Center for Career Development Assessment Report
Teamwork and Collaboration
June 2006
Introduction
The Center for Career Development (CCD), along with other departments in the College
Life Division, selected the overall college statement detailing desired outcomes for
Collaboration and Teamwork to assess in its work. The co-curricular learning goal is
listed below:
Collaboration and Teamwork – co-curricular learning goal to be assessed
Gettysburg College students should develop the skill and understanding to work
jointly with others in intellectual endeavors. We expect students to:
(a) Seek involvement with a group for a common purpose;
(b) Participate in the development and maintenance of health group norms;
(c) Show respect for opinions, talents and contribution of others; nurtures gifts and
talents of others as well as one’s own;
(d) Demonstrate willingness to accept consensus;
(e) Engage in reasoned discourse with civility;
(f) Identify the advantages and challenges of diversity within a group;
(g) Display strong relationships in the face of challenging situations and decisions
Upfront, a significant limitation to this report and its outcomes is to be noted. The Center
for Career Development primarily works with students in individual appointments rather
than in teams or groups, making this particular learning goal difficult to assess in our
work. However, within some of our programs, there is group work and activity; these
were the opportunities for our office to assess the above learning goal.
Methods Used
Methods used for collecting data included observation/follow-up by staff members,
student self-reports such as questionnaires and verbal reports, and student reflection
(written and verbal).
Results/Outcomes
The following are data gathered from various activities through the Center for Career
Development:
Backpack to Briefcase Career Seminar
This program brings alumni back to campus to interact with students about a variety of
college to career transition issues. The Student Alumni Association (SAA) and students
from the CCD plan and implement the event; staff from the CCD and the Alumni
Relations Office provides support. This year’s planning group was observed during the
planning process and was also assessed after the event. Included is a quote from the
CCD staff member’s summary report of the event:
Whenever Jess [Alumni Relations staff member] or I identified a task, the
students actually took the initiative immediately afterwards to discuss among
themselves who would be available or who had the talent to complete the task.
The group asked another student to put together a fold-out pamphlet with the
alumni bios because she had such great graphic skills. The pamphlet was not of
professional quality, but it was certainly up to most in-house brochures and the
alumni really enjoyed reading their profiles in it.
This indicated that the students in the planning group used effective problem-solving and
communication skills as part of their work as a team. Another quote included in the
summary report alluded to the value of participation in a team effort that led to greater
learning:
We did an on-line survey of all participants and the majority of the students from
the [Student] Alumni Association responded that they found the event very useful.
They critiqued the event honestly and offered valuable suggestions, but in general
they found the event much more rewarding than the passive participants. One
member of the Association indicated that he was disappointed in his class mates
who had stayed out late to party the night before and had not attended because
they were too tired.
While not a surprising result, this comment indicates the continued commitment that
professional staff members should have in involving students in groups or teams as a way
to foster deeper learning.
Pre-Health Professions Club
One staff member in the CCD co-advises the student Pre-Health Professions Club on
campus. The information included here comes from her self-report of advising activities.
This student group is quite active in sponsoring career-related programs for its members.
This year, the students in the group met to develop a program schedule for the year that
included several speakers in health career professions, workshops on career-related topics
such as resume/cover letter writing and applying to graduate programs, and a dinner with
over twenty alumni in health professions in attendance. While no evaluation data is
available from this group, the fact that the group sponsored a healthy mix of activities
through the year shows some evidence of effective teamwork and collaboration skills.
Bright Lights! Big City!
The Bright Lights! Big City! program is a 2 ½ day career immersion experience focused
on a particular career field. Student participate in a variety of career-related sessions
during the 2 ½ days and interact with alumni and parents in networking and job
shadowing experiences. Students are also assigned to groups to consider and present
findings on a case study. The presentation requires that all students in the group
participate both in the planning and the oral report. Through our oral debriefings with
students, they overwhelmingly endorse the case study assignment. Included are some
quotes from students about their experiences working as teams:
 [the case study] idea is good; I liked the presentation



[the] feedback is great
Diverse communication [within the group] was good
Awkward at first; was good later on
These quotes indicate that the students recognize the power of the learning that takes
place on teams when they have to collaborate to accomplish an assignment.
Career Outreach Assistants
The CCD employs several students as peer career counselors. These students staff dropin hours to provide resume critiques and answer career-related questions, help with
program implementation, and assist in workshop presentations. We have not assessed
these students as a team; though we see greater potential for group work in the future.
Individually, these students report personal growth in personal and professional skills
such as confidence, presentation abilities, problem solving, and creativity – all skills that
have relevance to Teamwork and Collaboration.
Discussion/Conclusion
Again, as noted above, the CCD staff has not worked with students in team settings to
any great extent to this point. In the future, there will be greater opportunity for our
office to assess learning through Teamwork and Collaboration. As part of the
implementation of a new career outreach program for students in 2006, the CCD staff
will work systematically with students in career affinity groups to increase their learning
about career options and to help them engage in career-related experiences as groups.
Such work will allow us to better assess important components of Teamwork and
Collaboration.