Bright Idea Projects
Bright Idea Projects
Bright Ideas are projects aimed at enhancing one or more of the key objectives of AUBURNACHIEVE. That is, projects that use data to enhance career outcomes broadly and/or articulation skills. Projects are supported by a team of analysts and are often funded when an intervention is identified. Seed grant funds are available and project budgets have ranged from $5,000 to $50,000/year.
Brief summaries of each project are provided below. In some instances, a link is provided, which will direct you to a project webpage.
Academic Support aims to explore the relationship between academic suspension and sutdents' eventual post-graduate sucess in order to enchance exisiting support programs.
The College of Sciences and Mathematics is leveraging analytics to identify students in the Biomedical Sciences who may be at risk of failing a key course required for application to medical school - poor performance in which was found to delay graduation and negatively impact acceptance into continuing education.
After identifying majors with low employment success, the College of Human Sciences is working collaboratively with the Center for Career Discovery and Success to implement a professional development workshop for those students based on "Designing Your Life".
After identifying a link between passing the teacher certification exam and employment success, a seed grant provided funding for online tutoring access, and an increase in pass rates has since been realized.
The Department of Mathematics and Statistics observed a recent shift from graduates seeking continuing education and academic-track employment to seeking industry employment. With the support of the Bright Idea seed grant, they plan to develop and implement career planning and exploration tools to help serve their students' changing interests.
A correlation between final GPA and on-campus dining transactions led to an investigation of on-campus dining transaction data, GPA, and student attributes which resulted in the identification of campus dining activity profiles.
In response to a nationwide shortage of veterinarians serving rural food animal operations, a QEP project identified predictors of employment location for Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) graduates and is in the second iteration with a nationwide sample of DVM graduates.
With the Alabama Prison ARts & Education Project's first graduating class set to earn their degrees in Summer 2023, program administrators wish to establish career services and support for their sutdents. Understanding that typical first destination outcomes are unlikely to apply to this cohort, this project dually focuses on identifying meaningful measures of success for this population and enhancing existing professional development coursework to better prepare students for their future opportunities.
The College of Business, upon identifying internships as their most popular and influential High-Impact Practice, wants to support their students in obtaining quality internships. To that end, they propose an investigation of academic factors that may predict intership acquisition, success, and subsequent employment.
The Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering seeks to improve post-graduation career success for graduates of its undergraduate programs. The intervention involves a series of professional development seminars embedded into the curriculum through which students receive academic and career mentoring and support.
The College of Sciences and Mathematics currently offers a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE), and wishes to examine its impact on student experiences, confidence, and perceptions of scientific research. The Office of Academic Insight will offer support in understanding how student participation in CURE enables students to articulate their self-perceptions, career goals, and skills gained.
The Department of Rehabilitation and Disability Studies seeks to hone their curriculum in response to changes in the rehabilitation services industry. The project consists of both qualitative and quantitative data gathering from graduates that will inform shifts in the program's curriculum to best fit current industry trends.
In collaboration with the Office of Academic Support, the Office of University Writing aims to better understand the impact of peer leadership positions on student volunteer and employees' post-graduate outcomes. With insights from this project, the offices aim to improve and distribute training materials for other units emplying peer leaders on campus.
The Office of Academic Support seeks to investigate post-graduation career outcomes for students who are providers of care to adult or child dependents. The objective of this porject is to identify caregiver needs and ultimately develop a set of targeted resources and culture of support fo these students.
A collaboration of academic and support units is expanding access to undergraduate research opportunities by providing research fellowship funding specifically for students in need.
A team of faculty and staff in the College of Engineering have implemented a program that embeds career-related writing assignments into engineering courses throughout the curriculum. One of the project’s goals is to improve student articulation.
This project seeks to cultivate career planning and articulation early in the curriculum by exposing students to innovating instruction practices such as Lego® Serious Play® and sketchnoting.
Currently in the early phases of development, a collaboration between Dining Services and the Horticulture Department seeks to provide undergraduate students with relevant work experience through grant-funded internships in the university’s vertical farms, which provide fruits and vegetables for on-campus dining facilities.
An investigation of student activity at Campus Recreation facilities and events yielded the insight that Campus Recreation employees exhibit outstanding career success upon graduation and that the Campus Recreation team maintains a robust student employment experience.
An investigation of student participation in campus organizations identified trends in student sense of belonging, explaining the value of being involved during the undergraduate curriculum.
The Department of Biosystems Engineering created and implemented a set of Canvas modules to enhance their students’ skillset and knowledge regarding undergraduate research.
Recognizing the value of introducing students to undergraduate research experiences early in their coursework, faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences aims to expand and assess the impact of Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences. The impact of CURE on students’ self-perception as scientists, and subsequent persuit of STEM majors/careers will be examined.
Faculty in the College of Liberal Arts aim to improve their students’ articulation of linguistic competency through micro-credentialing and specialized assessment. Results of the assessment will help inform curriculum to ensure future student learning.
Student support professionals from the Pathway and Transfer Center are collaborating with other support units to promote engagement, a sense of belonging, and academic/career success of transfer students through welcome and orientation programming.
Graduate Career Services in the Harbert College of Business plans to host a high-impact Diversity Case Competition experience for undergraduate and graduate students from Auburn and surrounding regional universities. Auburn students who participate will be provided the opportunity to reflect upon and articulate the skills gained through this competition.
Graduate Career Services in the Harbert College of Business aims to improve enrollment success for undergraduate students by offering a test-preparation workshop.
This project aims to improve access to high-impact study abroad experiences for underrepresented pre-med students in the College of Sciences and Mathematics.
To illustrate the Bright Idea seed grant program further, a few projects have been described in detail. Summaries are provided for projects from each of the following: 1) the College of Veterinary Medicine; 2) the Department Computer Science and Software Engineering; 3) a collaboration among the Honors College, Undergraduate Research, Inclusion and Diversity; and 4) the Department of Curriculum and Teaching.
Each pilot illustrates how the Achievement Framework, the Insight Lab (and other support structures), and the Bright Idea seed grant program come together to support Goal 1 of AUBURNACHIEVE. Further, each pilot has a direct link to one or more of the AUBURNACHIEVE objectives. These pilot projects serve a second purpose, which is to illustrate the value of unit-level assessment within the context of an institutional QEP.
Each project summary includes: 1) a project overview and summary; 2) project initiation details; 3) specification of the problem, opportunity, and target; 4) a description of alignment with an AUBURNACHIEVE objective(s); 5) the current project status; 6) future steps; and 7) any assessment plans.
