Community & Third Sector OR: the role of science in OR and

vice versa

Martha VahlResearch Consultant

martha@cict.demon.co.uk

Overview

Example Student as Producer evaluation

Community Operational Research

Conclusion

Example Student as Producer evaluation

University of Lincoln – 2010-2013 (HEA funded)

- Research Engaged teaching and learning as the organising principle of the University

- Through student engagement

‘learning takes place when doing ‘real’ research, in collaboration’

- Fundamental debate about pedagogical principles

SasP EvaluationMeasures taken:

8 features: discovery, technology, space and spatiality, assessment and feedback, research and evaluation, student voice, support through information sources, creating the future

Undergraduate research projects (UROS); Fund for Educational Development (FED)

Integrate into Quality Processes (AMR, revalidation, internal examiners, PAR)

Conferences/meetings, publications, presentations

Self Assessment Questionnaire (twice)

Evaluation approach 1Simple: did these measures achieve the required

result? Improve student engagement?

Data sources: NSS, publications, UROS, FED, Teacher qualifications, AMR, PAR, Revalidations, External Examiners publications, etc

Results No, not because of the SasP and its measures.

- Few individual ‘strong’ examples were identified; not shared, no debate, compliance through quality

Evaluation approach 2Too many options/complexities as people’s

values are not included in the simple approach.

Use Community OR approach to engage people to include values and motivate – include individual optimization

Introduction of regulative principles to improve the practice (optimisation within, and resilience)

People collaborate by engaging in a task that improves individual activities

Improve SasP through Research

Support practice improvements:Creating community:

(research)groups (students, collaborators) to develop a task.

The objective of the task can be temporarily agreed or tolerated, but the attitudes (values) will develop & change during collaboration.

SasP as researchBeautiful example of Community OR, but

Need people to continue their participation in achieving a (temporary) objective

Need to deliver a product

Contribute to the product even though this may change

Create new resources through the collaboration

Knowledge: what is takes to keep going (competence)

SasP lessons learnedProject was a waste of money

Results and resources are not made available, so will peter out

No established procedures to do SasP

Is has been integrated as a managerial compliance and control instrument (not creating and supporting space to develop regulative principles)

Community OR ScienceWicked problems, tragedy of the commons,

Prisoner’s Dilemma, Arrow’s impossibility theorem: individual -< collective tension, support in dealing with these issues (tit for that in the prisoner’s dilemma). NOT resolving the tension, but organising it. Example: linguistic structures

Different purposes, desired impacts etc.: how dealing with them be extended from a particular set to (finite number of values) to a more general problem?

Community OR ‘science challenge’to create resources that support people to create

collective values they can accept temporarily

COR: Science of Better

Conclusions Lesson1: Student as Producer evaluation: as a project not

successful, as it did not engage with people’s values. No sharing or debate, but managerial compliance and control.

Lesson2: Student as Producer as a COR project would benefit from engaging with people’s values; this means support them to develop a task with a temporary agreed objective. This will be successful if the regulative principle is properly chosen (as in the Prisoners’ Dilemma).

Lesson3: Projects like SasP require long term development; structures that might develop need to be maintained by improving them via participants’ contributions.