Esmeralda Montelongo

COMM 250

Campaign Portfolio

PowerPoint Link:
chrome-extension://bpmcpldpdmajfigpchkicefoigmkfalc/views/app.html

Project Proposal

Our commons campaign will focus on the idea of providing more study rooms that are individually closed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Love library, each of which will allow one to two students. Our campaign will primarily be focused towards UNL students and faculty. Providing more individual study rooms will allow students to work either alone or with a group member without the distraction of others, external noises, and allows students to study at their comfort level. As the student population continues to grow at UNL, the lack of private and comfortable study space is a growing concern to students during the busiest times, such as exam week.  

In order to help our audience relate to the need of more individual space added to the library, we will provide both logos and pathos in presenting our ideas. For example, gathering surveys of student’s responses on the addition of more private study rooms will help us provide effective logos with evidence in supporting our campaign’s targeted problem, ensuring that our end results are relevant to the issue. We will also gather feedback on how students feel with the amount of open space there currently is at the library and how it affects their comfort level and effectiveness when studying. With this information we will be able to relate to the student’s need and approach our campaign on an ethos level by given them the opportunity to give and feedback that they have for the things they currently enjoy or would like to change in the library.

To begin my campaign, I will create a survey that outlines questions over the comfort level, distractions, and whether private study space will promote effective learning among students. Based on results, I will then gather my information, determine whether the addition of more private study space is necessary, and then present a powerpoint with my summaries to my UNL COMM 250 class. On presentation day, I will introduce my rhetorical situation to my audience- the lack or private and comfortable study space, and will specify that my survey was done with random UNL students. I will then state the current condition at the UNL Love library to my audience and then introduce what can and should be done to provide students with better study space. This campaign will be presented on a powerpoint that summarizes the feedback that I received from my population sample and I will provide single printed sheets with a graph that represents student’s responses.

One constraint that I will face with getting feedback for my campaign would be that I could only get a small sample of students to take my survey. It would not represent the entire UNL student population. Another constraint that this campaign will face is the current structure of the building. There is currently not enough room for the addition of space in the library.

Since the purpose for this campaign is to reach out to students in order to provide information to the administration of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln about improving study areas for students, we will need to present our information in a formal manner. We want to make this memorable to students by reaching out to them for their input and involving them throughout the process of our campaign, ensuring that they feel connected and that their opinion matters.

Initially, my surveys were to be handed out in early October and collected by October 27th, 2015. Due to some changes in my group, my agenda needed to change as well as my survey process. My survey was handed out to UNL students. On November 30th, I began to interpret my survey results to come up with a speech that outlines my information into the five cannons: Invention, arrangement, style use, memory, and how I will be presenting my presentation.

What was done:

On November 18th I began to adjust my set agenda on the assignment, fix my proposal paper, and come up with a new set of ideas for my campaign. Using ESurveryCreator.com, I created a new set of survey questions that I thought would target my rhetorical situation.

Students were able to answer my survey by a “Yes or no”, free response, and using a drop down box.

Below are general questions that were asked in order to get a sense of student’s comfort leve:

Do you study at the UNL Love Library Regularly?

If not, what other buildings on campus do you go to?

Where in the library do you study at? (E.g. open space, north side, Mezzanine Room, etc.)

How often is your attention shifted because of distractions? (People walking by, noises, etc.)

Please list a type of distraction that you encounter that comes to mind first.

How often do these distractions alter your academic performance during exams?

List 3 things in the library that you enjoy/like.

List 3 adjustments that could be done to help you focus better.

Below are questions that were asked on my survey to determine whether my issue is relevant to the student population:

Do you check out private study rooms? If you answered “Yes, answer the following questions.

Approximately how often do you check out private study rooms?

List a reason why you prefer to check out study rooms.

The addition of private rooms will prevent distractions and be helpful with studying.

What is one thing that you enjoy about the private rooms?

What is one thing that you dislike.

I gathered results from 30 participants and on November 25th I summarized my results and either rejected or support my thesis: “With more private study space, students will be able to study more efficiently”.  On December 30th I started my speech outline. On December 5th I finalized my Powerpoint.

Evidence on Intervention:

I have attached my survey questions with this portfolio in the next two pages. Due to page limit, I have also included a summary of the 290 answers that were given from my 30 participants which could be viewed at the reader’s own  leisure.

Click on Link for Survey questions:
file:///home/chronos/u-e58c221083a58bdc6aabe57fbcc3c1b9b0cf3702/Downloads/output%20(3).pdf

Survey results:

file:///home/chronos/u-e58c221083a58bdc6aabe57fbcc3c1b9b0cf3702/Downloads/output%20(4).pdf

Reflection - What went well and would could’ve been done differently:

Overall, I think I could’ve chosen a more difficult campaign topic to do. After viewing the “Degree of Difficulty” guide I saw that my campaign, techniques, and preparations wasn’t as strong as it should’ve or could’ve been. I did struggle with preparing my presentation in a manner that includes the rhetorical cannons. I do not have much background experience in a Communications course, so a lot of the things we covered that applied to this campaign were somewhat hard to use in a practical way.

One thing that went very well was carrying out the survey and receiving feedback. With my group having a little changes to it, I did have some concerns to whether I’ll be able to get enough feedback from my sample population, but it actually turned out really well. Something that could have been done differently was group assignments just because I didn’t really get the opportunity to search for group members. I think leaving students to choose their own groups leaves others out and at a disadvantage when trying to relate to the course, the assignment, and ways to actually fix errors and do it correctly.