Practice Report

Due Week 8 (Friday, October 16)

• Due: Week 8 (Friday, October 16)
• Points: 10
• Submit to: Blackboard
• Submission: By Individual

Important

Start with the instructions, and start this assignment early. It will likely take longer than you think. If you have any questions, ask your UCA.

Instructions

The practice report assignment is designed to allow you to practice putting together a PST 315 final report. You will complete all sections of a final report using the data and information provided.

• A Formatted Report Shell is provided below. The report shell includes a title page, headers for the start of each section, footers, and page numbers. You just need to add the content of the report. Be careful you do not mess with the formatting!
• An Excel spreadsheet with data for you to use to craft the report is posted on Blackboard.
• Additional information needed to complete the assignment is broken down by section on this page.

Files

• Formatted Report Shell (Word)

The practice report data (Excel) is posted on Blackboard.

About your “client” and the “data”

You are completing this final report for Allie Ellen, President of the Skills Win Coaching Organization (SWCO). The Skills Win Coaching Organization’s mission is to “enhance the professional skills of youth in the City of Syracuse, paving the way for career and personal success.” If you wish, you can read more about SWCO on their website.

Each semester, SWCO conducts a series of skill development sessions, known as site sessions, at local high schools and community organizations. During the Fall 2024 semester, these sessions were held at three sites: the Institute of Technology at Syracuse Central (ITC), the Public Service Leadership Academy at Fowler (PLSA@Fowler), and with the Syracuse Police Cadets. Allie has asked you to analyze the results of a student survey so that SWCO can better understand student satisfaction with these sessions.

On November 4th, 2024, Allie distributed a survey she designed to students at all three sites. The form was closed the same day. The survey was created using Google Forms, and students accessed it by scanning a QR code. Responses were automatically recorded in Google Sheets and later downloaded into an Excel file, which is posted on Blackboard.

On the day the survey was shared, 432 students were present across all three sites. SWCO’s goal was to collect feedback from the approximately 457 students who participated in sessions that semester. Because Allie waited until the very end of each session to distribute the survey, some students rushed through their responses. Additionally, many students who were less engaged during the sessions were also not attentive when the QR code was displayed.

Section-by-section instructions

Title page

Be sure that you fill out the title page! Don’t lose these easy points.

Executive summary

See the Executive Summary Guide.

Introduction and methods

See the Introduction and Methods Guide.

Findings

See the PST 315 Graphing Guidelines and the Findings Guide. If you do not remember how to write findings statements, please refer back to class slides.

You will complete three findings using the data set provided by the Skills Win Coaching Organization.

Finding 1 | Basic graphing. Create a graph following the PST 315 graphing guidelines that answers the following question: did students find the coaches helpful, not helpful, or did they feel neutral?

Finding 2 | Aggregate graph. Create a graph following the PST 315 graphing guidelines that answers the following question: how strongly did students from each site agree that the exercises were engaging?

Finding 3 | Open-ended question, single category. Create a graph following the PST 315 graphing guidelines that answers the following question: what did students feel could be improved at their site sessions?

Tip

Every aggregate graph should be accompanied by disaggregated graphs in Appendix V. Open-ended responses should be listed in Appendix IV.

Appendices

See the Appendices Guide. This report will require all five appendices – your actual final report may not!

Formatting

Ensure page numbers are correct and footers are filled out correctly. See the Footers and Section Breaks Guide.

Hint: refer to the UCA example reports on Blackboard if you are unsure what the formatting of any aspect of the report should look like.

Guidelines

The following guidelines apply to this assignment:

• Introduction and Methods Guide – How to write the introduction and methods sections of your report.
• Findings Guide – How to lay out a findings page: statement, graph, source, comment.
• Appendices Guide – What belongs in each of the five appendices.
• Footers and Section Breaks Guide – How to edit footers, align page numbers, and delete section breaks.

You can find all of the course guidelines on the Guidelines page.