Plan and Run an Orientation Session

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To ensure that the participants in Evaluate UR are familiar with the program's method and design, site administrators should provide an orientation session for student researchers and their faculty mentors, before research begins. Feedback from site administrators who have implemented EvaluateUR has stressed the importance of having all program participants attend the same orientation session. This will increase the likelihood that EvaluateUR will be implemented successfully, since the session will help students and mentors sharpen their understanding of the value of the program's methods as well as the sequence of steps to be completed. In any case, to ensure that both student and mentor members of your program's research pairs receive the same information, every research pair should be required to attend the orientation session together.

This brief video introduces running an orientation session.

Scheduling

Plan to spend a minimum of 60 minutes introducing students and mentors to the EvaluateUR and answering questions. If necessary, schedule multiple sessions to accommodate student an mentor schedules and ensure all participants attend. Avoid scheduling orientation during finals week.

Introducing EvaluateUR and its Structure

Consider beginning the orientation session by providing students and mentors with some background about the development of EvaluateUR and how this approach can be used to strengthen the research experience and benefit both students and mentors, as well as the undergraduate research program at their institutions. You might also want to reassure students and mentors about the level of effort the program requires. Experience indicates that EvaluateUR generally requires several hours over the duration of the research experience and that the conversations that follow each of the three assessments complement (but do not replace) regularly scheduled student/mentor meetings.
Orientation Session Slideset (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 2.3MB Apr16 20)

Student-Mentor Conversations

It is very important to emphasize the purpose of the student-mentor conversations. Key points include:

Assessment scores given by mentors are not 'grades.'
Student self-assessment scores do not need to agree with mentor assessment scores.
The objective is not agreement, but a conversation that can uncover differences in perceptions, assumptions, and reasoning.

For both students and mentors the protocol for these conversations should emphasize the importance of:

Careful regard for evidence to support one's views
Open-minded and non-defensive listening
A spirit of collaboration in the service of understanding and problem solving
Consideration of what would be needed in order to resolve important differences in assessment scores
Where students and mentor agree that improvement is needed, a focus on strategies that could help to make that happen

Handouts

You might find it useful to distribute the list of outcome categories and their components along with the scoring rubric. We also recommend that you provide a handout illustrating the Dashboard and showing the sequence and timing of steps to be completed.
Handouts_for_Orientation_Session.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 311kB Apr16 20)

You may also want to create a customized handout to reflect the specific usage of EvaluateUR in your program. View or download the example handout from University of Missouri - courtesy Linda Blockus:

Example EvaluateUR Orientation Handout (Acrobat (PDF) 248kB May23 22)

Depending on the timing of the start of your program you may find it helpful to introduce your students to the initial reflection questions before they actually respond to them in the system. You can modify the instructions in this copy of the questions to fit your program.

Student Pre_Research Reflection Questions.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 13kB Oct16 23)

Automated Emails

Make sure to emphasize to students and mentors that they will receive automated messages to prompt them to complete steps, remind them if they have missed a deadline, and as confirmation of their completion.

Timeline for Completing Steps

Site administrators should note dates for their program benchmarks (start, middle, and end). These dates can be the same for all participants in the program or can be adjusted for each student-mentor pair when programs have varying beginning and end dates for participants. Based on progress, the dates can be adjusted as needed.

The following timeline identifies EvaluateUR steps for each research phase.

Show Timeline Steps

Students accepted into program.
Site administrators registers student-mentor pairs using their 'Institution Registration' page of EvaluateUR. At this time, the site administrator can add program-wide outcomes that will appear on all three assessments.
Site administrator sends emails to students (optional to copy mentors) apprising them about the Pre-Research Reflection and telling them to expect an email that asks them to start a program account and then complete the Reflection.
Students logs in, create their accounts, and complete the Reflection (in one or more sittings).
When the Reflections are submitted (as opposed to 'saved') the students' mentors get an automated message instructing them to set up an account and then access and review their students' reflections.
Mentors complete a form that indicates they have reviewed the reflection; this goes to the student. This 'automated' message also provides mentors with the ability to add some additional comments. If mentors hit 'just send basic message' only the automated message is sent. If they would like to add some additional feedback, they have a field where they can add text that would be appended to the automated text.
Site administrator schedules an orientation and also keeps track that students are completing the Reflection and that mentors are reviewing them (all done electronically and prior to attending orientation).
Site administrator leads orientation session.
Student-mentor pairs schedule a block of time to meet in order to have a conversation about and complete the Pre-Research Assessment, submit their assessments and go over the Score Report (Note: The score report is generated as soon as both the mentor and student submit their assessment). We recommend scheduling at least a 90-minute meeting although some will take less time, others more, depending on how well the student/mentor know each other. Additional details about this step: Scores can be changed while working on the assessment but once submitted scores are locked in. Student-mentor pairs can add additional outcomes (each enter the outcome and associated components on their respective forms, together with their scores for the components of that outcome. (The outcome/components wording should be identical since they are meeting together, but to ensure that subsequent assessments use consistent language, the wording of the additional outcomes/components will come from the mentor's assessment form). After submitting the forms, students and mentors receive an automated email with a link that takes them to their first of three score reports.
Site administrators track the completion of this step (which shows up as 'done' on the dashboard after students and mentors submit their first assessment).
Site administrators track student/mentor team progress. If a team is on schedule, the administrator releases the mid-summer assessment forms. Students and mentors fill these out independently and a score report is generated reminding them to meet in order to have a conversation about their respective scores. This is repeated at the end of the program.
Site administrators may enter other, open ended questions for the three assessments if they wish to gather program-related feedback.

« Previous Page

The EvaluateUR Methods

Plan and Run an Orientation Session

Scheduling

Introducing EvaluateUR and its Structure

Student-Mentor Conversations

Handouts

Automated Emails

Timeline for Completing Steps

Provenance

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