2012 PROCEEDINGS - Public Relations Society of America

Recommendations for Use and Future Research
As public relations education evolves, so too must the general thinking that where a
public relations program is placed within an academic school or department is an important issue
of debate. Placement should become a moot conversation piece if applied courses and firms are
used to supplement students‘ educational endeavors in public relations. These courses and firms
can aid in giving students the experience in business, management, communication, tactical
work, strategy, psychology of working with clients, and many other areas that could otherwise be
lacking. These courses and firms are systems and must be evaluated as such to ensure system
survival as Bertalanffy (2009) described. The survey constructed in this study is an outcome
evaluation that can be (and should be) used in such a system. As this tool is now a solid
measurement of client satisfaction of public relations student-run firms or project-based client
work, it can be used to ensure a feedback loop that did not sufficiently exist before. If adopted
nationally, these surveys can actually benefit public relations education. Educators can begin
discussions about what their firms or courses score well on, and educate others about how they
teach such elements. Effectively, public relations education could be furthered by use of this
instrument, consistently, as standardized data would exist that has never existed before. If public
relations educators begin to utilize this instrument, and share pedagogical practices based on the
results, advancements can be made.
On a more local level, if this instrument is adopted and used by individual educators,
improvements can be made to their own respective programs due to client feedback. This
survey, when taken by clients, provides detail that may not have existed before and should
improve processes of the individual system.
The researcher‘s recommendation for future research includes planning for an evaluative
tool to be constructed to gauge outcomes. In a system such as an applied course or a firm,
inputs, throughputs, outputs, and outcomes, all need evaluated (and feedback loops must exist) to
ensure survival and growth of the system (Bertalanffy, 2009). With creation of this instrument,
inputs, throughputs, and outputs can all be evaluated properly. Outcomes are the intended results
of the system (McDavid & Hawthorn, 2006). Although a direct result of outputs, outcomes are
the effect that the outputs had on the external environment. Output evaluation must also be
pursued with partnership of former clients, but it has to be done when enough time has lapsed to
gauge outcomes, or the effect that the student work has had on the organization. Once this
evaluative measure is created, ensuring the final feedback loop, total system improvement can be
made. Output evaluation may not be able to be assessed for years after a given project, therefore,
planning for such a survey will be much different than the process used to construct this
instrument. The researcher learned much about preparing and conducting focus groups and this
knowledge will undoubtedly help in the creation of the next survey tool to assess outcomes.
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