This project will provide long-term support for external evaluation activities and services for the Computing and Information Sciences and Engineering Research Experiences for Undergraduates (CISE REU) community. This project will address the ongoing need among principal investigators who are fulfilling CISE REU Site program evaluation efforts by providing an evaluation toolkit that facilitates evaluation reporting while strengthening research about undergraduate research program outcomes. The primary purpose of the evaluation toolkit is to provide targeted instructional resources and tools for quality program evaluation that balance the desire for standardized assessment along with the responsibility to account for individual program contexts. Toolkit contents include instructional materials about evaluation practice, a standardized applicant management tool, and a validated modulated outcomes measure. Services associated with the toolkit are providing a Common Application for site recruiting, a Shared Applicant Pool for principal investigators to share applicants across sites, delivery of an online student survey known as the A la Carte Student Survey, and corresponding responses to REU Site principle investigators. Project expansion will continue these tools and services as well as expand to include a Faculty Career Impact Survey, Student REU Alumni Survey, and a study of site organizational characteristics. The benefits of the toolkit are in providing cost effective, sustainable evaluation tools, a community forum for program evaluation, and aggregate measurement of key program outcomes indicators for the national program. The evaluation toolkit project balances the need for individual site context evaluation with the need for broader, generalizable program impact evaluation.
Intellectual Merit The intellectual merit of this project resides in the contributions to understanding the impact of undergraduate computing research programs for both students and faculty participants. The comprehensive program evaluation will inform collective efforts to recruit undergraduate students to doctoral programs. The program evaluation will generate knowledge about features of REU Site structure for enhancing student learning outcomes and motivating individuals to pursue advanced degrees and careers in research. The knowledge generated by this study will also provide insights about how faculty engage in REU Sites and the impact on their careers.
Broader Impacts The broader impact of the project will be evidenced by the instruments and online tools developed by this project that will benefit any researcher involved in supporting research experiences for undergraduates. This will enable formative improvements for numerous REU programs, enrich REU experiences for undergraduate students, and augment faculty capacity for leading successful REU programs, thereby enhancing the graduate school pipeline and faculty career development. In addition, the outcomes of the proposed project will contribute to evaluation capacity building research for multi-site program assessment.
