Campaign for the Henri-Thaler-Association - SS2021
Cancer - this diagnosis alone is a shock for those affected and their relatives. In a Science-to-Society semester project, students of the Münster School of Business have developed a campaign for the Henri-Thaler Association. This organization supports families with children who have cancer, especially financially. However, the association from Ennepetal is hardly known outside its region. Additionally, it has been hard for them to get donations during the pandemic. This is why the team of five students from the Department of Economics at Münster University of Applied Sciences has developed a concept for digital fundraising. The project was led by the doctoral students Katrin Uude and Annika Wesbuer and coordinated by master's student Luise Henßler. Together with the bachelor's students, they have developed a digital campaign that includes being present on all social media platforms, especially Instagram. The medium used for fundraising is gofundme. Using the hashtag "#HändeFürHenri", the students tested their campaign there. Edda Eckhard, the chairperson of the association, said that they "can and must adopt some of this in order to ultimately be able to help more people".
FH Onboarding 4.0 - SS2021
In this semester project, students from the Münster School of Business aimed to create a concept for improving the onboarding process at Münster University of Applied Sciences (FH). The project was led by junior professor Dr Kerstin Kurzhals and Dean of Studies Dr Jutta Rach and supervised by doctoral students Katrin Uude and Annika Wesbuer. Together with the bachelor's and master's students, they first looked at the current onboarding process and the digital platforms of the FH. After that, they conducted a survey and interviews with first and second term students concerning their experience with the onboarding process and the digital tools. This research showed that the one onboarding day was not enough for most of them. There are too many different platforms, and that they would like to get information via social media, especially Instagram. Another point that was criticized was the lack of contact with other, especially older students.
Based on this information, the team created a new framework. The components of this framework include the instant message and communication platform Discord as a communication tool for the FH, a so-called FHapp with all relevant information for students in one place, a social media strategy with Instagram as a central information channel and, last but not least, an onboarding week of three days with more content and where they would also meet older students who share their experiences.
Kinderneurologie-Hilfe Münster e.V - WS2020/21
In a Science-to-Society semester project, students from the Münster School of Business (MSB) developed a concept to raise the awareness of the Kinderneurologie-Hilfe Münster e.V. Especially in times of the Corona pandemic, the association is struggling with a lack of donations, which threatens the support and care of families. "With projects like this, we try to get business administration students excited about social projects and collectively address practical issues to contribute to social development," explains junior professor Dr Kerstin Kurzhals, who led the project together with doctoral student Katrin Uude. The goals were to increase awareness of the association in Münster, identify the target group, develop a unique communication concept for social media, radio, and outdoor advertising and reach new potential donors.
Pelikanhaus - SS2020
In cooperation with the Alexianer GmbH, students from the marketing department developed a sustainable business plan for the "Pelikanhaus". The "Pelikanhaus" is a project of the Alexianer GmbH and the Clemenshospital, where parents of children, who are especially hospitalized for a long time, are offered a "home".
For this purpose, a new building will be constructed close to the Clemenshospital and will not only used as a place to sleep for the relatives of the sick children but also as a place to meet and interact. Since no plan for the maintenance of the house has been drawn up yet, the students researched business models of similar projects to subsequently developed a sustainable business model especially for the "Pelikanhaus", taking into account the local conditions.
Nudging for Citizen Science - SS2020
In this student project, 16 students from 9 different nationalities combine forces to design and test nudges for the recruitment of citizens in a citizen science projects in the context of health and well-being. Competences in creativity and research play a significant role in the design of the study, while languages and network skills are applied in the data collection phase. The process of nudging design, as well as the evaluation and results will contribute to the research line's toolbox for the project münster.land.leben. Moreover, the data might also support in PhD trajectories of the PhD candidates from the research centre.
ChangeLab - SS2019
Change Lab is an open forum event based on student-driven interests. It is a shared co-learning platform for academics, external experts and students to spread ideas that create societal impacts and changes via short and powerful discussions.
To achieve its goal, ten international students from the Münster University of Applied Sciences have worked together in a semester project to gather the opinions and preferences from the academics, students and community members in Münster. Based on the result of a marketing study involving 371 local participants in Münster, the students created a tailored marketing strategy for Change Lab, co-designed, prototyped and organised the first Change Lab event with the theme of 'Cultural Diversity'.
Nudging for Academic engagement in science for society projects - SS2019
The science-to-business marketing research centre aims to bring science to the people. Logically, within the science-to-society research line, the focus is especially on collaboration between science and society. As this collaboration is not straightforward, various nudges were tested in this project to engage academics in collaboration with society. This global study revealed that nudges are more effective than incentives in getting academics involved in science for society projects. This is good news for HEI mangers, simple, inexpensive nudges e.g. peer nudges or the distribution of lunch vouchers seems to win over academics for this purpose.
Cracow Seminar - WS2018/19
From the 3rd to the 7th of December 2018, 12 students from Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Krakowie (UEK) visited MSB to work on a joint project referring to "Student-community engagement." The aim of this seminar is to investigate how students can be involved in (project-based forms of) interactions with society to create societal impact. Project-based forms of interaction, so-called Science-to-Society (S2S) projects, have received recognition due to their ability to develop students' practical knowledge and competencies, in addition to the prevalent theoretical knowledge provision in universities.
The research findings provide evidence that the following competencies and skills are substantially growing in projects: Problem-solving, interpersonal communication, oral communication, decision-making, planning and organising, time management, result orientation, flexibility/adaptability, self-motivation.
Innovation for Society - WS2018
In the student project "Innovation for Society", three master students and eight bachelor students developed a lean canvas business model for the project "fall management with civic engagement" from the Münster School of Health. This project is one of the largest project from FH Münster named münster.land.leben.
The aim of this student project was to generate empirical evidence and insights to support the civic engagement project via a business model approach. The motivational factors, barriers, and expectations of the people at risk of falling to receive support and their neighbours to engage in fall management and offer help were examined. In their research, the students approached citizens from small villages (population density < 150/ km² or < 6,000 inhabitants), who might support their neighbours after a fall. Furthermore, they also searched for people who are at a risk of falling and would accept help. The project managers Prof. Dr. Thomas Baaken, Choiwai Maggie Chak (M.Sc.), Eva Sormani (M.Sc.) guided the students in their investigation. One of the findings is that so called 'support givers' are mainly driven by three factors: getting together with other people, doing something for the common good and having fun.