service to students.
Threats (what are any serious issues that could affect the quality of this course)
- Projects Website – it was difficult to determine if projects were current, especially if company projects referred to past dates. Some projects had vague requirements, which make it difficult for a student to assess them.
- Project Selection – the projects available should resemble projects that a student would work on if they were hired by a company that is likely to recruit them. Problems that solve common business problems, or are typical of work done by recent graduates, would help align students with the needs of employers hiring from OSU.
