Difference between revisions of "Resource:How to measure the success of your uifresh initiative"
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Revision as of 23:32, 7 January 2017
Contents
Intro
Launched in March 2015 by Epicenter’s University Innovation Fellows, the #uifresh (University Innovation Freshmen) program blossomed as part of a White House collection of initiativesduring the 5th Annual White House Science Fair. Leaders and Fellows from 10 schools committed to exposing incoming students at their schools to entrepreneurship, design thinking, creativity and innovation as part of freshmen orientation. Today, 30 schoolsacross the United States have committed to participate in #uifresh. Members of the initiative believe that early exposure to entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity and design thinking are powerful tools to engage and retain STEM students (a report published by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology indicates that 60% of U.S. freshmen who arrive to college intending to major in STEM change majors to non-STEM disciplines). As University Innovation Fellows, we believe an engaging student experience can be established by connecting freshmen with a community of STEM professionals, and fostering meaningful relationships with both peers and instructors — i.e. students like YOU.
Need a shining example of a UIF student utilizing the #uifresh community to engage a diverse population of students, including STEM majors, on her campus? Look no further than Magann Dykema of Michigan Technological University. As a first-year student, Magann quickly realized the need to introduce design thinking to students early in their undergraduate career. She noticed trends in innovation occurring regularly among upperclassmen, but building innovation seemed a more arduous process for first and second year students — Insert #uifresh. As an orientation leader aiding incoming students in their transition from high school to undergrad, Magann worked with a multitude of departments to bring a #uifresh initiative to her campus with design thinking in mind. In this article, we will illustrate Magann’s process behind launching this initiative at her university and how to measure the success of your own #uifresh initiative.
How
Administration
The How is simple: teamwork makes the dream work. When coming up with events to involve your freshmen, it will take collaboration from a multitude of people. Some of the most important and helpful people in this process will be your school’s administration and faculty (along with any outside resources i.e. a company for funding or hosting). It is important for you to build warm connections to these people and this is one of the purposes of the stakeholder meeting. For your stakeholder, be sure to choose a few people who are seen as leaders and benefactors of the freshmen class. In general, these people are your go-to when complications (such as getting locked out of a building or not enough funding or just planning the event) arise that are out of your hands and your fellow peers’ hands.
Logistics
The event will involve both the fellows and candidates. They can work together in the planning phase, coming up with a time-table, as well as the execution of the plan, setting up tables during the event itself and/or gathering supplies necessary; each member can choose where they want to be in the activity. Coordinate with the Orientation Staff in advance; the Orientation Staff Training is a great opportunity to test out the activities planned for the UIFresh event.
The coordinator must ensure that the event venue is accessible for setup according to your schedule by figuring out ahead if there is a specific process to obtain access or the times during which the venue will be restricted or closed. This is applicable as well to other campus facilities and equipments, and will serve to minimize complications at D-day.
Orientation leaders will be responsible for gathering, dispersing, or ushering students to the venue, or wherever they’re supposed to go for a particular activity. If there are multiple, separate locations, communication between the facilitators are to be maintained so that when problems arise or there are notable observations regarding the students’ response, each group can cross-reference and adapt as you go.
Orientation Staff
When planning a UIFresh Event one thing you must consider is communicating with the orientation staff and working with the orientation schedule. This is where your skills in communication, compromise, and presenting come in. First off make sure to pitch the UIFresh initiative to the head of the orientation staff. Have a presentation prepared and be ready to answer questions, it would also help to have a letter for a member of the UIF team that has great influence (such as Humera).
Once the orientation team is on board ( yay!) next step is to get the orientation staff up to date. First work with them to find a good day to implement the event, then find a good amount of time to meet up with the team and start communicating and bouncing ideas off each other. This is a time to explain to the orientation staff what UIF is and UIFresh. Orientation Leaders and the UIF’s are a team at this point, it is good to ask their opinions and get them to learn the activities that will be done during the event.
Talk amongst the team of UIF’s and Orientation Leader and get them involved in the event, have them help with rounding up students and choosing teams, and them when the event ends they can help get feedback and debrief students about what they learned and their opinions on the activities.
Success
Engagement
Measuring the success of a UIFresh initiative is not a black and white matter. It is difficult to have exact numbers that indicate a successful initiative. Due to that, one of the most valuable ways to determine success is by evaluating how the students are engaging in the events. Do the students seem engaged and happy to be taking part in the activities you are leading? Are they learning the objectives you are trying to teach them? This is something that is done in real time, while you are doing the event with the students. It is important to be talking to the students, asking them what they’re doing and seeing if they understand the activity. Make adjustments on the spot if you find that the students are not engaged or learning. Being flexible and prepared to change your plans is very important when leading a UIFresh event. There is no 5-step plan for evaluating engagement, it takes paying attention as a leader to the reaction of the students, feeling out the results. It will be different for every event, every campus, and every group that does the activity. Getting direct feedback from the participants at the end of the event - talked about more thoroughly in the next section - is a great way to see what changes need to be made for the next group and evaluate the success of the last group.
Feedback
Feedback is another great way to determine success. Listening to students conversation about the event and how they feel afterwards. Another tool that has been utilized often is the I like I wish game. Basically, students write one thing they liked about the event and one thing they wished was different. This allows immediate feedback so adjustments can be made and data can be taken to determine what changes if any need to be made.
Support
The final way to determine success of the UIFresh event is by the support gained. Was the campus helpful in coordinating? Were the students helpful? Did you have adequate resources to organize the event? If all of these requirements are met the likelihood of having a successful event if very high.
