Measure what matters

I just started working on a research project for my job with the entrepreneurship program here at Ohio Northern. We are looking into 250 universities and locating their intellectual property (IP) policies. Not every school has one, but there is a big push towards innovation and entrepreneurship for students and faculty. We are completing a content analysis of all the policies. Our goal is to bring attention to the need for universities to have a policy for student's intellectual policy. 

The book Measure What Matters gave me some more insight into the importance of a content analysis. We chose a content analysis because it was the best tool to give us the insight we needed for our presentation at the Marketing Educators Association conference in April. We will look at what percentage of the 250 universities have policies specific to students and the universities that don't have an IP policy for students. 

Chapter 14 in the book talks about measurement for higher education. Professors are constantly doing research in their area of expertise, but now students are joining in. Without a IP policy, the school could have no legal claim to any intellectual policy developed by students.

Using the steps in the book, we defined how our research would start.

Step 1: Identify and prioritize your audience - Faculty, staff and students.
Step 2: Define your objectives and get everyone on the same page - To encourage universities to write an IP policy that includes a policy for student's IP.
Step 3: Establish a benchmark - Professor Schakett is establishing these soon.
Step 4: Pick a measurement tool and collect data - a content analysis of the IP policies of 250 universities.
Step 5: Analyze the data, Glean insight, Makes changes and measure again - We are in the process of collecting all the data.