2022 Student Academic Success Research Grants awarded

SASR Grant 2022 Awardees

The Student Academic Success Research (SASR) Grants Program is pleased to announce its 2022 round of grantees. Each SASR-funded research project has clear practical implications for the design, implementation, or scale-up of practices to improve Ohio State student success. This year’s set of projects are focused on strengthening science identify and self-efficacy for underrepresented students in STEM as well as assessing the use of ePortfolios as Ohio State implements its new General Education curriculum in 2022–2023. 

All proposals were rated in terms of their methodological quality and practical importance by a panel of reviewers that represented multiple administrative units, academic colleges, and campuses across the university.

The winning proposals and primary investigators include: 

• Engineering Math Pathways (EMPATH) (Dr. Gisell Jeter-Bennett, Assistant Director, Diversity Inclusion and Outreach, Engineering). This research project focuses on Engineering students placed in elementary or intermediate algebra, and will assess the EMPATH program’s effectiveness in strengthening underrepresented Engineering students’ self-efficacy and shortening the time required to enter their designated engineering major.
• Critical Perspectives on ePortfolio Learning (Dr. Teresa Johnson, High-Impact Curriculum Expert, Academic Enrichment). This fall, Ohio State will implement a new General Education curriculum that incorporates ePortfolios in documenting student learning. This qualitative study aims to identify benefits, challenges, student engagement levels, and learning outcomes of such an approach, and explore whether there are differences in ePortfolio teaching and learning experiences between Students of Color and their peers.
• Utilizing instructor and peer-led social annotation to jumpstart primary research literacy and enhance persistence in the sciences (Dr. Nicholas Denton, Lecturer, Pharmacy). Social annotation allows students to collaboratively highlight and comment on primary sources, such as complex empirical research studies, in order to deepen their understanding of the text. This study will examine the use of social annotation in improving research literacy and science identity among underrepresented students in STEM.

For more information about the SASR Grants Program, including a list of past grantees, visit the Student Success Research Lab website.

Update March 4, 2024: Due to change of position of the PI, the Engineering Math Pathways (EMPATH) project will no longer be continuing.