Goal

The purpose of the Annual Review is to offer students structured feedback between their candidacy exam and their dissertation defense. This will allow the committee to become more familiar with the student’s work over time, and will allow the student to receive constructive feedback while their research is in progress.

Process

Students will meet with their committee in the fall no sooner than 1 year after passing candidacy. The graduate office will communicate a calendar of staggered deadlines to serve as the timeline for completing the submission of all paperwork for the Annual Review process.

Annual Review forms will be sent out over DocuSign by the Graduate Program Administrator in early June. The forms linked to this handbook page are for your information only. The student will complete an Executive Summary that includes an Individual Development Plan as well as the Annual Review Update Form. The Graduate Office encourages students to share drafts of these materials with their advisor prior to completing the forms in DocuSign. The advisor will approve of the materials and then the materials will automatically route to the rest of the committee. The committee will review these documents and submit feedback, viewable only to the advisor. The advisor will collect the feedback and discuss it with the student. The student will then schedule meetings with the committee and send a follow up email to the committee summarizing the discussion. The student will then submit all documents to the Graduate Program Administrator, who will file the annual review in the student’s file.

Process Summary

1. The student will complete an Executive Summary and the Annual Review Update Form. This will be submitted via DocuSign and will automatically route to the Advisor.
2. The committee will review these documents and submit feedback via DocuSign, which will automatically route back to the Advisor once complete.
3. The advisor will collect the feedback and discuss it with the student.
4. The student may schedule meetings with the committee to discuss the summary, and each committee member will sign the signature form to indicate that the student’s work and future plans are satisfactory.
5. The student will send a summary of the discussions held with the committee to each member.

General Instructions Summary

The following General Instructions Handout can be sent to committee members, especially outside committee members. Students are encouraged to communicate the Annual Review process to their committee before submitting their executive summary. 

Individual Items (Forms)

Executive Summary

Students will be required to prepare a 1-page, single spaced executive summary of research progress to date since the last examination. Beyond research, this document should also include an “Individual Development Plan” discussing future plans and strategies for personal and career development (approximately ¼ of the page). The graduate office has provided numerous resources below for creating the Executive Summary. The Executive Summary and Annual Review Update Form should be sent to the committee 6 weeks prior to the deadline given by the Graduate Office. You will be prompted to upload a PDF of your executive summary to the Annual Review update form through DocuSign (see the final bullet point in the next section for more information).

Annual Review Update Form through DocuSign

The Annual Review Update Form will be sent to the Graduate student at the beginning of the summer through DocuSign. The student should complete this form as quickly as possible so their committee can begin reviewing it. 

A few helpful tips for filling out the form in DocuSign:

• Use the yellow Auto-Navigate prompt button rather than the tab key to complete the form. You will be required to click through each step of the Auto-Navigate system regardless of whether the field has been completed.
• The Auto-Navigate will also require you to click through each radio button (round button) even though you should select only one radio button for each question. 
• When filling out information about courses, insert the word "transfer" in the year and semester field if you took a course or its equivalent at a different institution. If you took more than 10 courses, only list the three required courses (Thermo, Transport, Kinetics) and 7 others that are relevant to your research.
• If a committee member prefers to sign on paper, they can read the simple instructions of how to complete a paper signature on the DocuSign support page. The signed form should then be re-uploaded to DocuSign, following these instructions. 
• If you have more presentations or papers to report than space allows in the form, type these achievements up in a separate document. Save the additional information as as PDF and combine this document with the Executive Summary. Upload any additional information like this in a single document with the Executive summary when prompted by DocuSign.

Initial Feedback from Committee

The Graduate Program Coordinator will initiate the feedback process at the beginning of the fall semester. The committee will be asked to complete the following form via DocuSign, which will automatically route to the advisor and the graduate coordinator. I'm showing the form here only for your information.

The committee will submit feedback to the student’s advisor, based on the materials contained in the Executive Summary and the Annual Review Form. The committee is asked to rank the student’s progress as “excellent,” “satisfactory,” or “needs improvement.” It is expected that most students’ progress will be ranked as “satisfactory.” Committee members should offer feedback on how a student can improve. Concrete and measurable feedback will help the student improve their performance in the program. In fact, 64% of current graduate students in the department prefer corrective feedback to praise or recognition according to a 2019 survey conducted by the CHE Graduate Office.

Each member of the committee should include their preferred meeting type in their feedback. In order to accommodate faculty member’s schedules, meetings can be conducted individually with the student. If a student's work has serious deficiencies,  it is recommended that the entire committee meet together with the student. The student or advisor may also prefer a group meeting to elicit more structured feedback.

The advisor will collect and synthesize feedback from the committee and discuss this with the student. This will help the student notice trends in feedback. This will also encourage the committee members to be very honest in their feedback. Feedback from the committee should be submitted at least 4 weeks prior to the deadline given by the Graduate Office. 

Action Plan to Improve Performance

If the committee finds that a student’s work has serious deficiencies, the student should design an Action Plan with the help of their advisor. The Action Plan should have concrete and measurable tasks within a manageable timeline and clear deadlines. It should also address all deficiencies recognized by the committee. The graduate office has provided numerous resources for creating Action Plans.

The Action Plan should be concisely presented to the committee in 10-15 minutes. It should contain a clear timeline and metrics for measuring improvement. There are no formatting requirements. While it might be most beneficial to the student to meet with the committee in a group (virtual attendance is acceptable), this may not be possible given the diversity of committee members. For serious deficiencies, group meetings are suggested, but not required.

Meeting to Discuss Performance Goals

If a student’s work is ranked satisfactory or, more rarely, excellent, the performance goals notated on the Annual Review Form and within the Executive Summary will be sufficient to initiate discussion with the committee. Committee members can meet individually or within a group with the student. A group meeting may be called by the student, the advisor, or any member of the committee. Group meetings should be short, ideally lasting less than 45 minutes. Individual meetings can be shorter, between 10-15 minutes. 

When reserving a room for a group meeting, schedule time before and after the meeting for set up and clean up. Room reservations can be done in CPE through the departmental website.

Summarizing Meeting Discussions

The student is expected to take clear notes of the committee’s feedback during the meetings. A single summary email will be sent by the student to the entire committee, including the advisor(s), after the conclusion of the meetings. At this point the committee can offer clarification as needed. This summary process should occur for all students regardless of the way their work has been ranked.

Annual Review Signature Page

The student will collect the signatures from each member of their committee on the Annual Review Signature Page. The student is responsible for printing the signature page and taking it to their committee members for signatures. Digital signatures are acceptable. 

By signing the Annual Review Signature Page, each committee member agrees that they have read the Annual Review Update Form and the Executive Summary and that they have met with the student either in a group or individually. If the student's work needed improvement, a signature indicates that the student's proposed action plan is sufficient to remedy any deficiencies discussed in the student's review. 

Forms can also be found at the Forms Page of the handbook. 

Timeline

Resources

Lynda.com

Lynda.com is an online learning platform that helps anyone learn business, software, technology and creative skills to achieve personal and professional goals. You can login with your EID to learn a variety of skills, such as team management, that will help you through your career path. This link will take you to the UT portal.

Resources for creating an effective Executive Summary

Abstracts and Executive Summaries, Engineering Communication Program, University of Toronto, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Writing the Executive Summary, Effective Writing Center, University of Maryland-University College

Executive Summaries, CSU Writing Guide, Colorado State University

Guidelines for Writing an Executive Summary, Plant Science Center

• in addition to being a good resource for writing the executive summary, this document cites a great style guide, The Elements of Style, co-written by none other than E.B. White, the author of Charlotte's Web. 

Resources for creating an Individualized Development Plan

Organized in the order of how I would recommend you learn about creating an IDP

Individual Development Plan Resources, Graduate School, UW-Madison

• A good overview of the goals and benefits of creating an IDP. Watch the video and read the tips.

My IDP, Science Careers, American Association for the Advancement of Science

• Probably the most applicable IDP self-assessment tool for Texas ChE grad students (and it's free!). They also have a series of articles explaining some of the steps to create an IDP here: https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2013/05/myidp

Mentoring Resources, Graduate Mentoring Guidebook, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Although these are actually worksheets to draw the most out of a mentoring relationship, they will help you think through your strategy for thriving during and after graduate school.

Individual Development Plan, Department of Science, Purdue College of Science

• A worksheet designed to help you create your IDP.

Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend: On Being a Mentor to Students in Science and Engineering, National Academy Press (1997)

• I recommend chapters 3 & 4. While quite outdated and geared towards faculty, this resource is a fast read and can help you better understand some of the broader skills you need to develop during a graduate program.

S.G. Brainard and L. Ailes-Sengers, "Mentoring Female Engineering Students: A Model Program at the University of Washington," Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering 1 (1994): 123-135

• Also geared towards faculty, this article, though old, can help to articulate some of the specific needs of women in the program.

Barbara E. Lovitts, Making the Implicit Explicit: Creating Performance Expectations for the Dissertation (Sterling, VA: Stylus), 2007.

• This is a great resource for understanding generalized faculty expectations. Available in the Grad Office Library!

Versatile PhD

• This a tool that helps graduate students interested in non-academic careers explore the extensive range of available options.

  It offers assistance to students in the humanities, social sciences and STEM disciplines, and contains free content available to anyone and premium content available by institutional subscription. The University of Texas at Austin’s institutional subscription makes available premium content to all current students, faculty and staff with valid UT EIDs.

  Features on the site include authentic application materials used by Ph.D.s to secure their first post-academic jobs. These materials include résumés, cover letters, additional correspondence, position announcements, curriculum vitae and narratives written by Versatile Ph.D. members explaining exactly how the jobs were won. These members are often available to answer questions and offer advice.

  Visitors of the site will also find first-person career autobiographies in which advanced Versatile Ph.D.s describe how their careers evolved after leaving the academy, as well as panel discussions including small groups of Ph.D.s working in the same non-academic field who describe what their work is like and answer questions from users.

Resources for creating reasonable tasks, timelines, and deadlines

SMART Goals from MindTools

• One of the most common models for goal setting

"Time Management for Scholars," presentation offered regularly by the UT Austin University Writing Center

• In this presentation you will learn time management skills that you can apply to your performance improvement

Setting Meaningful, Challenging Goals from MindTools

Locke, Edwin A. and Gary P. Latham, "New Directions in Goal-Setting Theory," Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15/5 (2006). 

• More of a literature review on Goal-Setting Theory. Don't fall down this rabbit hole, but know that there are indeed best practices for setting goals and that it is a skill you must practice

Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Ballantine Books, 2008.

• Available in the Grad Office Library!

Duckworth, Angela. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. New York: Scribner, 2016.

• Available in the Grad Office Library!

Resources for giving and receiving feedback

Zenger, Jack and Joseph Folkman, "Your Employees Want the Negative Feedback You Hate to Give," Harvard Business Review, January 15, 2014

• Crucial conversations can be difficult. This is a frequently-cited article that may alleviate some anxiety about giving a performance review.
• The Feedback Practices and Perceptions Assessment is a free assessment of your feedback style.

Style Under Stress Assessment, Crucial Conversations by VitalSmarts

Receiving and Giving Effective Feedback, Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo

Hardavella, Georgia, Ane Aamli-Gaagnat, Neil Saad, Ilona Rousalova, and Katherina B. Sreter, "How to give and receive feedback effectively," Breath: The Resperatory Professional's Source for Continuing Medical Education 13/4 (2017): 327-333.

• Although this article is geared towards medical professionals, it has a lot of general advice particularly useful for receiving feedback

Singh, Manjet Kaur Mehar, "Graduate Students' Needs and Preferences for Written Feedback on Academic Writing," English Language Teaching 9/12 (2016).

• Good information on feedback about writing