Skip to main content

Undergraduate Research Student Self-Assessment

URSSA

OVERVIEW
Overview
Listed below is general information about the instrument.
Summary
Original author(s)

  • Hunter, A. B., Weston, T. J., Laursen, S. L., & Thiry, H.

  • Weston, T.J., & Laursen, S.L.
Original publication

  • Hunter, A. B., Weston, T. J., Laursen, S. L., & Thiry, H. (2009). URSSA: Evaluating student gains from undergraduate research in the sciences. CUR Quarterly, 29(3), 15-19.

  • Weston, T.J., & Laursen, S.L. (2015). The undergraduate research student self-assessment (URSSA): Validation for use in program evaluation. CBE Life Sciences Education, 14(3).
Year original instrument was published 2009, 2015
Inventory
Number of items 134
Number of versions/translations 1
Cited implementations 2
Language
  • English
Country United States, Canada
Format
  • Response Scale
Intended population(s)
  • Students
  • Undergraduate
Domain
Topic
Evidence
The CHIRAL team carefully combs through every reference that cites this instrument and pulls all evidence that relates to the instruments’ validity and reliability. These data are presented in the following table that simply notes the presence or absence of evidence related to that concept, but does not indicate the quality of that evidence. Similarly, if evidence is lacking, that does not necessarily mean the instrument is “less valid,” just that it wasn’t presented in literature. Learn more about this process by viewing the CHIRAL Process and consult the instrument’s Review (next tab), if available, for better insights into the usability of this instrument.

Information in the table is given in four different categories:
  1. General - information about how each article used the instrument:
    • Original development paper - indicates whether in which paper(s) the instrument was developed initially
    • Uses the instrument in data collection - indicates whether an article administered the instrument and collected responses
    • Modified version of existing instrument - indicates whether an article has modified a prior version of this instrument
    • Evaluation of existing instrument - indicates whether an article explicitly provides evidence that attempt to evaluate the performance of the instrument; lack of a checkmark here implies an article that administered the instrument but did not evaluate the instrument itself
  2. Reliability - information about the evidence presented to establish reliability of data generated by the instrument; please see the Glossary for term definitions
  3. Validity - information about the evidence presented to establish reliability of data generated by the instrument; please see the Glossary for term definitions
  4. Other Information - information that may or may not directly relate to the evidence for validity and reliability, but are commonly reported when evaluating instruments; please see the Glossary for term definitions
Publications: 1 2 3 4

General
Original development paper ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Uses the instrument in data collection ✔ ✔
Modified version of existing instrument ✔ ✔
Evaluation of existing instrument ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Reliability
Test-retest reliability
Internal consistency
Coefficient (Cronbach's) alpha ✔ ✔
McDonald's Omega
Inter-rater reliability
Person separation
Generalizability coefficients
Other reliability evidence

Validity
Expert judgment ✔ ✔
Response process
Factor analysis, IRT, Rasch analysis ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Differential item function
Evidence based on relationships to other variables ✔ ✔
Evidence based on consequences of testing
Other validity evidence ✔ ✔

Other information
Difficulty
Discrimination
Evidence based on fairness
Other general evidence
Review
This instrument has not yet been reviewed by the CHIRAL team. If you would like to suggest this instrument to be reviewed, please let us know by using the CHIRAL Feedback page.
Versions
Listed below are all versions and modifications that were based on this instrument or this instrument were based on.
Instrument is derived from:
Name Authors
Student Assessment Of Their Learning Gains

  • Seymour, E., Wiese, D., Hunter, A., & Daffinrud, S. M.

  • Murthy, P. P. N., Thompson, M., & Hungwe, K.
Citations
Listed below are all literature that develop, implement, modify, or reference the instrument.

  1. Hunter, A. B., Weston, T. J., Laursen, S. L., & Thiry, H. (2009). URSSA: Evaluating student gains from undergraduate research in the sciences. CUR Quarterly, 29(3), 15-19.

  2. Weston, T.J., & Laursen, S.L. (2015). The undergraduate research student self-assessment (URSSA): Validation for use in program evaluation. CBE Life Sciences Education, 14(3).