Evaluation Questions

• What are the characteristics of the students who participate in the INBRE supported undergraduate research programs across the state of Kentucky? What are the reasons students engage in these programs? How did they learn about the program?
• On average what is the length of time of their project involvement during the academic year?
• What do students gain from their research experience? What research experience can be identified from survey responses (e.g. increased knowledge, increased self-confidence, increased communication skills, increased confidence in choosing a career path, etc.), and how do these contribute to student learning outcomes?
• Does this experience influence their desire, confidence, ability, and decision to pursue graduate and/or professional biomedical education?  In what ways? 
• Are students satisfied with their research experience, and with the training and support provided by the KY-INBRE program? Are students satisfied with the mentoring experience?

For each of these questions, are there any differences in the undergraduate experience across different student groups: by year in school, university, gender, race/ethnicity? What can be suggested for further refinement of the program itself, and for further evaluation studies?

Other evaluation questions of interest to INBRE faculty members:

• Who participated in INBRE during the past 10 years (student characteristics)?
• How, on what criteria, are the students selected?
• How did students learn about INBRE, how the interest in biomed careers came about?
• How do students feel about the impact INBRE experience had on their career and personal lives?
• What are the characteristics faculty mentors (ex, department, faculty position, specialization, experience)?
• What activities did students conduct as INBRE undergrad research mentees?
• Types of activities that made most impact (ex, lab work, conference participation, career guidance, etc)? Do they receive career guidance from their mentors?
• What impact, if any, did faculty mentoring have on their choice to pursue biomed careers?
• What do students want to learn and to gain from their INBRE participation?
• What are their expectations? Does the program meet these expectations?
• Are students satisfied with their learning experience as INBRE mentees?
• What is the approximate number of hours students spend in a week conducting INBRE related activities? 

To answer these questions, the research evaluation study includes a formative and a summative component.  The formative evaluation investigates the program’s development, process, and implementation, while the summative evaluation investigates the results (outputs and outcomes).