Grants Awarded

Awarded | April 2024

This proposal is for funding to support hiring university supervisors (typically adjunct faculty) to evaluate the performance of School of Education Teacher Education graduates with various levels of years of service in the field. This project is in direct response to Standard 4.1 of our accrediting body, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).

Awarded | December 2023

We would like to administer the Critical-thinking Assessment Test (CAT) to the freshmen and senior students in B&E. The goal of this assessment is to assess and promote the improvement of critical thinking and real-world problem-solving skills in our students. We will make a comparison between the results of the freshmen and the seniors to assess the critical thinking skills acquired in our program. This is a national test that emulates real-world problems and is adopted by many institutions across the country due to its validity and reliability.

Awarded | May 2023

The Bachelor of Science in Medical Laboratory Science and the Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene Completion Program are two programs with potential to gain significant insight from investing resources into program assessment. We are requesting funds to travel to and attend the 2023 Assessment Institute in Indianapolis, hosted by IUPUI and published materials. The conference takes place October 29-31, 2023, at the Indianapolis Marriot Downtown hotel. Funding will close once faculty return on October 31, 2023.  Overall, attending the assessment workshop will provide the skills and tools necessary for program administrators to develop needed assessment plans for key programs within the Vera Z. Dwyer College of Health Sciences.

Awarded | May 2023

Our goal is to assess what skills and competencies IUSB Department of Sociology and Anthropology (SOCA) alumni have found to be important in careers with regional employers. As defined by the structure of the IUSB Assessment Grant, this project will: (A) Identify, formulate and record measurable student learning goals regarding skills and competencies through direct survey and interview methods; (B) Analyze and use assessment information to improve our major programs with emphases on identified skills and competencies; and (C) Increase the participation of all constituencies in the assessment process by developing a broadly diverse sample of alumni in terms of demographics and career paths. We will assess the ways in which alumni skills and competencies were: (1) brought directly to careers from their education at IUSB; (2) developed foundationally at IUSB but required enhancement through continued training; and (3) acquired through continued training beyond their education at IUSB. Findings from this effort will be immediately turned into deliberate changes in the both the sociology and anthropology major curricula, designed using insights from alumni about how important career skills and competencies have been introduced and reinforced within our curricula, and especially using insights about those skills and competencies which we have not previously provided with systematic rigor. This project should result in both programs establishing contextual, evidenced-based career competencies for success in the IUSB service region and beyond with a baccalaureate degree. An instrument will also be developed to assess on a semester basis student satisfaction with the trainings resultant from this project, and another instrument will be developed to assess alumni outcomes on a biennial basis.

Awarded | June 2023

The IU South Bend Libraries is seeking an assessment grant to participate in the 2023-2024 MISO (Measuring Information Service Outcomes) Survey, https://www.misosurvey.org/. The MISO Survey is a web-based quantitative survey designed to measure how faculty, students, and staff view library and computing services in higher education. The instrument contains items that measure areas, including support services for faculty and undergraduate research, makerspaces, the attractiveness of the library, and questions designed to measure the academic impact of library and IT services as reported by students and faculty.

Awarded | May 2022

The Department of Criminal Justice requests an Assessment Grant to support its revision of the department’s current assessment methods. After reviewing the literature, attending an assessment conference and consulting with a Criminal Justice assessment mentor, the department will determine what assessment methods best suit its needs and design those tools to be tested in AY 2022-23. The department’s preliminary plan is to design an exit exam for its capstone (CJUS-P410 Crime and Public Policy), which it could also give in CJUS-P100 to assess student progress on the learning outcomes over the course of the major. However, it would like to review recent literature before making a final determination. It would also like to design a method for assessing student satisfaction with the major.

Awarded | May 2022

The goal is to host two short workshops to discuss ¨Modernizing the world languages curriculum¨ for language programs that are rooted in the tradition of the humanities. While modernizing entails that something may currently be outdated, a mere cosmetic change in course titles would fail to address the main objective of modernization. More importantly, do our programs embrace modern teaching methodologies from the first level of instruction and beyond? Are students motivated to think clearly, rationally, and independently, in a second language? When acquired properly, this conceptual skill will transfer back into the student’s own native language.

Awarded | June 2021

The Vera Z. Dwyer College of Health Sciences is introducing a Minor in Palliative and Supportive care. This project is needed to collect and establish baseline information, provide a method for continued assessment to improve the quality of the Palliative Care educational programs being developed at IUSB, to assess the impact of the programs on career choices of alumni who graduate with this minor and track palliative care service expansion and improvement in the Michiana region. The goal of the project will consist of annual data collection, statistical analysis and reporting, as well as establishing the faculty training methods of assessment. The plan is to do a longitudinal study.

Awarded | November 2019

The goal is to hold a full day teaching workshop to discuss best practices for teaching second languages online. While general guidelines are already available for other disciplines, the nature of second language acquisition presents specific challenges, namely the synchronous and spontaneous oral interaction intended for non-virtual, social, face-to-face environments. The American Council of Teaching Foreign Languages (ACTFL) warns against teaching languages online. However, it acknowledges the increasing role that online teaching has in the field. Our hope is that this workshop will guide us through a nationally recognized process, instead of having our colleagues continue teaching themselves by applying techniques from other fields and disciplines.

Awarded | November 2019 

The IU South Bend Libraries is seeking an assessment grant to participate in the 2020-2021 MISO (Measuring Information Service Outcomes) Survey, https://www.misosurvey.org/. The MISO Survey is a web-based quantitative survey designed to measure how faculty, students, and staff view library and computing services in higher education. The instrument contains items that measure areas, including support services for faculty and undergraduate research, makerspaces, the attractiveness of the library, and questions designed to measure the academic impact of library and IT services as reported by students and faculty.

The grant was awarded in May 2019 to Gail McGuire in the form of summer salary for developing campus-wide learning outcomes for community-engaged courses, an instrument for assessing learning in community-engaged courses, and a process for obtaining and analyzing these data.

The grant was awarded in May 2019 to Gabriel Popescu in the form of summer salary for support of the MPA assessment activities necessary to produce a Self-Study Report due August 15, 2019, in view of our 2020 program reaccreditation site visit.

The grant was awarded in November 2018 to the School of Education.

The purpose of the grant is to conduct a case study that examines the impact that graduates of our teacher preparation programs have on K-12 student learning. The study will focus on in-service teachers with a range of experience from recent graduates to teachers with three years’ experience across disciplines and developmental levels.

The grant was awarded in February 2018 to the Department of Computer and Information Sciences.

The purpose of the grant is to provide a consultant for the 7-year program review. In addition to reviewing the program, the consultant will provide a training session on the new AABET and CAC requirements, data collection, assessment, and evaluation to the CS and Infomatics faculty.

The grant was awarded to the School to support area teachers in establishing inter-rater reliability in the scoring of student artifacts used in the Unit Assessment System. The reliability is crucial in maintaining a system to support assessment to improve student learning and maintain accreditation.

The grant was awarded to the School to purchase a site license for the continued used of the Advanced Measures of Music Audiation (AMMA). Student data collected through AMMA will contribute to the departmental assessment program

The World Language Grant was renewed for the year. The World Languages Studies Team, led by Oscar Barrau, was awarded an assessment grant in 2015 to evaluate the skills of world language students at two points in their academic course. The grant was extended through Fall '16 to provide the Team with more information about the usefulness of the test as a measure to improve their curriculum. The grant was again extended to include professional development through the Fall of 2017.

The School of Business will be piloting at test of CAT (Critical Thinking Assessment Test). This NSF supported instrument assesses critical thinking and real world problem solving. Faculty will be administering and scoring the results from 325 business students. The results should provide rich feedback on student learning outcomes, and suggest ways to improve the student learning experience.

A World Language Studies team, led by Oscar Barrau, has been awarded an assessment grant to pilot the Standards-Based Measurement of Proficiency (STAMP) assessment tool to evaluate the skills of world language students at two points in their academic course. This test is used by a wide range of colleges and universities to assessment language students and majors in listening, reading speaking and writing.

To pilot the Information Literacy Test (ILS) in COAS-Q 110 classes and ascertain its usefulness as a testing-out instrument for the information literacy requ8irement.

An assessment project to use the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (SEC): State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards for assessing education students focusing on science education.

To design and test instruments which can be used by the school counseling program to assess needs and targets.

An extensive evaluation of the ENG-W 131 English Composition I, an important component of the General Education program. This award will allow them to measure how well students achieve four crucial exit goals for the course.

Final Report >>

Award to continue piloting the nationally normed TUCE pre/post test.

Assessment grant project designed to assess the efficacy of Technology-Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) in Introductory Evolutionary Anthropology. This innovative instructional strategy, developed at MIT, incorporates interactive exercises using shared computers in large lecture courses. Drs. Wells and VanderVeen will investigate whether those students whose courses include the TEAL component perform differently on survey instruments covering course content.

Awarded a grant to complete a working prototype of a web-based testing tool.

Final Report>>

Awarded a grant to develop a website to document the assessment process and communicate progress to stakeholders final report.

Awarded a grant for a faculty member to attend the NCATE/CEC workshop, and to conduct a focus group for education stakeholders.

Final Report >>

Received a grant to evaluate advising for probationary and undecided students. This grant evaluated the effectiveness of two core courses being offered online by the Counseling and Human Services program.

A pilot of the Major Field Test in Criminal Justice for graduating students. If the pilot testing shows the value of the test, it will become the primary assessment tool for the department.

Received a grant to pilot the TUCE standardized test in the principles of economics classes.

Final Report >>

Awarded a grant to obtain detailed reports of the results of the NCLEX exam. This is the standardized test which allows graduating students to practice nursing.

Received a grant to send additional faculty to the NCATE conference, including faculty from LAS who partner with the SOE in service courses. The SOE will also have the help of a professional consultant in aligning their graduate programs with national teaching standards.

Final Report >>

Received an assessment grant to analyze data from the U-100 course.

To conduct an alumni survey of communication graduates.

Analyzing pre- and post-quizzes from the Principles of Sociology course.

Received an assessment grant to analyze and revise stakeholder surveys for the Criminal Justice program.

An expansion of a previous project on enhancing Stakeholder Assessment and Follow-up in the School of Education.

Received grants to develop a set of HESI exam questions, and another to test the HESI exam against another standardized test for nursing graduates.

Final Report >>

Award a grant to bring in an outside consultant to facilitate its accreditation with the prestigious ABET body.

Received a grant to further develop surveys for alumni of, employers of and CLAS faculty teaching school of education graduates.

Received a grant to develop pre and post assessment instruments based on course objectives for the major Criminal Justice courses.

Working on validating a student teacher assessment instrument for the School of Education. They will be purchasing survey software for this project.

Developing and evaluating survey instruments to assess and track graduates.

Developing and administering an alumni survey.

Refine and use their exit goals as an assessment tool for evaluating students.

Awarded a grant for the refining the evaluation mechanism for stakeholder satisfaction with teacher education program candidates.

Two faculty members from the Informatics program will be attending an assessment conference, supported by an assessment grant.

To lead a project to develop an assessment instrument for associate faculty. This project includes presentation of the information at two conferences.

To develop a web-based tool for conducting alumni surveys.

Purchase of DxrNursing software. This software assesses student’s critical thinking skills at various points in the curriculum.

Developing an electronic course evaluation system. The customized evaluations will assist in making targeted improvements to LAS courses.

Surveying graduates and employers of graduates. This valuable feedback will help Counseling and Human Services assess the long-term impact of their program

The Education faculty will have two assessment retreats for planning an assessment strategy for the School of Education

Funded the analysis and evaluation of the new Criminal Justice student advising scheme.

Allowed the program to continue its collection and analysis of data from employer surveys, alumni surveys and senior exit surveys.

Funded research and development of an improved Capstone course.

Attend the Institute for Information Literacy "Immersion '04" conference. One of the goals of this conference is to educate the librarian participants about the role of assessment as it relates to a whole curriculum including information literacy.

Allow the General Studies program to develop and administer an alumni questionnaire.

Used for a comprehensive survey of assessment techniques used at IU South Bend and in similar programs in the IU system. They will also survey graduates of the program.

Fund a program to evaluate and improve the math service courses offered as part of other courses of study at IU South Bend.

Fund an alumni and graduating senior survey.

Fund the development of an online course survey instrument which can be used to provide midcourse and summative assessment data.