Description :  

Along with skilled communication and problem-solving, team-building skills have been recognized as one of the top three most desirable traits sought by firms hiring recent university graduates.  Skills used to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams are needed in virtually any environment, be it business, government, school (students and faculty) or church, civic club, and community work.  In order to introduce and strengthen these skills, Louisiana Tech University offers a variety of classes that utilize student teams.  Specifically, the College of Administration and Business (CAB) offers several entrepreneurship courses that usually require students to work in teams consisting of members with a variety of academic majors, areas of interest, and expertise. 

Any group or team can be made more productive and effective through participation in a Low Element Ropes Course (LERC).  A LERC is a physical obstacle course created from various materials such as poles, cables, boards, and rope.  The course at Louisiana Tech University CAB also incorporates cameras and wireless internet access so that team counselors may record team performance data useful for research and in-class evaluation. This project provides an opportunity to significantly enhance the team-building skills and overall team effectiveness of Louisiana Tech students and faculty and local business and civic organizations; specifically, this project establishes a LERC and accompanying state-of-the-art data collection technology. Through these obstacle course activities, participants learn how to cooperate and communicate, and how to draw on each individual’s skills and talents in order to form coherent and productive partnerships. 

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Principal Investigator:  Pratt, Jon  --  CEnIT

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Collaborators:  Ms. Deborah F. Inman, Dr. Larry A. Pace, and Dr. James D. Nelson

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Funding Agencies:  Board of Regents

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Amount Awarded:  $25,000

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Start Period:  06/01/2005

End Period:  06/30/2006