This year, the UCF Office of the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) recognized 25 faculty and staff projects focused on helping undergraduate students prepare for success after college. Proposals were judged — in two categories Enhancement and Program Innovation — based on their ability to advance the QEP’s theme “What’s Next: Integrative Learning for Professional and Civic Preparation.”
The 12 Enhancement project awardees received up $3,500 for improving existing or creating new resources for undergraduate students, such as developing courses, designing high-impact learning activities, or enhancing career preparation.
Awards up to $10,000 recognized 13 Program Innovation projects that enhance existing programs or create new ones to advance undergraduate student learning outcomes, such as mapping and revising curriculum, implementing new technologies (e.g., e-portfolios), or providing faculty and staff training.
Project submissions for next year’s “What’s Next” awards begins on January 6, 2017 and awards will be announced on April 21, 2017.
The list of winners are below:
2016 QEP Funded Program Innovation Awards
Integrated Business Professional Success Portfolio Competition
Gordon Henry and James Gilkeson, Integrated Business Program
This project further integrates integrative business courses through a portfolio competition in which students demonstrate not only their mastery of course content, but the ability to integrate their knowledge into a comprehensive plan that leads to attainment of their five-year professional goals.
Ready, Set, Learn What You Need for Work! A Developmental Assessment Center
for Psychology Majors
Barbara A. Fritzsche and Karen Mottarella, Department of Psychology
The purpose of this project is to create a developmental assessment center for undergraduate psychology majors. The assessment center will help students identify and develop job competencies that employers regularly test in hiring psychology graduates. In a new Touchstone course for psychology majors, students will participate in online, video-based, role-play exercises designed with embedded situational triggers that require one or more workplace competencies needed by graduates of the psychology undergraduate program.
Increasing Integrative Learning Through High-Impact Research Experiences Throughout the Undergraduate Curriculum
Mary L. Tripp, Department of Writing and Rhetoric; Amanda Anthony, Department of Sociology; Martha Garcia, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures; Michael Rovito, Department of Health Professions; Kimberly Schneider, Office of Undergraduate Research; and, Linda Walters, Department of Biology
This project creates a sustainable model for peer research coaches integrated in courses to increase campus-wide participation in high-impact, integrative academic research. The peer research coach model supports faculty to grow and strengthen their curricula.
Leveraging High-Impact Integrative Learning: The Pathway to Civic Engagement and Community-Based Research in an Honors Program
Vanessa McRae and Denise Crasifi, The Burnett Honors College
This project is designed to integrate civic engagement and community-based research into the Honors curriculum in the form of a high-impact integrative learning experience using a multi-level interdisciplinary approach to reduce health disparities in Orange County, Florida.
Transforming the Health Sciences Pre-Clinical Curriculum into Career-Focused Tracks
Suha Saleh, Department of Health Professions
This project encompasses the revamping and restructuring of the curriculum and student experience in the Health Sciences Pre-Clinical (HSPC) Program at UCF in order to improve student learning, incorporate integrative learning in the curriculum, and create new opportunities for students to reflect on their learning and prepare for future careers.
QEP Assessing UCF Students’ Interviewing Skills using Simulation
Janet Andreasen, School of Teaching, Learning & Leadership: Mathematics Education; Farshid Safi, School of Teaching, Learning & Leadership: Mathematics Education; Lisa Dieker, Department of Child, Family, and Community Sciences; and, Charles Hughes, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The purpose of this project is to evaluate UCF STEM majors’ interview skills and identify potential remediation needs using a virtual learning environment (TeachLivE). The study will include 200 STEM UCF volunteer students who will be assessed during a 5-minute virtual interview in TeachLivE. TeachLivE is a virtual environment created at UCF that has been found to evaluate a targeted skill in a compressed timeframe and to allow for remediation to occur in as short as three, five-minute sessions.
I am UCF: Diverse Digital Natives
Elizabeth Brendel Horn, Department of Theatre; Edwanna Andrews, Social Justice and Advocacy; Natasha Jones, Department of Writing and Rhetoric; Natalie Underberg-Goode, School of Visual Arts and Design; and, Stephanie Wheeler, Department of Writing and Rhetoric
I Am UCF is an initiative to create an online database of personal digital narratives reflective of the diversity on UCF’s campus. The project will fuse together writing, digital media, and theatre to help students develop their narratives. Students will then be able to upload their digital narrative on the I Am UCF site, which will create a visual and sortable campus map for users to view the digital narratives. Keeping students engaged and engendering an atmosphere of support is key to student retention. Through this project students will collaborate with faculty and staff to help create this online repository of support, affirmation, and reflection.
OEL and SPA Internship Course Merger
Daniel Seigler, School of Public Administration and Ulla Isaac, Office of Experiential Learning
Beginning in fall 2016, all undergraduate students in the Public Administration program will be required to complete an internship for graduation. This project will create a refined and restructured internship course and program to provide students with meaningful integrative and experiential learning experiences.
Building User Experience (UX) as Core Competency for Information Technology Undergrads
Pamela Wisniewski and Joseph LaViola, Department of Computer Science
This project creates a User Experience (UX) Lab @ UCF where students can get real-world experience by providing UX consulting services to local businesses. The UX Lab @ UCF would provide a wide range of services that would match students’ skills and interests with company needs. Services may include conducting interviews to assess users’ needs, creating prototypes of different design alternatives, using Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) design heuristics to evaluate design alternatives, conducting usability tests with actual customers, and even providing graphic design or content creation services.
Competency-based Learning as a Means of Integrating Curricular and Extracurricular Entrepreneurship Education Opportunities
Cameron Ford, Department of Management and Paul Jarley, College of Business Administration
This project introduces competency-based learning as a method to enhance the quality and impact of UCF entrepreneurship education, and to better align students’ new venture development efforts with their progress toward graduation. In order to reach these goals, the project will: 1) map entrepreneurship competencies; 2) implement these competencies in an IT platform capable of tracking student achievement; and 3) market our new integrated learning processes to entrepreneurial students throughout the UCF campus.
Enhanced High-Tech DirectConnect to UCF Pathway
Jennifer Sumner and Pam Cavanaugh, Regional Campuses Administration
Motivated by the desire to offer students a more intentional, streamlined, and guided path to UCF, the DirectConnect to UCF Pathway is a tool that guides students through their transfer into the University. On the Pathway, students must pass through multiple stages of skill development, each with purposeful activities, expectations, and learning outcomes. This Program Innovation award will assist with the enhancements of: 1) a mobile app that would boost the communication channels available to students; 2) a learning-gaming environment built around skill development; 3) augmented realities that would allow students, in a virtual way, to make connections with the university, academic colleges/programs, and career based resources via interactive and virtual technologies.
Improving Practical Political Science and Civic Engagement
Peter Jacques and Kerstin Hamann, Department of Political Science
This two-year project will dramatically improve the structure of political science internships, one of the critical civic components for majors in Political Science and International and Global Studies, where students work on campaigns for political parties, non-governmental organizations, and other relevant sites. The project will develop the new “Certificate in Practical Politics” and build professional development into an internship sequence, adding a one-credit course preparing students for on-site work in political offices and other relevant locations.
Sciences Exploration Program
Dena Ford and Teresa Dorman, College of Sciences
The project will expand the resources of the COS Explore Program at UCF. Students who complete the COS Explore Program are able to fully engage in creating their own personal and career goals, while having the ability to explore underlying issues that may temporarily stall potential for further student and professional development. Expansion of this program would include discussion boards through Webcourses that engage our departments to answer critical career and internship readiness questions.
2016 QEP Funded Enhancement Awards
First-Generation Students: Career Readiness for College Students
Rebekah McCloud, Student Development and Enrollment Services TRiO Center
This project will use the Florida Department of Education’s definition of career readiness and focus on the skills portion of the definition. Students who succeed in higher education and the workforce tend to demonstrate a maturity that is evidenced by the following observable dispositions and behaviors which have been identified by Florida postsecondary faculty as well as business and industry leaders: effective communication skills, critical thinking and analytical skills, good time management skills, intellectual curiosity, and a commitment to learning. Staff will develop/present a series of face-to-face and online modules (via Canvas) that will assist our scholars to be career ready by the time they graduate.
Databases Impacting Students in their Career, graduate School and Civic Engagement Preparation
Barbara Tierney and Corrinne Bishop, UCF Libraries
UCF Libraries Research and Information Services Department (RIS) will create an online research guide that will introduce undergraduate students to library databases that will have a positive impact in their career, graduate school, and civic engagement preparation. Use of these databases also will help advisors and faculty in assisting students with their decisions regarding careers, graduate school, and civic engagement. The research guide will be divided into two tracks with one track targeting undergraduates going directly into the job market and the other track targeting undergraduates going into graduate school.
SelectedWorks for Undergraduate Students: Creating Professional and Scholarly Online Identities and Portfolios
Lee Dotson, Information Technology & Digital Initiatives and Richard Harrison, Research and Information Services
SelectedWorks is part of the three year technology-fee-funded digital institutional repository STARS, the Showcase of Text, Archives, Research & Scholarship. It can be used by any student in any discipline to tell the story of their education and experiences to potential employers or prospective universities. This project will provide funding for staffing and outreach to assist students with creating and populating online profiles using SelectedWorks. Staffing will include an OPS adjunct librarian and a student assistant to provide consultations and group training sessions for creating and maintaining SelectedWorks profiles. The project will also assist in the creation of how-to handouts and on-demand tutorials to support student use of SelectedWorks.
Community-Based Research Scholars
Aubrey Kuperman, and Kimberly Schneider, Office of Undergraduate Research
Community-Based Research (CBR) is collaborative research that focuses on being useful to community partners and emphasizes action in research methods, with the goal of social change. The Community-Based Research Scholars program will provide UCF undergraduates with the opportunity to learn more about both Orlando community organizations and their academic disciplines by engaging in a multi-disciplinary cohort experience that introduces them to the tenets of CBR.
Curating Across the Curriculum
Barry Mauer, Department of English and John Venecek, Research and Information Services
This project will develop Curating Across the Curriculum projects that faculty can incorporate as part of their curricular activities. When students curate exhibits as part of their coursework, they enhance their discovery, learning, and engagement with their disciplines. We plan to recruit a small group of faculty to participate in a series of workshops that lead to class projects, an exhibits showcase, and the production of a best practices guide for teachers interested in adopting curating as a high-impact practice within their classes.
What’s Next for English Majors?
Kathy Hohenleitner, Pat Angley, Farrah Cato, Christian Beck, Laurie Uttich, and Tony Grajeda, Department of English
This project will create an organized, co-curricular mechanism to offer integrative learning guidance to English majors and to foster professionalism throughout their undergraduate careers and beyond. We will develop enhanced online module content and live informational sessions on topics such as applying to graduate or law school; exploring experiential learning and internships related to the major; and self-advocacy and professionalism.
Transfer Readiness Track Program
Jason Dodge, Department of Transfer and Transition Services and Jennifer Sumner, Regional Campuses Administration
The Transfer Readiness Track program will offer a holistic learning and engagement transfer experience for our DirectConnect to UCF students, from preparation, to transition, and throughout their progression towards a Bachelor’s degree. The program will provide intentional and integrative co-curricular opportunities offered through the Office of Transfer and Transition Services (TTS) that will complement the high-impact learning done in the DirectConnect to UCF Pathway program facilitated by Regional Campuses. This partnership will allow DirectConnect to UCF students to associate and articulate their pre-transfer learning experiences gained in the Pathway to the co-curricular opportunities offered by TTS during and after their transfer, thus promoting the continuation of their academic and social integration once at UCF.
Career PREP (Psychology Readiness Enhancement Program)
Lynn Hansen, Career Services, Jeff Cassisi, Department of Psychology, and Kimberly Schneider, Office of Undergraduate Research
The purpose of the Career PREP (Psychology Readiness Enhancement Program) will be to educate prospective and current psychology students on major(s), career outlooks, and salary. These programs will include information sessions, employer panels, workshops, and classroom presentations. The proposal will also outline opportunities for collaboration between the Psychology Department, the College of Undergraduate Studies, and Career Services.
Women in STEM: Aim Higher
Bill Blank, Career Services and Jonathan Hall, College of Education and Human Performance
This program aims to encourage women to pursue STEM fields by informing them of the wide range of STEM related academic and career opportunities. Additionally, this program will facilitate connections with successful female professionals and faculty, as well as STEM focused student support services. A primary goal will be to inspire a vision of success to help students overcome issues and challenges pervasive in STEM fields.
Pathways to Success in Global Languages and STEM Studies
Marie Léticée and Maria T. Redmon, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
We will develop a program of guidance and information presenting a pathway to resources available for students to successfully complete personalized degree programs in STEM, enhanced with globalized communication skills. These globalized communication skills will be built through study abroad, experiential learning, internship experiences, and service-learning opportunities.
Tracking Your Path Toward Health Professional School
Erin Myszkowski and Stephanie Wilson, Office of Pre-Health and Pre-Law Advising
This project will be an online resource housed in Webcourses for UCF Pre-Health students seeking to gain admission to the always highly competitive health professional schools. Students will use this resource to: 1) guide and educate themselves about what is needed to be a competitive applicant to health professional schools; 2) track their academic progress and extracurricular experiences throughout their 3–4 years prior to application to health professional schools; 3) self-assess their progress and experiences using a rating scale; and 4) use their composite score on the rating scale to project their overall level of competitiveness for admission.
Interdisciplinary Florida Review Program
Lisa Roney, Department of English, Rudy McDaniel, Natalie Underberg-Goode, and Victor Davila, School of Visual Arts and Design
The Florida Review provides an important high-impact learning environment in the Department of English, granting undergraduates (and graduate) students hands-on training and experience in the operation of a professional national publication. Students learn vital career-oriented skills such as editing, proofreading, production and layout, marketing, and management. This project will expand the journal’s internship program to include multimedia, web design and graphic design projects, thereby providing opportunities to more students in English and beyond the department while raising the profile and reach of the publication and increasing students’ contributions.