RETENTION AND ENGAGEMENT PROJECT, SPRING 2024

Hello!  This is the training page for the Spring 2024 UVI.  This page is for those who have not done the UVI training. For those who did the training in 2023, please GO HERE.(You will still get paid for your participation.)

Last year, we did a study in which 708 students filled out a survey. This survey had two parts: the first question was meant to help students reflect on their goals and to increase retention in the course (it did! We had a nearly 12% increase in retention among participants. You’ll learn more about the training, or you can read the full study here). In the second part of the study, we asked students what they thought their obstacles to engagement might be and how they could overcome these obstacles. We found that procrastination was one of the major impediments to engagement. With this in mind, we created The Procrastination Station website for use in composition courses. Participants in this study are encouraged, though not required, to use the Procrastination Station and its resources. Part of this year’s study will track the impact of this site.

Your part: As a faculty member participating in this study, you will administer two Student Surveys– one at beginning of term and one at end-of term. These surveys have been developed by the English Dept office. You should not develop your own.  Your payment is contingent upon completion of all three steps the UVI training (below), administration of the two departmental English Dept Surveys and the accompanying faculty forms (these are brief).

  1. This semester, we will be doing the UVI study only in 1101 courses. Of course, you can (and should!) use these tools in any of your classes, but we can only pay to train professors who are teaching 1101 in the Spring of 2024, and only surveys from 1101 courses should be turned in!
  2. Make sure you have signed up for this training HERE.  Please sign up whether you are FT, PT, have done the training before or not! You must complete the training before administering the survey. 
  3. To be paid (total 3 hrs at your NTR) you will need to
    • Complete the online, asynchronous training below by Feb 2. You must complete this training before administering the survey.
    • Administer two Utility Value Interventions (UVI)  (beginning and end of term. These are 10-15 minute in-class writing exercises).  You will turn in beginning and end-of-term UVIs. These will be provided by the department. You can not use your own or any alternate UVI’s. Initial UVI’s should be completed by Feb 9. 
    • Fill out the beginning-of-term and end-of-term faculty forms– to be turned in with student surveys. These will be handed out with the UVIs and are brief.
    • Hybrid classes are eligible for this study, but the exercise should be done during the in-class time. Fully online courses are not eligible at this time.

This training should take you approximately one hour. There are three steps– it’s important to do them in order.:

Step One: Read “Social-Psychological Interventions in Education: They’re not Magic” by Yeager and Walton.

Step Two: Write a response of at least one paragraph to Yeager and Walton HERE . Your response can be to whatever strikes you. Do you have questions? Are you excited? Why? Are you skeptical? Why?

Step Three: Watch and respond to the following EdPuzzle HERE. Where it asks for your nickname, please enter your full name (first and last). You will need to do this exercise all in one sitting, but it will only take you 10-15 min. 

That’s it! You’re done with the training! Please note that you will be using the departmental student surveys, not writing your own. The beginning of term UVI will be available in the English Dept office by Friday, Jan 26th.

FAQ: 

Where do I get the forms for the writing survey?

  • Paper copies of the student surveys (and corresponding faculty forms) will be available for distribution to students in the English Dept Office at the beginning of the spring semester.

I still want to know more about Utility Value Interventions. Where should I look? 

  • If you want to read more about UVI’s, well, there are literally hundreds of articles. That said, I particularly like this one by the inventors of the UVI itself. It also gives examples of alternate UVI exercises.

I’m ready to administer my first UVI, but I did the training a little while ago. How do I brush up without doing the training all over again? 

Still have questions?

Email chall@citytech.cuny.edu or come to one of our optional UVI Q&A sessions on Zoom. The first will take place on Weds, Dec 13 (Reading Day) at noon. We will also have a Q and A in the first two weeks of Spring semester 2024. Zoom links forthcoming in email.

 

Resources for Faculty: 

If you have questions on the administration of the UVI, email Carrie Hall, who is directing this study, at: chall@citytech.cuny.edu or Rebecca Mazumdar, Director of First Year Writing at: FirstYearWriting@citytech.cuny.edu