Innovation in Assessment Grant Initiative
About the Initiative
The Innovation in Assessment Grant Initiative was developed by The Office of Institutional Research and Assessment (OIRA) to provide a way to monetarily support UMaine faculty and staff members in their pursuit of program excellence. The purpose of the program is to foster a culture of continuous improvement by supporting informed decision making using assessment. The grants are offered as a way for faculty and staff to investigate new avenues in assessment, strengthen existing assessment designs, or assist programs or units to implement action plans.
To further support the development and use of assessment information for improvement, each year OIRA offers grants up to the amount of $1,000 per department. Grants are awarded to UMaine faculty or staff members in academic areas to conduct assessment-related projects or initiatives that directly support student learning outcome assessment processes for undergraduate, graduate, or certificate programs.
Read success stories below!
Success Stories
Developing a Novel Tool to Centralize, Visualize, and Track EES Program Assessment
“With support from the OIRA mini grant, EES created a new tool for its program assessment…. Led by a graduate student, we created a new standalone website application using R Markdown. This tool leverages a graphical user interface to make entering assessment outcomes easier for instructors. In addition, the app automatically creates graphs that summarize the assessment results, such as capstone level achievement, through different class years. The instructor’s response has been positive so far; instructors appreciate seeing how their assessment data fits into and is essential for the larger EES assessment effort.”
– Dr. Kate Ruskin, EES
Determining and Scoring Program Artifacts to Assess Learning Outcomes
This project successfully assessed program outcomes across six majors by analyzing curriculum maps to identify diverse student pathways. While over 90% of graduates since 2011 had been exposed to the program learning objectives, the depth and mastery of these objectives were still being evaluated. The team identified key “linchpin courses” (Bio 200, Bio 350, Bio 365, Capstone, and others) that were essential for covering the required learning objectives. Data from these courses were collected to evaluate Program Learning Objectives (PLOs) 1-3 in 2023, with additional cycles planned for PLOs 4-9. This iterative process ensured continuous improvements in degree programs and learning outcomes. As the team noted, “This is intended to be an iterative process so that, over time, our degree programs are improved to provide even better learning outcomes for our majors.”
– Dr. Lynn Atkins, SBE
Course-Based and Comprehensive Assessment of Graduate Students in Communication Sciences and Disorders
“Our department exceeded our expectations related to comprehensive examination. We not only researched, recommended, and organized a portfolio-based comprehensive examination, we also piloted the process with our students who graduated in Spring 2023 and rolled out a more formal version with our students planning to graduate in Spring 2024 and Spring 2025. Our greatest challenges were related to organization of student portfolios and administrative processes to support this examination process. In October 2023, we are formalizing these processes and investigating better management systems for the portfolios. Overall, all students and faculty felt this was a major success and was a much-needed change to enhance our graduate program. CSD greatly appreciated the dedicated funds and associated time to allocate towards these important graduate assessment efforts. This grant increased the conversations around our graduate program, including goals and expectations. This project started the momentum that the department is capitalizing on to make other much-needed updates to our curriculum and processes. We anticipate continued progress that will lead to more consistent and accurate assessment of our graduate students in clinical and academic coursework”
– Dr. Jessica Riccardi, CSD
Development of Assessment Instruments for Anthropology Programs
“The mini-grant allowed us to hire two graduate assistants to help with survey design and implementation, as well as organizing the Symposium and Faculty Workshop. The survey results and discussions between faculty and graduate students identified strengths and weaknesses in our program. At our workshop, we agreed to continue these discussions, refine our assessment tools, and improve our curriculum and training opportunities that allow students to demonstrate program learning outcomes. There was strong interest in developing a professional development course among both faculty and students. However, sustainable sources to support these efforts and other community building activities are limited.”
– Dr. Christine Beitl, AEP
Artifact Rubrics and Submission Platform for Comprehensive Examination Portfolios
“This assessment mini grant was used to fund a GA to assist with related tasks. We focused on two goals; creating a rubric to assess individual portfolio artifacts…and identify and tailor an online submission platform for student portfolios.
We launched this Brightspace shell for our Spring 2025 graduates in Spring 2024 and for our Spring 2026 graduates upon the start of their program this Fall. Thus far, this has been a major success in increasing efficiency and ensuring information is consistently delivered to our students. Throughout this grant, our faculty have come to embrace the iterative nature of assessment. This academic year, we are continuing to dedicate time and effort to the preliminary and comprehensive exam processes. Across our program, we are focusing our attention on improving our rubrics to better reflect our program learning outcomes and competencies and on supporting our students in self-reflecting on their strengths and areas for growth.“
– Dr. Jessica Riccardi, CSD