Research during your studies
Research is also part of the WBF/OE. As part of the research project seminar in module M9, students have the opportunity to develop, plan and carry out an initial research project before their Master's thesis. On the one hand, this is intended to prepare students for their Master's thesis, and on the other, it gives them the opportunity to deepen their individual interests as part of their studies.
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"Artificial intelligence in personnel development - significance, opportunities and risks for the corporate learning process" - Ole Dreyer
Our student Ole Dreyer gives an insight into how research is encouraged as part of the course and which research project he has been working on specifically.
Mr. Dreyer is in his 4th semester of WBF/OE. He studied Business Education and Management Training at the University of Göttingen for his Bachelor's degree. During his Bachelor's degree, he developed an interest in personnel and organizational development, which then led to two internships at Daimler and REWE in the field of the same name. He then began studying WBF/OE with the intention of gaining in-depth knowledge in the field of further education. His areas of interest lie in particular in the field of learning organizations and the use of new technologies in operational personnel development.
1. to what extent is research possible as part of the WBF/OEs?
"As part of the WBF/OE Master's program, we were not only able to get to know corporate practice during the internship, but also to carry out our own research projects in the seminar of the same name. All participants work on a topic of their choice. The teacher provides support both in finding a topic and in formulating the right research question or method. Depending on the topic, various research designs are possible and feasible. The seminar time is used to acquire basic knowledge about empirical research and to apply this directly to the topic of your choice.
2. what did you work on as part of your research project?
"As I have always been interested in personnel and organizational development and gave a presentation on the areas of application of artificial intelligence in human resource management in another seminar, I decided to make this the topic of my project. The exact title is: "Artificial intelligence in personnel development - significance, opportunities and risks for the corporate learning process". I decided to conduct guided interviews with experts and evaluated them using the Meuser and Nagel analysis method. The aim of the work was to determine the influence of artificial intelligence in the field of personnel development and to derive the resulting opportunities and risks".
3. what findings did you generate as part of the research work?
"Basically, it must be noted that this is not a representative survey and that further research is needed to make a final judgment. Nevertheless, I was able to establish that the use of virtual avatars for individual coaching plays an important role. Here, employee meetings can be simulated by the avatar assuming the role of a previously defined conversation partner and simulating their behavior, gestures and facial expressions. The avatar then reacts according to its configuration in relation to the content of the conversation, e.g. with satisfaction or aversion. The training sequence can be repeated as often as required and viewed retrospectively. This form of AI is therefore suitable for personnel development, for example to train conversation skills."
4. what added value does or did the research project have for you?
"The seminar was interesting for me because I had no previous experience in empirical research and was therefore able to fill gaps in my knowledge. This turned out to be helpful against the background of the Master's thesis. In addition, the structure of the seminar and its content are strongly oriented towards the topics of our research projects, so that there is an application and practical relevance".