Dr. Keri Stephens received funding from the Texas Department of Transportation, also known as TxDOT, to develop a comprehensive online version of the strategic public involvement planning course she and her team created for the TxDOT staff. This research and instructional design project expands on work done by Stephens in 2020, in which she and her project team conducted the research and developed an in-person course. 

During the 2019-2020 project with TxDOT, Stephens and her team responded to the question, “How can the TxDOT staff better engage the public in their projects?” TxDOT is required to host community meetings and reach out to the surrounding communities to better serve and represent the communities their construction projects are affecting. They were meeting this requirement, however, they wanted to go above and beyond and make sure they were hearing from all the groups involved. They wanted to find a better way to connect with the public. Through research, nationwide surveys, expert interviews, and data analysis, Dr. Stephens and her team created a new internal training course focused around a tool called the Approach to Internal Strategic Planning (ASIP).  This tool helps TxDOT better set goals and plan, and uses their past interactions with the public as a learning tool. This training course is known as the Strategic Public Involvement Planning Course. 

Due to the pandemic, now TxDOT needs an online version of this training. Using the original research and course design principles, they are now focused on creating an interactive online course that gives the staff the experience and tools they need to implement successful planning for public involvement. The core challenge the current team (Dr. Stephens & Courtney Powers) faces is developing an online course that best facilitates creating connections between the course participants using an interactive and informative online learning approach.  This is where Courtney’s expertise in teaching really shines.  She has kept over 60 undergraduate students engaged online while she is teaching the Organizational Communication course at The University of Texas at Austin.  Dr. Stephens also uses innovative online learning approaches to manage 20 different teams of students in her 100-person Communicating to Build Sales Relationships course. Combining their expertise, along with their knowledge of the literature and instructional design should help this project be successful.  

This project will end in the summer of 2021. Right now, Dr. Stephens and Courtney Powers are working diligently with instructional experts at UT Austin. They are considering all the possible options to provide TxDOT with the best online training available. Currently, the team is working on ways to convert learning activities, such as case studies, into meaningful learning opportunities using break out groups, polls, and brief lecture periods. 

Here at OPTIC Lab, we are excited to see what great work this team will produce for TxDOT. Additionally, we look forward to learning more about organizational communication and how that expertise helps highly technical organizations, such as the Texas Department of Transportation.