The Office of the Provost is continuing to lift initiatives related to the Volunteer Experience, as articulated in goal one of the Strategic Vision. This comprehensive, university-wide approach promotes student well-being inside and outside the classroom. One effort in that approach is establishing academic department Student Success Grants to support the integration of well-being pedagogy in priority, high-enrollment courses.
The first grant, awarded in fall 2021, supported the Division of Biology’s Biology Booster Shot project and was submitted by co-applicants, Dr. Randall Small and Dr. Caroline Wienhold. The Biology Booster Shot project seeks to improve student success in the 100-level introductory biology courses, specifically BIOL 150 and 160, and the grant was funded for two years.
In addition to continuing support for the Biology Booster Shot project, the Office of the Provost and the Division of Student Success have funded two additional Student Success Grants that launched in fall 2022, in the Department of Engineering Fundamentals and the Department of English.
Co-led by Dr. Erin McCave and Dr. Darren Maczka, the Engineering Fundamentals department was awarded $30,000 to support the Developing Self-Efficacy and Confidence Among Pre-Calculus Engineering Students grant. The grant targets multiple goals, focusing first on increasing student scholars’ self-efficacy regarding math and physics concepts. Additionally, the faculty team seeks to develop students’ skills related to academic stress management, self-awareness regarding classroom performance, and self-regulated learning strategies.
According to McCave and Maczka, first-year engineering students face multiple hurdles and can be overwhelmed, especially with a lack of confidence while taking certain courses. “By directly supporting well-being skills and developing self-efficacy within the Engineering Fundamentals curriculum, we help this population of students thrive when previously many left the college before making it to their first engineering course,” they said.
On behalf of the English department, Dr. Sean Morey, Dr. Jeff Ringer, and Doctoral Candidate Megan Von Bergen submitted a grant titled, Equitable Assessment in First-Year Composition. This grant, which was awarded $60,125, is designed to rethink grading practices in ways that reflect equitable approaches to writing assessment and to provide continuity for these practices in the writing program. An example of equitable writing assessment is labor-based grading, which bases grades partly on the labor students put into the course and assignments, such as drafting, revising, self-assessment, and reflection.
“Equitable assessment practices go a long way towards meeting students where they are as learners and engaging them in practices –– metacognition and reflection –– that contribute to their growth, no matter where they start,” Dr. Morey said.
The success grant initiative is a collaborative partnership across multiple units. Dr. Sally Hunter, faculty member in Child and Family Studies, serves as the Volunteer Experience faculty director, coordinating efforts related to the success grants as well as the Volunteer Experience faculty fellows program. Dr. Patrick Biddix, who serves as professor and program coordinator in the Higher Education and Administration program, leads the assessment and research activities relevant to the success grant program. Dr. Virginia Stormer, the associate director for curriculum development and design in the office of Teaching and Learning Innovation, serves as a key facilitator of the success grant project, providing professional development, curricular redesign support, and partnership on research initiatives.
“Faculty-led success grants are helping us achieve our goal of seeing each student persist and graduate,” said Provost John Zomchick. “It’s great to see our Division of Student Success working together with faculty and departments to bring new approaches to learning and thriving to our student scholars.”