Abstract
Virtual focus groups played a significant role in guiding the design and development of an innovative professional development program for postdoctoral scholars, called The Postdoc Academy. The primary goal of obtaining feedback from postdocs was to ensure the program content is relevant, approachable, and inclusive for participants of all backgrounds, career stages, professional aspirations, and disciplines. The data collected in 13 focus groups shaped the final content and structure for the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), ‘The Postdoc Academy: Succeeding as a Postdoc’. Evaluation of participant experience in a post-focus group survey suggests that engaging a target audience is an effective approach to obtain participant feedback and engage learners in the material. Content and activities modified by this feedback were highly rated by course participants in self-reported post-module evaluations. This article describes a method on how structured virtual focus groups of diverse future course participants can provide valuable feedback on developing the content and structure of professional development programming.
Highlights
Professional development is critical for postdoctoral scholars to develop skills beyond the technical focus of their research (Davis, 2009; Gibbs et al, 2015)
Not all focus group participants took the online course and course surveys, the results reported in Table 3 are a summary from all course participants who completed course surveys (Underlying data (Young et al, 2020))
The survey items are aligned with the learning objectives and short-term outcomes identified for the module. These results indicate that the online course content, including the major modifications made to “Developing Resilience” based on focus group feedback, was well-received by course participants
Summary
Professional development is critical for postdoctoral scholars (postdocs) to develop skills beyond the technical focus of their research (Davis, 2009; Gibbs et al, 2015). A recent study highlights the lack of postdoc training in precisely the skills necessary for success in the current job market, including career preparation, leadership, and collaboration (Alund et al, 2020). To address this training gap, our team created online and supplemental in-person professional development programming for postdocs, based on the National Postdoctoral Association core competencies (NPA Core Competencies, n.d.). The goal of the Postdoc Academy is to create a comprehensive and flexible professional development program targeting the needs of postdocs that develops transferable skills to enable their success in a diverse set of careers. More than 60 countries have been represented by the program registrants
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