The Intercollege Nutrition PhD Program has seven student learning objectives (SLO). One SLO is to foster grant writing skills. The program recently applied an assessment evaluation process to ensure the grant writing SLO was being introduced, reinforced, mastered, and assessed (IRMA). This process included an evaluation of the curriculum map by the assessment coordinator and discussion among the program’s faculty. It was identified that modifications were needed to the curriculum to ensure that IRMA was being applied to the grant writing skills SLO. With approval from the program’s faculty, three major changes were implemented. These included the addition of a grant writing class (introduction), dissertation proposal modifications to mock a grant proposal format (mastery), and dissertation proposal rubric modifications (assessment). With reinforcement of grant writing skills occurring through required directed reading and research credits, these programmatic changes will allow the Nutrition PhD Program to more appropriately assess the grant writing SLO. The changes will assist with assessment and the modification to the curriculum to include the mock grant proposal was viewed favorably for multiple reasons: providing students with feedback on their dissertation/grant proposal, increasing opportunities for funding, and providing grant submission experience that can be documented on the curriculum vitae. Through a collaborative process among the faculty, the program was able to make a substantial curriculum change to improve student learning. Through continued programmatic assessment, the impact of this change to the grant writing SLO will be determined. by M. Kainoa Fialkowski, Monica Esquivel, and Rachel Novotny
Recommended Citation:
Fialkowski, M.K.; Esquivel, M., and Novotny, R. (2016, April). Fostering Grant Writing Skills: A Student Learning Objective of the Intercollege Nutrition PhD Program. Poster session presented at the Assessment for Curricular Improvement Poster Exhibit at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI.