Assessment of Undergraduate Research (UR) Experiences at Queensborough
Instructions for faculty and students engaged in UR
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:
Dr. Maria Mercedes Franco
Coordinator for UR and Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics & CS Queensborough Community College - CUNY
DESCRIPTION:
I am interested in how UR experiences influence students' attitudes, knowledge and skills acquisition. This study will involve filling out an online survey, known as the "Classroom Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) survey" for faculty and students in research-like courses or as the "Survey of Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE III)" for students in dedicated research experiences or internships. The study also involves the use of the rubric for assessing student learning outcomes in UR developd at the college. The same rubric will be used across research modalities.In addition, participating faculty.mentors will be encouraged to report back the conclusions of any formative or summative assessments they may have conducted while guiding and supervising their UR students.
About the survey:
Participating faculty members teaching a research-like course will complete the CURE faculty survey which allows them to indicate what aspects of the research they did/did not emphasize in their courses, so that we can have some comparison fox their students' answers in the CURE student survey.
The CURE and SURE III student surveys come with pre and post components, each taking 10-15 minutes to complete. During week 2 of the semester (and week 1 of the summer session), I will send an e-mail to faculty members in research-like courses with the link to the CURE faculty survey.
During week 3 of the semester (and week 2 of the summer session) I will e-mail all UR students with the link to the corresponqing pre-experience survey (CURE for students in research-like courses, SURE III for students in dedicated research experiences or internships).The last week of each term (semester or summer), I will send an e-mail to all UR students with the link to the corresponding post-experience survey.
About the rubric and faculty-developed assessments:
The rubric recognizes 5 levels of performance for each one of the UR learnil]g outcomes developed at QCC. Participating faculty members will be encouraged to report back the number and percentage ofUR students who scored at each level (i.e. "12 students- 50% of the class scored at level4", etc.). Additionally, it will be recommended that samples of students' work (electronic copies, de identified) be stored to document the assessment process -generally, an example at each level of the performance standard should be saved.Four weeks before the end of each semester (or 2 weeks before the end of a summer session), I will send an e-mail to all participating faculty members to remind them about the use of the rubric.
Upon the end of each term, participating faculty members will have a 3-week period to submit the conclusions of any assessments performed with the rubric and/or their own fGfmative or summative assessments.
CONFIDENTIALITY:
Data collected with the surveys are analyzed by Prof. David Lopatto -lead PI of a national study of UR experiences- and Ms. Leslie Jaworski -Electronic Survey Data Analyst for the national study and returned to me along with the averages from the larger, national study.No identifiable information will be collected with the rubrics or from faculty-developed assessments, only aggregated results numerically summarized.Digital copies of student work (de-identified) and summaries of survey responses will be maintained in a secure, password protected system with access limited only to myself as·Principal Investigator of this assessment effort.Any information from this study that is published will not identify you,by name.
BENEFITS:
It is hoped that this study will help faculty and administrators at QCC and other community colleges to better understand how undergraduate research experiences influence, students' attitudes, knowledge and skills acquisition. There will be no direct benefit to you from participating in this study other than the general feeling of reward for being able to shape and strengthen UR experiences at the college.
RISKS:
There are no known risks to you in participating in ptis study.
CONTACT PEOPLE:
If you have questions about this research, contact me, the Principal Investigator, at (718) 281-5456 or at MFranco@qcc.cuny.edu. If you have questions or concerns your rights as a research participant you may contact Dr. Linda Reesman, HRPP Coordinator, at (718) 281-5253 or at LReesman@qcc.cuny.edu.
In addition, if you have questions about your rights as a research participant, or you have comments or concerns that you would like to discuss with someone other than She researcher, please call the CUNY Research Compliance Administrator at (646) 664-8918. Altern(ltively, you can write to: CUNY Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research Attn: Research Compliance Administrator 205 East 42"ct Street New York, NY 10017
VOLUNTARY NATURE OF PARTICIPATION:
Your participation in this study will voluntary. If you do not wish to participate, or would like to end your participation in this study, there will be no penalty or loss of benefits to you to which you are otherwise entitled. In other words, you are free to make your own choice about being in this study or not, and may quit at any time without penalty.
Impact of UR on s ndent learning
Multiple studies involving students, faculty, and alumni have helped to establish the benefits of UR experiences:
- Students who participate in UR experiences gain deeper disciplinary knowledge and skills (including a better understanding of the research process);
- Clarification/confirmation of career plans;
- Better preparation for graduate school/jobs;
- Improved attitudes toward learning.
The student-faculty mentoring relationship, in particular, has proven to be key in impacting
• retention for at-risk students;
• underrepresented students' confidence, expanding their career and educational possibilities and in some cases attracting them to STEM fields/careers in research.
Quality student-peer mentor or student-student research collaborations have also been shown to have a positive impact on a student's overall research experience.
These gains are reported by students in both research-like science courses and dedicated research experiences (Lopatto2012, 2010; Thiry and Laursen, 2011; Laursen et al, 2010; Villarejo et al, 2008; Falconer and Holcomb, 2008; Locks and
Gregerman 2008; Guterman, 2007; Ishiyama, 2007; Russell, Hancock, and McCullough, 2007).
Although UR has been in existence for more than 200 years in American higher ed. institutions, it was George Kuh's landmark (2008) book on High Impact Practices (HIPs) that n;tade UR a relatively recent "educational phenomenon". It has been noticed, among other things, that HIPs have a profound impact on the experiences of traditionally underserved students (Finley, A. & McNair, T.2013;Brownell and Swaner,2010).
As pointed out in (Finley, 2012; F;inley, A & McNair, T. 2013), there is a gap between what students think they have learned and what students can do, therefore there is an unmet need to assess learning outcomes and students' competencies on a large scale. This need calls for students' actual work (papers, presentations, research, etc) to be at the center of the assessment efforts. In addition, there is the need to conduct research on the impact ofUR on community college students as past research has, almost entirely, looked at baccalaureate granting institutions.
UR in STEM disciplines:
Current public discourse and policy initiatives revolve around the issues of economic growth and competitiveness, hence higher education's impetus for addressing issues in STEM career preparation, increased access, and completion rates. Specifically, the U.S. government has set the goal to produce -by 2022- I million niore college graduates in STEM fields than expected under current assumptions (as is, about 38% of students entering college with an interest in a STEM major graduate with a STEM degree). The means to achieving this goal is to improve STEM education during the first two years of college, with the aim of increasing STEM bachelor and associate degrees by 34% annually until the goal is met.Concrete recommendations made in this respect are the use of empirically validated teaching practices and the inteip'ation o(research into the curriculum (http://www.performance.gov/cap-goals-list; Olson and Riordan, 2012