Assessment Details
Academic Year: 2020-2021 Level: Graduate
Campus Department: Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences [UG and Grad]
Program Type: Major [UG] / Program [Grad]
Program Name: Biology PhD (Link)
Description of Data Collection:
First year students are required to give three (two when entering with a Masters) rotation talks that demonstrate their communication skills and understanding of the research that they have undertaken. Due to the pandemic and the need for social distancing, the rotation system was modified for this year, with students carrying out 2 to 4 rotations, and then giving a single rotation talk on one rotation at the end of the spring semester.
Second year students write an original research proposal that is evaluated by a committee of three faculty members and provides the context for an oral comprehensive exam to test their breadth of knowledge in various biological subfields.
Starting in their third year, students present their ongoing research annually in the departmental Data Club. They also have annual meetings with their thesis guidance committee that evaluates their progress. Unsatisfactory progress can lead to termination from the program.
We conduct a survey of the faculty to obtain their impressions of how we are meeting learning objects based on the following three topics. 1) rotation talk quality, 2) comps exam quality, 3) annual committee meeting quality. This is the fourth year of the survey. We continue to see an improving trend. While, the major areas of concern are that students have difficulties conveying information about a specialized area of biology to either a lay audience or a broad biological audience, the majority of Biology faculty now feel that they are able to do these things.
Placement and publication data for graduate students are collected annually.
We originally instituted an exit survey to ask how confident students are that they have achieved each of the stated learning objectives in addition to satisfaction. Annual averages of these surveys provided a sense of what to focus on in the program. However, because these surveys were filled out by a very small number of students and because the program they experienced is not necessarily the same as our current program, we instituted a new annual meeting of the graduate program director and department chairman with third and fourth year students to get a sense of how well the program is meeting their needs. This summer we will carry out a meeting of the entire graduate population as the experience of the current 1st and 2nd year students will likely be different from that of more senior grad students.
We surveyed the graduate students with regard to outcome 4. The consensus is that the RSI program is good, but should be more tailored to focus Biology students on issues specific to Biology. They also say that the IACUC (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) and ACF (Animal Care Facility) training was good.
To address learning outcomes 1 and 5, we will begin keeping a “three-year” running total of meetings attended, presentations, and publications by our grad students. The numbers below actually represented about 2.5 years from 2018 to the middle of 2020. Because of the pandemic, we are going to wait one year to update these numbers due to the impact on meeting attendance and benchwork that fuels our publications.
Meetings attended: 124
Presentations at meetings: 89
Publications: 45
Review Process:
The faculty meets each May to discuss the progress of the first-year students.
Individual Comprehensive Exam Committees and Thesis Guidance Committees evaluate the students with whom they interact.
The graduate program committee meets over the summer to discuss the general progress of the graduate students and determine whether adjustments are needed to meet learning goals.
Resulting Program Changes:
Four years ago, we gave the fourth year students the responsibility of organizing the annual departmental retreat that takes place in August. The goal was to give them professional experience (with guidance and support from Biology faculty and staff) in organizing a small scientific meeting. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, we have had to cancel the retreat.
Four years ago, we made the research rotations in the first year into 1 credit graded courses. This had a positive impact as it required the faculty to give a more clearly stated evaluation of the students and it sent the message to the students that the rotations are a central component of their education. We also added a line to the rotation reports that accompany the assignment of a grade to specifically address the quality of the rotation talk. In this year’s assessment meeting with 3rd and 4th year graduate students, they all agreed that this was a good change to the program. However, due to COVID-19, we had to modify the rotation system to increase the number of possible rotation periods in order to dedensify the labs. This system worked well, but we hope to return to the normal system this fall.
Also based on the meeting with rising 4th and 5th year students, we have instituted a summer meeting with rising 3rd year students to discuss the expectations of the 3rd year with regard to participation in Data Club and the initiation of Thesis Guidance Meetings.
In response to our annual meeting with grad students, we updated our department Handbook to make it easier for students to find out about expectations and possible outcomes with regard to the Comprehensive Exams and the annual Thesis Guidance meetings.
Finally, to address the issue of improving communication of research to a broad scientific or lay audience, we have instituted a Workshop/Bootcamp on presenting data given by Dr. Heather Olins.
Date of Most Recent Program Review:
Four years ago, we gave the fourth year students the responsibility of organizing the annual departmental retreat that takes place in August. The goal was to give them professional experience (with guidance and support from Biology faculty and staff) in organizing a small scientific meeting. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, we have had to cancel the retreat.
Four years ago, we made the research rotations in the first year into 1 credit graded courses. This had a positive impact as it required the faculty to give a more clearly stated evaluation of the students and it sent the message to the students that the rotations are a central component of their education. We also added a line to the rotation reports that accompany the assignment of a grade to specifically address the quality of the rotation talk. In this year’s assessment meeting with 3rd and 4th year graduate students, they all agreed that this was a good change to the program. However, due to COVID-19, we had to modify the rotation system to increase the number of possible rotation periods in order to dedensify the labs. This system worked well, but we hope to return to the normal system this fall.
Also based on the meeting with rising 4th and 5th year students, we have instituted a summer meeting with rising 3rd year students to discuss the expectations of the 3rd year with regard to participation in Data Club and the initiation of Thesis Guidance Meetings.
In response to our annual meeting with grad students, we updated our department Handbook to make it easier for students to find out about expectations and possible outcomes with regard to the Comprehensive Exams and the annual Thesis Guidance meetings.
Finally, to address the issue of improving communication of research to a broad scientific or lay audience, we have instituted a Workshop/Bootcamp on presenting data given by Dr. Heather Olins.
Attachments (if available)