Dialsmith presents the Perception Analyzer to University of Oregon graduate class
Recently, Dialsmith had the pleasure of presenting the Perception Analyzer to the Practical & Applied Research Methods class in the Strategic Communication program at the University of Oregon. Instructor and Senior Experience Program Manager, Josh Netzer, brought us in to expose his class to real-world applications of a well-known research technology.
“For the most part, teaching research to graduate students can be like pulling teeth. They often have to learn a whole new lexicon of language and it can be difficult to put a ‘real-world’ spin on research and the application of research as a whole,” said Netzer. “I really wanted to expose my students to the idea that research didn’t have to be just black and white data entry, crunching numbers and spitting out graphs. That there is some exciting technology out there they can apply to their professional careers and real life. Even more important, data can have instant value in the proper context and you can have fun working with it.”
As a way to expose the class to the Perception Analyzer in a fun and creative way, we conducted a root beer tasting. First, students were asked to rate four attributes on a scale of how important each attribute is to their enjoyment of root beer. The attributes were—appearance, aroma, overall taste, aftertaste. Then we conducted a blind tasting of five premium root beers and the students rated each sample on all four attributes. The results immediately following the final sample looked like this:
By first weighting the four attributes, we were able to factor those weights into the rating given to each attribute for each root beer sample, providing a weighted rank-ordered preference based on what attributes were most important to the students. That’s much more valuable than a simple rank order.
“The class had a very engaging discussion about how the system works, what types of organizations and people utilize the technology, what the output looks like, and how to actually use the Perception Analyzer system,” added Netzer. “The end result was a course full of graduate students who got to see the real-world application of research technology and to do it in a fun, engaging setting. We look forward to any opportunity to partner our educational program with Dialsmith in the future.”
