1. U of Missouri, Kansas City Buffalo, NY October, 2017
Review of Phase I Pilot and Recommendations for Next Step in Scaling Up EvaluateUR
U of Missouri, Kansas City
Buffalo, NY
October, 2017

2. Institution Profile
UMKC is an urban research university with a total enrollment of approximately 16,700 students, 50% of whom are undergraduates.
Student population is largely “non-traditional,” with average age of students at 26 . Only 10% of students live on campus.
Over 50 majors in more than 125 academic programs, including Arts & Sciences; Business; Computing & Engineering; Education; Law, Medicine; Nursing and Health Sciences; and Pharmacy.

3. Summer Research Program
Summer Undergraduate Research Opportunity (SUROP) is in its 4th year. Students receive $2,000 tuition grant and up to $1250 in research expenses; mentors receive a $1,000 stipend.
Twenty-two students in SU17, from Art History, Biology, Engineering (Civil & Mechanical), English, Geosciences, History, Political Science, Psychology, and Urban Planning. (Consistent with average participation over 4 years.)
SUROP is part of a five-year strategic investment in UR at UMKC that also includes embedding UR in coursework and in federal work- study opportunities as well as recognizing and rewarding faculty mentors. This strategic investment builds on UMKC’s 17-year history of providing UR opportunities to students through a grant program that runs during the academic year (SEARCH—Students Engaged in the Arts and Research).

4. UR Program Director Profile
Jane Greer—Professor of English & Women’s Studies and Director of Undergraduate Research. (Continues to teach and research as faculty member as well as administer UR program.)
Starting 4th year as UR director and was charged to deploy strategic investment dollars to
(1) increase access to UR opportunities as a way to support UMKC’s recruitment and retention goals
(2) ensure students from under-represented groups are served by UR programs.
Responsible for all aspects of UR program—SEARCH; SUROP; UR- Intensive courses; work-study pilot program, etc.
Was finally able to hire a part-time administrative assistant in Summer Woo hoo!!

5. Phase I Participation Overview
12 student/mentor pairs. 8 total faculty since 4 mentors had 2 students each.
Modifications to Buff State’s end-of-semester reports in terms of submitting final poster. UMKC handles poster abstract submissions through a separate system.

6. Progress Completing Dashboard Steps
Refer to slide prepared by Bridget Zimmerman and insert plot in this slide

7. Progress Completing Dashboard Steps
4 pairs completed full Evaluate UR (15 steps)
2 pairs completed to step #14 (student did not finish final meeting reflection)
2 pairs completed to step #13 (did final assessment but did not have meeting)
1 pair completed to step #12 (student didn’t complete final assessment—family crisis)
1 pair stopped at step #9 (research project fell apart due to technology issues)
2 pairs (1 mentor) bailed out at step #7 (mid-research ‘cause they were frustrated with process)

8. Orientation
A single orientation before classes ended in spring semester
Orientation for all 22 SUROP students and mentors, covering broad issues as well as nuts & bolts. Experienced mentors and program alums spoke about their experiences.
12 pilot pairs stayed for additional hour of orientation, and awesome Jill Singer participated via telecommunication to explain history and process of EvaluateUR

9. Tracking
As director, I added EvaluateUR Web site to bookmarks on my browser.
Checked every day early in the summer, during middle two weeks of summer semester, and during final weeks of summer semester.
Sent nudging/nagging s to both students and mentors when it appeared they were “stuck” on a step.

10. What Worked Well
Was easy to set up mentor/students pairs in the dashboard.
Dashboard was easy to use and made it easy to track progress of each pair
Mentors and student valued initial meeting in order to set goals and expectations.

11. Your Top 3 Challenges
Students and mentors complained most about doing reflections after meetings, especially mid research and final meeting and in general felt that process could be streamlined!??!
Nagging overlap/overload. Many mentors (and students) have also participated in SEARCH during academic year, so I’m nagging them to finish SEARCH paperwork just as I’m nagging them to start EvaluateUR. I’m nagging them to wrap up final SUROP expense paperwork as I need them to complete final EvaluateUR steps.

12. Your Top 3 Lessons Learned
Accept partial success. Some pairs who didn’t complete EvaluateUR have good reasons for doing so.
SUROP projects unfold on widely divergent time schedules, based on faculty travel, student obligations with work & family, etc. A mid-point and end-point can occur at any time during the summer for each particular pair, which makes it hard to know when to send reminders about the EvaluateUR steps.
Nagging becomes noise—the more reminders I have to send the more likely they are to be ignored. Be very strategic about when to send reminders.

13. Lessons Learned and Advice
Use orientation for maximum effect
Do initial EvaluateUR steps before/at orientation
Start orientation with benefits to students and show dashborad
Provide handout with broad overview of process
Ask each pair to provide an anticipated calendar and use that to send strategic reminders at appropriate times for midpoint and final assessments