October 23, 2015 by sharman4

Practice in Evaluating Proposals

 

  1. Students divide into 6 groups with the same ORCA proposals. (They have already been assigned an ORCA proposal to read.) You can find sample ORCA proposals at orca.byu.edu. Students discuss the proposal in relation to a list of criteria. I used the judging criteria listed on orca.byu.edu. I ask students to act as judges on an ORCA panel and discuss the quality of the proposal. Would they approve this proposal for funding?
  1. Create a jigsaw discussion group (4 groups of 6 people). I color-coded the back of each proposal and assigned them to new groups based on this color. Each person in the group represents a different proposal.
  1. Students present a brief synopsis of the proposal, including strengths and weakness and state whether they would fund or not fund the proposal.
  1. Wrap-up: As a class, discuss that ALL of the proposals were funded (this will surprise the students). Discuss the general critical evaluations that I (the instructor) observed while moving from group to group and discuss the revision process as recursive but that we are all working under a time-line. Give attention to requirements of particular proposals and the relative sway of some criteria over other (e.g., mentor-student relationship). Discuss TRANSFER skills that apply to our class proposals, especially a clear and creative purpose, the integration of a solid bibliography, good graphics, and a reasonable time line.