Overview
CIMER evaluates evidence-based and culturally-responsive interventions designed to improve mentoring relationships. This includes mentorship education interventions that are part of CIMER Curricula such as Entering Mentoring, Mentoring Up, Entering Research and Culturally Aware Mentoring. CIMER also develops assessments to increase understanding of mentoring relationships, the mentored research experience, and the short and long-term impact of mentorship education interventions.
Evaluating Entering Mentoring & Mentoring Up
Facilitators may choose to evaluate Entering Mentoring-based mentor training or Mentoring Up-based mentee training. To support evaluation, CIMER has developed standardized evaluation surveys that may be used to collect information on background, training satisfaction, changes in behavior, and skill gains. Surveys are designed to be administered post training.
Two survey formats available for download. Note: Users will not be able to open QSF files on their computer; instead, QSF files are meant to be downloaded and imported into Qualtrics (see import instructions here).
- Entering Mentoring (PDF) and Qualtrics QSF file
- Mentoring Up (PDF) and Qualtrics QSF file
Centralized evaluation through CIMER is also available for the following groups with additional funding:
- Trained Facilitators who attended Facilitating Entering Mentoring for Researchers in National Laboratories in October 2021 and December 2022 (affiliated with the Inclusive Graduate Education Network and supported by the NSF INCLUDES Alliance grant NSF#1834540; contact Kim Spencer kcspencer2@wisc.edu to learn more)
- Trained Facilitators affiliated with an NIH-funded Clinical & Translational Science Award (CTSA) (supported by the UW-Madison Institute for Clinical and Translational Research grant #1UL1TR002373; contact Kim Spencer kcspencer2@wisc.edu to learn more)
Evaluating Entering Research
The Wisconsin Institute for Science Education and Community Engagement 
(WISCIENCE), provides centralized, common assessment and evaluation services to those who have completed the Entering Research Curriculum Development Institute (ERCDI), regardless of whether they are using ER activities in their courses or programs. Surveys use the Entering Research Learning Assessment (ERLA) and for programs using the ER <curriculum, the evaluation questions designed to evaluate the effectiveness of <ER activities.
Evaluation surveys are administered by the WISCIENCE through Qualtrics. Research training program directors and facilitators may add customized questions to their surveys to collect specific information. Standard evaluation surveys are typically administered post training and may be used with any type of undergraduate and graduate research training, including but not limited to courses, seminars, summer programs, workshop series, and standalone workshops.
For more information, visit WISCIENCE’s Evaluating Entering Research page.
CIMER Measurement Library (Coming Soon!)
A public measurement library that contains survey measures used by CIMER and colleagues studying mentorship nationally is in development. Measures are grouped across 6 categories: Demographics, Background, Mentorship Education/Skill, Mentoring Relationship, Research Experience, and Mentee Outcomes.
More information will be shared once the library is finalized.
Other Assessment Resources
- What Makes a Good Match? Predictors of Quality Mentorship Among Doctoral Students. Trevor T. Tuma & Erin L. Dolan. Journal of Cell Biology Life Sciences Education, 23(2). April 2024.
- Re-validation of the mentoring competency assessment to evaluate skills of research mentors: the MCA-21. So Hee Hyun, Jenna Griebel Rogers, Stephanie C. House, Christine A. Sorkness, & Christine Pfund. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science,1–23. April 2022.
- Measuring Mentor-Mentee Alignment: A Toolkit. Pfund, Christine, and Spencer, Kimberly. University of Wisconsin – Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, and Wisconsin Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research –Madison, WI; 2020.
- Mentee Assessment of Mentoring Competencies at an Academic Health Sciences Center. Brandt Wiskur, Natasha Mickel, & Valerie N. Williams. The Journal of Faculty Development, 34(2): 33–43. May 2020.
- Assessing mentoring: A scoping review of mentoring assessment tools in internal medicine between 1990 and 2019. Yong Xiang Ng et al. PloS one, 15(5): e0232511. May 2020.
- Assessment and Evaluation:What Can Be Measured in Mentorship, and How? National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM. The National Academies Press, Washington, DC. 2019.
- Measuring the effectiveness of faculty mentoring relationships. Ronald A. Berk, Janet Berg, Rosemary Mortimer, Benita Walton-Moss, & Theresa P. Yeo. Academic medicine, 80(1) 66-71. January 2005.
- Faculty mentoring faculty in a public university. Roberta G. Sands, L. Alayne Parson, & Josann Duane. Journal of Higher Education, 62(2) 174-193. 1991.