Focus groups

I didn’t know that running focus groups would be one of those “PR things” but I found them to be extremely useful, informative and a great research tool. There were a several glitches along the way in communication, organisation and in general - for example:

· The Monday focus group was cancelled and one person ended up showing up. I didn’t realise until Rosie pointed out that that could have terrible ramifications for the rest of the focus group sessions as word of mouth spreads quickly and that one person could wrongly inform all the others that the focus groups have been cancelled!

· The Monday session I used as a practice session to work out where everything was, how to turn on the projector, if YouTube and the Curtin videos would work on that machine, if I could use my student log-in etc. The main problem I found was that only staff could log into the computers in the international boardroom and no one wanted to use theirs to help me!

· On Tuesday four people were meant to come and not one showed up. This gave myself and Rosie time to brainstorm and go over my duties for the rest of the internship. As you can imagine I was very nervous and worried at that point whether or not others will come to the other sessions.

· Throughout the week there were people changing their minds about what days and times they could attend. This was difficult as catering had to be booked several days in advance. Then some students complained that there were not enough fruit sticks at one of the sessions!

· the Thursday session was much harder to manage as there were so many of them. Some were starting their own conversations, some tuned out, started playing on their phones, so I would try to re-engage these people by speaking directly to them. Hopefully that didn’t scare them too much :)

Overall 36 students participated from 5 different Chinese universities. Only 9 men attended the focus groups. I don’t know why. Maybe it is easier to persuade women to do these things :)

From the feedback and brainstorming I am considering a revamp of the Curtin website. There are many things disjointed and difficult to find there. Rosie and I accidentally stumbled upon a video made for Chinese students that was not interlinked with the other video page and none of the students had seen it before. We also want to raise Curtin University’s web presence using Chinese social media as Western social media is blocked there. Also I am considering creating a video about Abacus labs as they are quite a novelty for international students.

In each and every session I gave my contact details to the students. As a former international student I understand how scary and unpredictable life abroad can be and I wanted them to feel more comfortable and have a helpful and friendly source to turn to for problems, enquiries, socialising or anything else that they might need.

So far so good. Now comes the hard part of writing up the research report and getting permisssion from the university to change the way they do things online.

Wish me luck!

Ivana Stefanovic
13377836
Bentley campus