Student professional development attempts to address the gap between academic
experiences and employer expectations. This study examined student professional
development utilizing competency-based development and assessment within an academic
environment. An undergraduate course in lean/cellular manufacturing at Iowa State
University served as the site for this mixed methods study. Degree program outcomes linked
to workplace competencies were the foundation for implementation of a 360-degree
assessment process. A pre-course survey showed that students had no prior experience with
the 360-degree process. The workplace competencies’ key action items were assessed during
the semester using pre- and post-assessment formats. Analysis utilized paired t-testing to
detected significant differences between the pre- and post-assessments average values.
Results indicated professional development gains were achieved through higher
post-assessment values in specific key action items within the competencies.
Students indicated that their 360-degree feedback experience had issues in the areas
of benefits, difficulties, learning, fairness and accuracy, as well as impact on professional
development. Self-reflections captured students’ perceived lean knowledge gains, peer
assessments as fair/accurate and valuable, and that the most helpful to their professional
development was the industry project mentor experience.
Overall, this mixed methods study provided a framework to measure and understand
professional student development through: (a) competency-based assessments, and (b)
captured student experiences.