Utility Value Interventions

One of the main “ingredients” of the workshops on retention and engagement is the in-class writing exercise, known in educational psychology circles as a “Utility Value Intervention.”  The exercise itself is meant to foster engagement in the course (based on a great deal of research). From student responses, we also hope to learn more about students’ reasons for attrition.

Here is a copy of the beginning-of-term writing exercise, along with instructions for both in-person and online courses. These may be printed or paper copies will be available in Namm 512. In-person and hybrid courses should do the exercise in-person. Online courses (only) may use the google form in the writing exercise linked above.

Other City Tech Utility Value Interventions*:

  • UVI Follow-up (this asks students to reflect on their beginning-of-term UVI. It’s from the mid-semester check-in slideshow)
  • Mid-Semester UVI  (This asks students to reflect on a particular skill they’ve learned in your class and how it will be useful to them going forward)
  • End-of-Term UVI (forthcoming)

We would love copies of any of these, if possible! You can leave them in the mailbox of Carrie Hall, Rebecca Mazumdar or Rob Ostrom. Send an email if you’ve left us anything! 

Remember the same guidelines apply:

  • Do not give students any grade besides pass (for completion) or fail (for non-completion). Don’t give check-plus or check minus, even if the student falls short of the word  count. They may have thought about it very deeply!
  • Try to give the assignment as an in-class writing exercise
  • Don’t mention that this is a “utility value intervention” meant to help their retention and engagement. This tends to lessen the UVI’s efficacy.
  • If you use this writing as a starting point for in-class discussion, let students have total control over how much personal information goes into the class discussion. That is, general questions are great: “Who would like to share?” or “What are some of the skills we learned this semester?” but try to stray away from personal questions like, “John, what are your educational goals?” or “Jane, I see you wrote about learning to interview in question two.” Some students may not mind, but others may feel very reluctant to participate in the UVI’s in the future.

* Please note we can’t give you access to edit the Google Docs, as these are templates, but you can feel free to make a copy and edit that! 

Here is a suggested schedule of engagement activities throughout the semester: