Extending the EvaluateUR Method to Expand the Community of Users

全国各地的行业和企业都确定了他们认为在当今工作场所必不可少的技术和专业能力和技能。这些技能包括沟通、解决问题、时间管理和团队合作。最重要的是，行业和企业需要能够识别和思考问题并找到解决方法的员工。如果学生想要作为雇员(或企业家)取得成功，他们需要掌握这些技能和相关技能，意识到他们知道什么和不知道什么，并了解如何最好地克服知识和技能中的任何差距。本科生研究和实习是两种影响很大的实践，已被证明有助于学生在发展和应用解决问题的技能时掌握自己的学习。社区大学的许多技术员教育项目还包括为当地企业和行业的学生提供实习机会。事实上，社区大学在培养学生在职场上取得成功方面发挥着至关重要的作用。为了衡量广泛的理想结果，包括在工作场所至关重要的内容知识和技能，该项目将使用一种名为EvalateUR的循证方法，在这种方法中，学生与教师或研究导师进行一对一的合作。该方法还为学生提供了元认知技能，提高了他们解决问题的能力。评估UR方法帮助参加技术人员教育和其他项目的社区大学学生识别他们从进行研究中获得的知识和技能，清楚地看到他们需要改进的领域，并在他们进入劳动力大军时利用这些知识。这个项目的总体目标是增加本科生在进行研究或实习时使用EvalateUR方法的人数。该项目将克服在所有教育机构实施评估UR方法的障碍，但重点是社区和技术学院。为此，该项目将追求四个目标。首先是开发一个仅针对学生的EvalateUR方法评分版本，供社区大学生进行适用于包括政府、商业或行业实习在内的多个实习场所的研究。第二是创建一个版本的EvaluateUR(称为EvaluateUR-CURE)，用于较短持续时间的研究体验，例如基于课程的本科生研究体验(CURE)。第三，开发一种免费版本的EvalateUR方法，供教师在暑期或学年研究中指导三名或三名以下的学生。第四，也是最后一点，是主办一个在线论坛，供EvalateUR用户社区提出问题和分享最佳做法。该项目由高级技术教育计划资助，该计划专注于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Industries and businesses across the country have identified technical and professional competencies and skills they consider to be essential in today’s workplace. These skills include communication, problem solving, time management, and teamwork. Above all, industries and businesses want employees who can identify and think through problems and figure out how to solve them. If students are to succeed as employees (or as entrepreneurs) they will need to master these and related skills, be aware of what they know and don’t know, and understand how best to overcome any gaps in their knowledge and skills. Undergraduate research and internships, two high impact practices, have been shown to help students take ownership of their learning as they develop and apply problem-solving skills. Many technician education programs at community colleges also include internship opportunities for students at area businesses and industries. Indeed, community colleges play a vital role in preparing students to succeed in the workplace. To measure a broad range of desirable outcomes that include both content knowledge and skills that are critically important in the workplace, this project will use an evidence-based method called EvaluateUR in which students work one-on-one with faculty or research mentors. The approach also provides students with metacognitive skills that improve their problem-solving abilities. The EvaluateUR method helps community college students in technician education and other programs identify the knowledge and skills they gain from conducting research, to see clearly the areas where they need to improve, and to use this knowledge to their advantage as they enter the workforce. The overall goal of this project is to increase the number of undergraduate students who utilize the EvaluateUR method when they conduct research or serve in internships. This project will overcome barriers to implementation of the EvaluateUR method at all educational institutions, but with a focus on Community and Technical Colleges. Towards this end the project will pursue four objectives. First is to develop a student-only scored version of the EvaluateUR method for community college students conducting research applicable to multiple internship venues including government, business or industry internships. Second is to create a version of EvaluateUR (called EvaluateUR-CURE) for shorter duration research experiences such as those in course-based undergraduate research experiences (CURE). Third is to develop a no-cost version of the EvaluateUR method for faculty mentoring three or fewer students in summer or academic year research. Fourth, and finally, is to host an online forum for the community of EvaluateUR users to pose questions and share best practices. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education Program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced technology fields that drive the nation's economy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.