About EvaluateUR
EvaluateUR supports independent summer and academic year undergraduate research.
EvaluateUR provides an objective assessment of the value of undergraduate research (UR) by documenting student growth in critical academic and workforce-related knowledge and skills without placing a significant evaluation burden on students and research mentors.
EvaluateUR provides:
- A detailed, reliable evaluation of your undergraduate research student outcomes
- An evaluation method that also enhances student learning and faculty mentorship
A one-year subscription to EvaluateUR is only $500 and includes:
- Technical support to set up your campus site
- Online resources, including instructional videos, to help you set up and implement the method in your program
- Implementation advice
- Automatically calculated data and statistics that can be used in reports
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Introduction & Features
Why use EvaluateUR?
Benefits to Students
- Students learn and practice the discipline of realistic self-assessment
- Introductions to a comprehensive list of competencies and skills
- Experience communicating in their discipline
- Greater confidence and self-awareness as students track their academic growth
- Stronger applications to graduate programs or resumes
Benefits to Mentors (can be faculty, post docs, graduate students, or anyone mentoring a research student)
- More consistent and reliable assessments of research students' academic strengths and weaknesses
- Compliments and enhances the research mentoring process
- Helps focus mentoring efforts on specific areas where students may need extra guidance in order to become more independent researchers
- Works for new and experienced mentors
Benefits to UR/REU Directors
- Acquire reliable data to support campus assessments of UR (and, often, related funding requests)
- Obtain information that can support efforts to recruit and retain students
- Supports all academic disciplines
Learn more about Why the EvaluateUR Method is Effective
How does EvaluateUR work?
Implementation
- Initial reflection where student has the opportunity to share their thoughts about research with their mentor
- Assessments given before, during, and at the end of the research
- Conversations after each assessment
- Built-in Statistics Package that provides the students' and mentors' scores on the individual assessment components
- Automated messages and a dashboard provides easy tracking of completion of EvaluateUR
Data Security
- All responses collected by the institution are readily available in .csv format for easy reporting, use and local data management.
- All students and mentors set up an account with username and password to ensure privacy. Site administrators have the ability to view student/mentor pairs as part of tracking the implementation of EvaluateUR.
- Data are stored in the EvaluateUR system only during the active summer research data collection process. Read more about our practices throughout the EvaluateUR Method:
Data Security and IRB practices
Tested and Proven Successful at Institutions Across the Country
- EvaluateUR has been pilot tested by undergraduate research programs at over 40 colleges and universities.
- The dissemination of EvaluateUR has been supported by an award from the National Science Foundation WIDER program.
- Read more about the evaluation of the impact of EvaluateUR.
How do I get started with EvaluateUR?
Start by subscribing for a year-long subscription to EvaluateUR services:
If you have questions about EvaluateUR or the implementation of your specific program, don't hesitate to ask.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants No. 1347727 and 1347681 . Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.