OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH & EVALUATION ANNUAL REPORT 2006-2007 Submitted by Dawn Geronimo Terkla, Ed.D. Associate Provost, Institutional Research, Evaluation & Assessment July 7, 2007
The 2006-2007 was an action-packed, productive year. This is evidenced by the number and diversity of the projects completed by members of the OIR&E team. I am particularly pleased with the fact that OIR&E was once again able to provide support and services to every school (Arts & Sciences, Cummings, Dental, Engineering, Fletcher, Friedman, Medical, Sackler, and Tisch College) and division (Advancement, External Relations, Finance, Human Resources, Operations, and UIT) within the university. A considerable amount of time and attention was devoted to supporting several major initiatives: the National Research Council (NRC) Assessment of Research & Doctoral Programs, the Carnegie Elective Classification on Community Engagement, preparation for the NEASC 5th year review, AS&E Retention Task Force, A&S Strategic Plan Implementation Review Task Force, the Provost’s International website, the Engineering Educational Objectives and Outcomes Assessment Committee, the TCSVM Outcomes Assessment Committee, the Colonial Group, and the Tufts Open Courseware project.
Requests for
services and support continued to grow. The number of surveys designed, administered, and analyzed increased by approximately 10 percent. OIR&E received IRB approval to administer 94 surveys: 74 web-based instruments, 10 web/paper instruments, and 10 paper only surveys. Members of the staff provided evaluation guidance and support to several faculty members as they prepared grant proposals. In addition, OIR&E processed over 100 independent data requests. Following is a sample of the many on-going activities and new initiatives that were undertaken during the 2006-2007 academic year. RESEARCH ACTIVITIES Numerous projects were undertaken to assess various aspects of the undergraduate program, as well as to provide support to the graduate and professional schools. Following is a partial list of projects: Admissions AS&E Undergraduate Accepted Applicant Matriculant Survey & analysis AS&E Undergraduate Acceptd Applicant Non-Matriculant Survey & analysis AS&E Undergraduate Inquiry Survey & analysis Dental Matriculating Student Survey & analysis Dental Non-Matriculating Student Survey & analysis Fletcher Inquiry Student Survey
Fletcher Matriculating Student Survey & analysis Fletcher Non-Matriculating Student Survey & analysis GSAS & GSOE Non-Matriculating Student survey & analysis GSAS & GSOE Matriculating Student survey & analysis Medical School Admissions Survey Alumni Surveys & Analysis BSOT Cummings Dental Engineering Frances Stern Medical – post grad year 1 Evaluations Bringing Engineers Into New Disciplines/BEND (NIDDK) Biomedical Research Experiences for Engineering Majors/BREEM (NIGMS) Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professors Award – David Walt (HHMI) Human Resources – Leadership Training Program Interdisciplinary Research Training for Veterinarians (NIDDK) Kaleidoscope Provost Fellows Tisch Citizen & Public Service Scholars Program Tufts OpenCourse Ware Tufts Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program/PREP (NIGMS) The Tufts Program in Evidence-based, Complementary & Alternative Medicine (NIH/NCCAM) TUSK: Tools to Integrate and Share Health Knowledge (NLM) Student Experience Studies AS&E Alcohol Survey & analysis AS&E First Year Drug & Alcohol Survey & analysis AS&E First Year Orientation Survey & analysis AS&E Retention Study AS&E Residential Life – Satisfaction Survey & analysis AS&E Senior Survey & analysis AS&E Summer Scholars Program A&S Pre-major Advising Survey & analysis A&S Sophomore Experience Survey & analysis Cummings First Year Student Academic Climate Survey & analysis Cummings Entering Student Survey &analysis Cummings Exit Survey & analysis Engineering First Year Pre-major Advising Survey & analysis Engineering Sophomore Experience Survey & analysis Fletcher First Year Survey & analysis Fletcher Exiting Student Survey & analysis GSAS & GSOE Exit Survey & analysis Tisch College Civic & Political Attitudes Survey Student Services & Academic Programs: AS&E Analysis of AMCAS data AS&E Health Services Patient Satisfaction Survey & analysis Cummings Third & Fourth Year Outcomes Exams Dental Post-Treatment Plan Analysis
2
Administrative support: Administrative Council Survey AS&E Student Services Customer Satisfaction Survey Cummings Adventures in Vet Medicine Alumni Survey Cummings Equine Ventilation Survey & analysis Dental Patient Satisfaction Survey & analysis Dental Strategic Planning Survey & analysis Digital Repository Service Survey & analysis Dining Services -- Student Satisfaction Survey & analysis Dining Services – Faculty & Staff Catering Survey & analysis Dining Services – Grafton Dining Survey & analysis E-News Customer Satisfaction Survey & analysis Faculty Salary – comparative analysis Human Resources - Tisch Library Teamwork Survey Mail Services – Student & Staff Surveys & analysis Public Safety - multiple surveys & analysis TCCS – SIS Customer Satisfaction Survey & analysis University Dashboard UNIVERSITY-WIDE COORDINATION ACTIVITIES & SHORT TERM PROJECTS Throughout the year, the office has been called upon to provide both the coordination and collection of university-wide level information. Both internal and external constituencies use this information. Activities that fall under this category include: Preparation & distribution of the Fact Book, Fast Facts (mini fact book), and Facts & Figures Web pages American Association of University Professors Annual Survey of Faculty Compensations College Sports Project College & University Personnel Association Faculty Salary Survey National Research Council (NRC) Assessment of Research & Doctoral Program New England Association of Schools & Colleges (NEASC) U.S. Department of Education IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) data collection
A variety of short-term projects were completed for several organizations within the Tufts community. These included providing responses to an ever increasing number of informational surveys, providing evaluation and survey design consultation, gathering comparative and/or longitudinal information for a number of individuals or offices including, but not limited to, the President, the Provost; the Executive Vice President; various offices within Arts & Sciences; the School of Engineering; Information Technology; University Advancement; Alumni Relations; Public Relations, Operations; the Budget office; and several academic departments. There is institutional research representation on the following university committees: Academic Council, Administrative Council, Provost’s Council, University Committee on Teaching and Faculty Development, Medford Campus IRB, AS&E Admissions & Financial Aid Committee, AS&E Retention Task Force, Engineering Educational
3
Objectives and Outcomes Assessment Committee, TCSVM Outcomes Assessment Committee, TUSDM Outcomes Assessment Committee, Tufts Open Courseware Steering Committee, and NEASC 5th Year Review Steering Commitee. In addition, I serve as the University’s accreditation liaison officer to the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Members of the staff took advantage of a number of professional development opportunities throughout the past year. Susan Storm attended several Tufts training courses (Thinwire, Data Warehouse, Kenexa-HR), as well as participating in the Electronic Requisitioning focus group.
Thomas McGuinness attended the Business of
Project Management Course offered by UIT training. Lisa O’Leary, Heather Roscoe and I presented papers at both the North East Association of Institutional Research (NEAIR) and Association for Institutional Research (AIR) conferences. Stephanie Topping participated in a 2-part webinar series sponsored by AIR: Correlation and Regression and Analysis of Variance. In addition, she attended the Tufts datawarehouse training session. Lisa & I, along with Tisch College staff, conducted a workshop entitled “A Mixed Method Approach to Measuring Civic Learning“ at the AA&CU Academic Renewal Conference. Additionally, we presented a paper entitled “Tufts OCW: The Users’ Perspectives” at the Open Education 2006 Conference at the Center for Open Sustainable Learning in September in Logan, Utah. Lisa also attended the AEA/CDC Summer Evaluation Institute, held in Atlanta, GA in June.
Lisa and I had two articles published: "Civic Engagement Assessment: Linking Activities to Attitudes" (with N. Wilson & A. Diaz) in the May/June issue of Assessment Update and “Civic Engagement: A Study of Changes in College” (with N. Wilson & A. Diaz) in the summer 2007 volume of Academic Exchange Quarterly.
In addition, I
co-edited with Larry Litten a New Directions in Institutional Research monograph on sustainability (forthcoming). I continue to serve as a pre-major academic advisor.
4