Presentation: Revealing the Factors that Impact Faculty’s Role as Undergraduate Research Mentors: An Empirical Study Thursday - February 11, 2016 Concurrent Session 1:50 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. Blacksburg, Virginia 8 th Annual Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy Presentation at:

Research Team Rebecca McMullen, Special Education Jennifer Hammack, Criminal Justice Robin S. Lewis, Office of Grants & Sponsored Projects Doreen Sams, Marketing & MURACE Office Steven Jones, Center for Faculty Development

Purpose of the Study To determine the level of importance of undergraduate research as compared to the AAC&U High Impact Practices (AAC&U, 2008). To Investigate factors that influence faculty’s propensity to mentor undergraduate students in research.

Literature Review Council on Undergraduate Research (2009) defines undergraduate research (UR) as, “an inquiry or investigation conducted by an undergraduate student that makes an original intellectual or creative contribution to the discipline.” Mentoring UR is the development of each person’s influences on an interdependent relationship rather than just how faculty,impact students (Long, Fish, & Kuhn, 2010). An empirical study of students who participated in mentored UR self-reported it significantly improved the quality of their learning experiences, increased aptitudes and gave them a competitive advantage (Sams et al., 2015). Logical next step was to identify the faculty roadblocks to mentoring UR.

Survey Study Methodology Online survey Population 318 tenure and non-tenure track respondents (census) Two follow-up reminder s 87 usable surveys Response rate 27.4% (10% chance of sample responses differing from the true population) (Krejcie & Morgan, 1970). Proportionate sample achieved Findings are representative of the population 17 questions directly related to constraints on faculty engagement in mentoring undergraduate research (UR)

Survey & Findings – Part I To determine the level of important of UR with faculty To rank the ten AAC&U LEAP High-Impact Practices First-Year SeminarsCommon Intellectual Experiences Learning CommunitiesWriting-Intensive Courses Undergraduate ResearchCollaborative Assignments & Projects Diversity/Global LearningCommunity-Based Learning InternshipsCapstone Courses & Projects Undergraduate research was identified as third (3 rd )* *Multidimensional Scale (PROXSCA) analysis using SPSS® analytical software confirmed

High-Impact Practice Rank Engaged Learning 1 Capstone Courses & Projects 2 Undergraduate Research 3 Collaborative Projects 4 Internships 5 Common Intellectual Experiences 6 Diversity/Global Learning 7 Learning Communities 8 Writing Intensive Courses 9 First Year Seminar 10 Survey & Findings – Part I

Survey & Findings – Part II Barriers to Mentoring UR (n, 74) 1 st – Workload reassigned – 19.9% (67) 2 nd – Additional compensation – 19.3% (65) 3 rd – Valued in tenure and promotion – 18.8% (63) 4 th – Valued in IFR – 16.4% (55) 5 th – Included in tenure and promotion – 13.4% (45) 6 th – Included in IFR – 11.6% (39) 7 th – None of the options – less than 1% (2)

Discussion  Outcomes: work release, financial support, and T&P impact faculty propensity to mentor in UR  Sampled University:  No financial compensation  Does not include UR mentoring in T&P  A few departments redistribute workload based on extent of UR

Discussion Taking a lead from Purdue University (2015) Significant changes in teaching evaluations on two new measures: (1) commitment to involving undergraduates in research, and (2) pedagogical innovation (through mentored UR) What does your institution do?

References Association of American Colleges & Universities (2005). High-Impact Practices. Resources, retrieved on August 1, 2015 from Council on Undergraduate Research: Learning Through Research. (2009). About CUR Fact Sheet, retrieved August 6, 2015 from Cox, M.F. & Andriot, A. (2009). Mentor and undergraduate student comparisons of students’ research skills. Journal of STEM Education, 10: Inside Higher Ed, (2015). Mentoring as Tenure Criterion. News, retrieved on August 1, 2015 from criterion-tenure criterion-tenure Krejcie, R.V. & Morgan, D.W., (1970). Determining sample size for research activities. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 30: Long, E.C., Fish, J. & Kuhn, L., (2010). Mentoring undergraduates: Professors strategically guiding the next generation of professionals. Michigan Family Review, 14(1): Sams, D., Richards, R., Lewis, R.S., McMullen, R., Hammack, J., Bacnik, L., & Powell, C., (2015) Empirical Study: Mentorship as a Value Proposition (MVP). Under review with the JSOTL (May).

Thank You & Questions Mentoring Undergraduate Research Handbook (v. 1) URL: