Ableism in Academia: Let’s Talk About Desks

Emily Kibler is a senior exercise science student at Elon University with research interests in exercise and ADHD. Emily is neurodiverse and has physical disabilities that require various mobility accommodations including a wheelchair, a bicycle, and a cane, which she…

Mentoring with Mental Health in Mind

We have been mentoring students for decades in undergraduate research and have always been curious about ways to enhance our craft as mentors and co-mentors. In our work we have realized the value of the Salient Practices Framework for Undergraduate…

Students gather around a table to collaborate

Is There Value in Summative Peer Assessment?

A challenge of psychological research is that we are often trying to measure things that don’t have physical form, such as intelligence or anxiety. These abstract constructs are meaningful and useful variables, but you can’t measure out 10 grams of…

"Are we considering what students bring to our campuses and creating pathways and pipelines that integrate and honor their experiences and expertise?"

Inclusive Capstone Experiences, Pathways, and Pipelines

Capstones as a high-impact practice are intended to provide students with the opportunity to integrate their learning across the undergraduate experience, often applying their knowledge to solve problems or ask questions while promoting student agency (Ketcham, Weaver, Moore, and Felten,…

Photo of hand holding a camera lens in front of a view of mountains and lake. With text overlaid: "Of all the variables on the list, I would argue that the most important one for instructors and researchers is the objective."

A Typology of Peer Assessment

One of the hallmarks of many group projects is the incorporation of peer assessment into the project grade. This strategy is often used to try to reduce the potential for inequity when individual members of groups share a common grade….

Group of three students work together around a computer. A quote is overlaid: "If the rationale behind assigning a collaborative project is that you want to take advantage of the potential learning benefits associated with cooperative learning, then the assignment is to some extent a means, not an end."

The Problem with Assessing Groups

One of the challenges an instructor faces when developing any collaborative project is how to assess learning. When multiple students work together to create some product, it’s not necessarily the case that the final product reflects the learning of all…