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Course: APPL 655 Practical Applications in I/O Psychology Tom Mitchell, U. of Baltimore, (Instructor)

Div of Applied Psychology & Quant Methods Tmitchell@ubalt.edu http://home.ubalt.edu/tmitch

Mike Sturman, Cornell U. (Data generator) Organizational Mgt, Communication, and Law

mcs5@cornell.edu (607) 255-5383

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Capstone Course in I/O ΨU. of Baltimore M.S. in Applied Ψ

M.S. Curriculum in I/O (42 hours) Personnel (I):

Job analysis / personnel / assessment Organizational (O):

Org psych / mot-sat-leadership Core:

Research methods / stats

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Capstone Course Objectives Apply SKAs to real HR problems Integrate knowledge from I and O Ψ Bridge gap between theory and

practice Gain experiential teamwork

experience Demonstrate competencies

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Competencies Demonstrated Core SKAs:

Conduct job analysis Develop performance appraisal Develop employee selection program Assess employee morale Analyze data

Software utilization Communication / Interpersonal skills:

Report writing Oral presentation of findings Teamwork skills

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Course Characteristics Real problems

Mundane realism Experimental realism

Dynamic: projects Change over time Progress over time

Interactive: Information exchange Client <-> Instructor <-> Team

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Course Format Applied Psychology Consultants Inc

. APC, Inc. (virtual consulting firm)

Instructor(s) = Senior consultant Students = Junior consultant

Three projects each (sel/pa/sat) Team Leader on one of projects

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Course Format (con’t)

Cases: Real world organizations (disguised) From consulting work Projects tailored to fit problem

Each Team: Assess problem Generate solutions Implement solutions Write report / present to mgt

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Course Format (dynamic/interactive)

Instructor responds / reacts to identified problems changes/redirects (via memos) to proposed solutions to interventions

Provides simulated feedback (data)

To confirm/disconfirm hypotheses critique / recommendations

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Course Materials Course description Client organizations Case assignments Assessment

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Tech Tools MS Office: Word/Excel/Ppoint SPSS Webboard / email Data generator (DataSim)

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DataSim (Mike Sturman)

Visual Basic program Creates data sets to user

specifications Saves simulation / data in txt file

For import into Excel/SPSS/SAS/ etc. Importing existing data Add additional vars later

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DataSim (Sturman)

Unlimited number of: Cases Constructs / variables Correlation matrix (user specified)

Variable characteristics (user specified)

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DataSim (Sturman)

Constructs Number of items (vars) Reliability (internal consistency)

Construct characteristics can be: Normal (continuous) Categorical (2 – 12) Custom continuous

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Item types & char Normal continuous

Min/max/ mean/ sd Truncate / winsorize

Categorical 2 to 12 Proportion of each category

Custom - continuous Median / sd Skew level (+ to -) Tail elongation

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Project Process: Team Identifies problem Formulates hypotheses Develops assessment plan Requests data from org

Develops or finds existing measures (tests/inventory/survey)

Creates SPSS data structure / parameters

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Project Process: Instructor

Accepts or recommends changing structure

Creates data set to meet Team specs To confirm/disconfirm hypotheses

Returns completed data set to team for analysis

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Project Process: Team Analyses data using SPSS

Incorporates results in report

Forwards report to Instructor for critique

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Example: Sel3: Alum Alum Corp.

Selection of mid-managers Concurrent Validation study Demos:

Race/gender/education Predictors:

WPT/WGCTA/CPI Criteria:

Supervisor ratings

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Conclusion of Capstone Sim Assesses student competencies Requires integration of SKAs Experiential (mundane/exp realism) Provides student with portfolio item Provides instructor with feedback

strengths/weaknesses of curriculum

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Uses of DataSim Research methods

Simulate data for proposals Test “pilot” data for studies

Statistics courses Create data sets for examples

AssessmentDevelop unique data set for each

student

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Suggestions? For Capstone course?

For DataSim? Other uses? What you would like it to do?