Development of an Online Network to Advance Collaboration and Networking Among Students in the Engineering Management Program

Abstract

The student body within the Engineering Management (EMGT) program at the University of Kansas is made up of professionals that bring tremendous value to the classroom by sharing their experiences in industry. Unfortunately, students in EMGT program often work full time, and their availability for collaboration and networking is limited. Recent innovations in social networking tools have advanced the ways in which individuals are able to collaborate and network within communities. These new innovations offer new opportunities to advance education for the engineering management program by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of collaboration and networking by making classmates more accessible. The objective of this project is to determine the qualities a social network should have to help students effectively and efficiently collaborate and network, and then create a beta site to include these qualities for which students can test and provide their feedback for future work. The result was a beta site that possesses the qualities, which will assist with collaboration and networking that were discovered in the literature review. Additionally, the project ended with lots of great feedback from students who had some excellent suggestions for improvement after spending time working on the site.