Evaluation of accessibility: A preliminary analysis of recipients of Florida Atlantic’s Undergraduate Research Certificate

As the most diverse institution in the Florida State University System, FAU is a Hispanic-serving, R2 university with over 30,000 students with a large transfer student population. While engagement in High Impact Practices (HIPs) such as Undergraduate Research is well documented in the literature, there still remains a need to incentivize and quantify student engagement in undergraduate research, especially to our diverse population. At Florida Atlantic, a 12-credit, university-wide certificate program was developed to recognize undergraduate students for systematic progress of excellence in undergraduate research. The intent was to provide evidence to future employers and graduate schools that the student has achieved proficiency in Research. The certificate was designed with our diverse student population in mind, accounting for ensuring accessibility to both our traditional students and transfer student population. This interactive presentation will describe the criteria for the Undergraduate Research Certificate and how diverse student needs were included in the design. We will share how Florida Atlantic implemented the certificate and collected data on student engagement. We will present preliminary data and analysis of the recipients of the certificate over the past three years and evaluate whether our model accomplished our goal of accessibility. Presenters will engage session attendees in a discussion of strategies employed including establishing institutional partnerships and collaborations, marketing the certificate, data collection, and share lessons learned and next steps.