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Office of Undergraduate
Evaluation and Research

Publications & Reports

• Fiat Lux Freshman Seminar Program: Two-year Assessment. This report documents the experiences of faculty and students who participated in the 2003-2005 Fiat Lux Freshman Seminar Program. Surveys were designed to provide information on course format and explore several dimensions related to intellectual growth, including degree of participation, level of interaction, and intensity of intellectual engagement. The report highlights findings related to each of these dimensions and documents student and faculty satisfaction with the seminar experience. Specific suggestions for enhancing student engagement and learning in this unique seminar setting are also outlined. The report is designed primarily to inform faculty who want to learn more about the program and to help instructors produce successful seminars



• General Education Five-Year Study. UCLA's Academic Senate mandates the periodic review of academic programs for the purpose of maintaining and strengthening the quality of its curricula and instruction. A review normally takes two years to complete and involves a period of self review by the program in question, as well as a site visit by a team of campus and extramural scholars. In 2002-2003, the cluster administrative team in collaboration with cluster faculty and members of the Office of Undergraduate Evaluation and Research prepared a Self-Review Report of the Freshman Cluster Program 1998-2003. (Download Complete Report below).
  
  The report summarized data collected over a five-year period and found that a diverse group of more than 4200 UCLA freshmen have completed the cluster experience. Since the program's inception, ten clusters have been offered taught by 73 of UCLA's most distinguished faculty members and 102 of the university's most qualified GSIs, drawn from all four of the College divisions and seven of UCLA's 11 professional schools (Dentistry, Education & Information Studies, Engineering & Applied Sciences, Law, Medicine, Public Health, Public Policy & Social Research, and Theater, Film & Television). The report also noted that the available evidence indicates that the Freshman Cluster Program has become a vital part of the undergraduate experience at UCLA-valued by undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and staff.
  
  » Self-Review Report of the Freshman Cluster Program 1998-2003
  
  
• Four Years Later: Reflections on Freshman Cluster Experiences. During its ten-year history, over 10,000 students have participated in a total of 13 Freshman Cluster courses and experienced one of 493 capstone seminars, 40 percent of them taught by UCLA faculty and 60 percent by the program’s advance graduate student instructors. Surveys of cluster freshmen revealed that students found their cluster courses to be challenging and intellectually stimulating and that participation in them strengthened such foundational skills as writing and analytic reasoning. Furthermore, students credited their spring seminars with enabling them to further investigate course content and relate it back to what they had learned during the preceding two quarters. They also valued highly the sense of community they felt in the clusters, both with their fellow students and their instructors.
  
  How do these students retrospectively view their cluster experience four years later, as college seniors? What impact do they feel their participation in this innovative general education program had on their transition to college? What elements of the cluster program do they feel had the most pronounced effects on their subsequent undergraduate careers? What can we learn from them to potentially enhance the cluster experiences of future freshman cohorts? This report summarizes the answers to these questions of 610 senior students who participated in the freshman cluster program during 2000-01 and 2001-02 .
  
  » Four Years Later: Reflections on Freshman Cluster Experiences
  
  
• Undergraduate Student Initiated Education. During the inaugural year (2005-2006) of USIE, a team from the Office of Undergraduate Evaluation and Research conducted an assessment of the program. Their report highlights the perspectives and experiences of the students and faculty participants and also details student and faculty views on the value of USIE at UCLA.