Susan Ballati

Academic Scientific Workshops: a Model for Fostering Interdisciplinary Communication and Collaboration Susan Ballati

Academic scientific workshops are one model used to foster interdisciplinary communication and collaborative research, provide an effective tool for the transmission of information and construction of knowledge. This assessment is the result of an analytical case study of one activity ? interdisciplinary workshops, at the Santa Fe Institute. Measures of effectiveness were obtained through survey analysis, content analysis of survey responses, and discourse analysis of discussion sections of one workshop. Over the course of year 2003-2004, participants from ten different interdisciplinary scientific workshops were surveyed regarding their workshop experience within two weeks of a workshop?s completion. Six months later, participants from one workshop were surveyed again to gauge long-term impact. Simple survey results suggest participants find these kinds of workshops valuable forums to engage in interdisciplinary communication and foster collaboration. Content analysis of survey responses suggest more evocative findings. Workshops are more about process, mechanics, content, than about immediate measurable results.