Work in Progress: A Transferable Model to Improve Retention and Student Success in STEM through Undergraduate Research (NSF LEARN Consortium)

Meeroff, Daniel E.; Chamely-Wiik, Donna; Schneider, Kimberly; Kwochka, William R.; Frazier, Evelyn; Merritt, Jordan; Aldarondo-Jeffries, Michael; Morrison-Shetlar, Alison I.

doi:10.18260/1-2--33587

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…At the beginning of the fall term, the entire population of enrolled undergraduates in STEM disciplines at each institution was identified from official student tables to determine a paired comparison group as described in Meeroff et al (2019). Briefly, the census data subset was based on the following factors:…”

Section: Matched Intrainstitutional Comparison Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Undergraduate Research Communities for Transfer Students

Chamely-Wiik

Frazier

Meeroff

et al. 2021

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Transfer students face many challenges integrating into a 4-year college that affect their retention and success, yet very little research has documented how to create wraparound programming to support them. There remains a need to establish retention models that are adaptable and can serve a variety of students and institutions. The Learning Environment and Academic Research Network (LEARN) Consortium, a partnership of Florida Atlantic University, University of Central Florida, and Western Carolina University whose focus is on engagement in undergraduate research, addressed this need by developing and testing T-LEARN, a new model for a sustainable science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) retention program specifically for transfer students who have transitioned to a university setting after receiving their associate’s degree at a community college. The new model was developed by adapting a successful retention model for 1st-year students at the University of Central Florida centered around three main pillars: (1) academics/research, (2) mentoring, and (3) community building. In this paper, we describe the development of the T-LEARN model, outline the adaptations made to accommodate the specific needs of transfer students, and present 3 years of implementation data we analyzed to determine what factor(s) most impact transfer student retention and success. Our findings indicate that T-LEARN students’ involvement in research during their 1st year was the most significant factor within the T-LEARN program that contributed to their academic success. Additionally, the majority of these students had continued to do research with the same LEARN program faculty mentor 1 year after the program ended.

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Section: Matched Intrainstitutional Comparison Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Undergraduate Research Communities for Transfer Students

Chamely-Wiik

Frazier

Meeroff

et al. 2021

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“…21, No. 1, April 2021. josotl.indiana.edu three current federally funded grants that are sponsoring research on STEM transfer student engagement in undergraduate research (e.g., Meeroff et al, 2019;Chamely-Wiik et al, this issue). The university-level data were important in securing the federal funds to implement valuable programs and study transfer student involvement.…”

Section: Strategic Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking and Assessing Undergraduate Research Campus-wide: Demographics, Academic Success, and Post-Graduation Plans

Schneider¹,

Kuperman²,

Watts³

et al. 2021

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Evaluation must occur at the university level to understand the full impact of undergraduate research (UR). UR assessment is often only completed at the individual program level because of limited technology, time, and/or resources. At our large research institution, we have been documenting a wide variety of research experiences annually since the 2009–2010 academic year through an online portal. With our institutional research team and campus partners, we created interactive dashboards that display involvement in UR by semester and academic year. Here we compile data on students involved in UR compared to the university population as a whole. Consistent trends from this yearly data have shown that non-STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) students, transfer students, and part-time students are less involved in research. However, underrepresented and first-generation involvement tends to trend consistently with the university population, likely because of a wide variety of focused programming. Despite many interventions aimed at engaging students in their first three years, data show that researchers remain mostly seniors. Students are also tracked to graduation and beyond, providing a unique evaluation of UR. Grade point averages and graduation rates tend to be higher for student researchers. Time to degree is similar between researchers and nonresearchers. Students are tracked into graduate school as well and on average have an almost 50% increase in matriculation compared to nonresearchers. There are still gaps in this university-level knowledge, but this portal helps clarify campus-wide involvement and opportunities for enhancement, while serving as a comparison data set and a model system for other universities.

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Work in Progress: A Transferable Model to Improve Retention and Student Success in STEM through Undergraduate Research (NSF LEARN Consortium)

Cited by 2 publications

References 2 publications

Undergraduate Research Communities for Transfer Students

Undergraduate Research Communities for Transfer Students

Tracking and Assessing Undergraduate Research Campus-wide: Demographics, Academic Success, and Post-Graduation Plans

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