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2016 Symposium Call for Abstracts

 

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

UC Merced Research Week 2016

Assessment as Research Symposium

Sharing Practices, Successes, and Lessons Learned

Presentations & Posters

March 2, 2016

10:00 – 2 p.m.

Location KL 355

Organized by the Campus Working Group on Assessment with support from the Office of Undergraduate Education

Senate and lecturing faculty, staff, and students are invited to present in the Assessment as Research Symposium.

Featuring brief talks and a poster session, the symposium is a forum to share assessment practices, successes, and lessons learned. Proposals from faculty, staff, and students are welcome!  

Of particular interest are posters or presentations that describe

  • What has been learned about student learning, the student experience, or student success and how results have contributed to change.
  • What has been learned about how to assess academic or administrative outcomes and how that knowledge has led to change.
  • Unique or particularly effective assessment strategies or tools and results.

Presentations are 15 minutes each, with three organized into a 45 minute block followed by 15 minutes of questions, answers, and discussion. Poster requirements, and resources for developing a poster, are detailed below.

Example presentations and posters from last year’s symposium are available here.

Interested in presenting?

Please submit a brief abstract to amoffat@ucmerced.edu by January 25, 2016.  Submission guidelines and example abstracts are provided below. 

Questions?

Contact Amy Moffat.

Abstract Submission Guidelines

  1. Send your abstract to amoffat@ucmerced.edu by Monday, January 25, 2016.
  2. Place Assessment as Research Symposium in the email subject line. 
  3. Be sure to indicate whether you are proposing a poster or a presentation in your abstract. 
  4. Indicate the unit (academic or administrative) submitting the abstract as relevant. Individual submissions are welcome as well!
  5. An informative title should be provided in boldface. 
  6. The lead presenter(s) name(s) should be listed first and underlined. Co-authors should be listed after the lead author without their names underlined.
  7. Abstracts should be 200 words or less and describe the presentation or poster content.
  8. An abstract should be prepared using 12 point Times or Times New Roman font. 
  9. Abstracts submitted in an incorrect format will be returned for revision. A correctly formatted abstract must be submitted in order to participate in the session.

Example Abstracts

Example 1

Assessment as Research Symposium

Poster

Submitting Unit: UC Merced Library

Lead Presenter: Sara Davidson, Laurene Madsen, Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco, Susan Mikkelsen, and Robin Milford

Assessing the Reach and Impact of the iPod Touch Library Tour on Incoming Undergraduates

The UC Merced Library launched an independent audio-visual tour available in fall 2009 on iPod Touch devices as a method of providing incoming freshmen with an introduction to the library’s space, services, and resources.  Many students have taken the tour as Writing Program faculty has assigned the tour in Writing 1 and Writing 10 classes.   The tour continues to be revised yearly and offered to students in collaboration with the Writing Program.   Library staff has assessed the reach and impact of the tour through scoring a follow-up assignment, asking students to self-report their knowledge of the library before and after the tour, and surveying students. Over three fall semesters 64.9% (1403 / 2162) of enrolled students in WRI 1, completed the tour.  The majority of the students have scored perfect or high on the follow-up assignment.  Students have reported an increase in their knowledge of the library following the tour, refer to it as preferred method for learning about the library, and indicated that it assisted them in using the library to meet their academic needs.  These lines of evidence suggest that the tour is an engaging and effective way in which to reach students with basic library information.

Example 2

Assessment as Research Symposium

Presentation

Submitting Unit: X Program

Lead Presenter: X 

Students Learn More through Rubrics and Timely, Specific Feedback

In support of program assessment, we deployed a program rubric to develop and assess student oral communication skills through a professional presentation.  Students in a required upper division course were assigned three presentations over the course of the semester. Student presentations were scored by Teaching Assistants using the rubric, with each student given specific, rubric-based feedback immediately following the presentation. Feedback focused on a few key strengths and a few priority areas to address.  Students were encouraged to discuss the feedback in person with the Teaching Assistant. Relative to the first presentation, student presentation skill improved significantly in the second and third presentations, with 80% of students achieving a pre-professional level of performance by the third and final presentation.  A look at individual student growth across presentations showed that students generally improved along the dimensions identified as needing attention, validating our efforts to provide specific targeted feedback. A three question survey of the students revealed that they found the rubric helpful as a guiding document but that the feedback was essential to their continued development.  These findings are encouraging, and we intend to expand the use of rubrics to support student development both earlier in the curriculum and for key program outcomes beyond oral communication.   

Instructions and Resources for Poster Presentations

Poster dimensions should be no larger than 3 feet high by 4 feet wide. Easels and poster boards will be provided. Participants will need to supply their own fasteners and poster tape. Posters may be presented in either landscape or portrait format.  Posters that do not follow the guidelines will not be accepted.

Posters can be printed on campus through UC Merced’s Mail and Copy services. An FAU will be needed. Contact Sara Tinoco for additional information.

The following websites offer useful guidance for developing an informative poster!