Program Assessment

CEINT has implemented a comprehensive evaluation plan which spans its educational and outreach initiatives and includes both formative and summative components. The formative evaluation assesses quality and delivery of program components and is designed to provide feedback to shape CEINT initiatives. The summative evaluation targets outcomes and impacts across our center-wide university programs as well as outreach and public education initiatives covering the following areas:

University Programs & Outputs

  • Courses, curricula and instructional materials developed
  • Publications
  • Technology Transfer

Student research and educational opportunities

  • Graduate & undergraduate research assistantships
  • CEINT research internships
  • Lab rotations
  • International learning experiences
  • Service learning experiences
  • Research experiences for undergraduates
  • Undergraduate Independent Study

Information Dissemination Events

  • Seminars
  • Conferences
  • Workshops, Short Courses
  • Colloquia (brown bag)  

Outreach Programs

  • NGO Participation
  • Industrial Participation
  • Government Liaison (elected officials, regulatory agencies, etc)
  • Media & press dissemination
  • Website dissemination

Public Education: development of K-12 and public education initiatives disseminated through CEINT’s:

  • Museum Affiliates and the NISE Network
  • High school student research experiences
  • Teacher Training (workshops,  summer training)
  • Welcome to Nanoscience: Interdisciplinary Environmental Explorations (Grades 9-12)

CEINT’s evaluator works closely with faculty and researchers to define measurable educational objectives for activities related to communicating scientific discoveries emerging from Center research. Evaluation data is collected through a combination of online surveys of CEINT faculty, researchers and students as well as through focus groups and web data collection. A mixed methods approach using quantitative and qualitative data provides information useful to project refinements, decisions and assessing impacts.

Online surveys were developed to track CEINT participants’ demographics, to assess influence on curriculum, new degree programs, publications, dissemination  and to provide feedback on student placements as well as to track student career paths post-graduation.