Communication Center Journal - Volume 5 - 1 - 2019 - Consultants in the Classroom: Pilot Study Assessing Multidisciplinary Center Collaboration

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by kopisore

Communication Center Journal explores a pilot study on multidisciplinary collaboration by placing communication center consultants into a university classroom for an entire semester. The study compares a control group with no consultant participation against two experimental conditions: embedded consultants throughout meetings or consultants delivering service-specific workshops during selected sessions. Empowerment levels and subject knowledge are measured using pre- and post-semester scales. Results indicate higher empowerment and learning outcomes in the workshop condition than in other groups, highlighting value from structured consultant inclusion.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Background of University Communication Centers

Grand Valley Knowledge Market (GVKM)

Pilot Study Design

Collaborative Consulting Conditions

Review of Literature

Collaborative Consulting

Communication Center Journal 19 Volume 5:1, 2019 Consultants in the Classroom: Pilot Study Assessing Multidisciplinary Center Collaboration Carl Brown, Ashley B. Rapp, Adrienne Wallace, Jennifer Torreano, Melanie Rabine, & Patrick Johnson Grand Valley State University Communication center clients come in various forms. Many centers work with individuals and groups while some work with entire classrooms, departments, or colleges. Very few centers both partner with other campus consulting services and interact with large units. While a considerable amount of literature focuses on one-on-one consultations and some work focuses on collaboration between similar centers (McCall, Ellis, & Murphy, 2017), little, if any, research deals with these unique partnerships and how they collaborate to serve groups. This article examines how one communication center partnered with two other campus consulting services to create a purposeful and collaborative relationship with three sections of a communication course for an entire semester each. The goal of this work is to test effectiveness value of communication and similar consultants in the classroom, and to understand if one approach to consultant inclusion in the classroom is more empowering than another. To accomplish these goals, three groups, or classes, of students were used. The control group excluded all consultant participation. One experimental group had consultants embedded themselves into each class meeting. The other experimental group had consultants provide service-specific workshops during select class meetings. The collaborative partnership for this study included speaking, writing, and research center consultants and pre-and post-semester scales were used to compare empowerment levels and subject knowledge values between groups. Results suggest the workshop group produces higher empowerment and learning levels than other groups. Key words: communication centers, embedded consultants, empowerment, interdisciplinary, collaboration. The history of university communication centers is long and goes directly through the doors of university writing centers. While tracing a complete history is not the goal of this work, some context is beneficial. Writing centers were preceded by literary societies (Rudolph, 1976), founded as sites for remedial skill development (Boquet, 1999; Carino, 1995), brought mainstream with a broader focus on writing appreciation and writer empowerment in the 1970s (Kinkead, 2001), and are currently widespread on college and university campuses across the United States. One element that separates writing centers from other campus tutoring centers is the use of the Socratic method and its focus on asking questions to build knowledge (Tienken, Goldberg, & DiRocco, 2010). This effective approach to learning (Thompson & Mackiewicz, 2014) has been adopted by similar campus services including many oral communication centers, research centers, and math centers. At Grand Valley State University (GVSU), the writing, oral communication, and research centers all use the Socratic method and share a common goal of empowering students to become more effective writers, speakers, and researchers and to embrace these roles as part of their larger identities (Brown & Leek, 2016; Leek & Brown, 2015) . These Communication Center Journal 20 Volume 5:1, 2019 similar missions and shared values led these three services to band together and form the Grand Valley Knowledge Market (GVKM) . As a united group comprised of three individual consulting services, the GVKM strives to add additional and effective ways to reach and benefit the campus community. While the services have individual home spaces, they share a common space in the university library during scheduled hours of the day. This common space and the resulting gathering of various center staff is designed to provide opportunities for both scheduled appointments and spontaneous collaboration in a spa

FAQs

What is the purpose of the pilot study on multidisciplinary center collaboration?

The pilot study tests the effectiveness of communication consultants in the classroom and examines whether one consultant-inclusion approach is more empowering than another.

How do the study conditions differ across the control and experimental groups?

The control group excludes consultant participation. One experimental group has consultants embedded into each class meeting, while the other experimental group receives service-specific workshops during selected meetings.

What do the results suggest about consultant workshops compared with other approaches?

The workshop group produces higher empowerment and learning levels than the other groups.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by kopisore