A La Carte Student Survey

A charge from the CISE REU PI community is to work toward a systematic means of collecting and reporting on evaluation data on CISE REU programs so that the complete and comparable REU story can be told. To this end, we continue to develop survey scales that correspond to the Recommended Indicators (see below). These scales have been designed to measure the Recommended Indicators, which have been found to be common among CISE REU programs. REU PIs are able to select the scales and items as deemed appropriate for your site from the A La Carte Survey menu, with guidelines and instructions provided. The scales measure the following indicators:

  • Self-efficacy
  • Intentions to attend graduate school
  • Computer science attitudes
  • Help-seeking and coping behaviors
  • Grit
  • Research skills
  • Mentoring satisfaction
  • Leadership
  • Professional/scientist identity formation
  • Satisfaction with REU experience

Cross-Walk of A La Carte Themes to Recommended Indicators

A La Carte Survey Themes

Recommended Indicators Categories

Research Experience/Knowledge/ Confidence

Acquire Research Knowledge, Research Communication Skills, Ethics, Computing Knowledge, Self Efficacy, GRIT

Graduate School

Recruitment: Intent to attend graduate school, Attribute future plans to REU

Professional/Skill Development

Acquire Research Knowledge, Research Communication Skills, Ethics, Computing Knowledge, Computing Career Knowledge

Increased Interest in CS Area/Research

Retention: Remain in/change to CISE major, Attribute future plans to REU

Improved Preparedness

Self Efficacy, GRIT

Hands-on Experiences

Attitudes toward REU experiences

Increased Success Rates

Retention: Remain in/change to CISE major, Attribute future plans to REU

Increased Knowledge of Domain

Domain Knowledge, Domain Career Knowledge

Participant Demographics (gender, ethnicity, major, year in school, etc.)

Demographics

GRIT: This is the original short-scale developed by A.L. Duckworth; see:

Mentoring: This scale was adapted from the Mentorship Effectiveness Scale, developed at Johns Hopkins University and is only used at post-survey.

Leadership and Scientific Identity: These scales were adapted from the work of Chemers, Zurbriggen, Syed, Goza, and Bearman (2011). The role of efficacy and identity in science career commitment among underrepresented minority students. Journal of Social Issues, 67, 469-491.

Development of the A La Carte Survey Modules: See: Rorrer, A. (2016). An evaluation capacity-building toolkit for principal investigators of undergraduate research experiences: A demonstration of transforming theory into practice. Evaluation and Program Planning, Volume 55, April 2016, Pages 103-111

Self-Efficacy, Intent towards Graduate School, Coping, Attitudes [2010] – Download the full report from Chris Aberson, Humboldt State here