Evaluating Whether a Learning by Doing Initiative Meets DEI Goals

How can we best evaluate if a learning by doing initiative is accomplishing its goals including its priorities in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion? Drawing on my own previously co-authored published work (Nonnemacher and Sokhey 2022), I discuss how diversity and inclusion goals inspired the creation of an undergraduate research lab at a large flagship state university. Studio Lab was created to match research mentors with undergraduate students who work as paid research assistants at the University of Colorado Boulder. In 2020 Studio Lab began in the Department of Political Science, in 2021 it expanded to the Division of Social Sciences, and in 2022 it expanded to the College of Arts & Sciences. I present suggestions for those wishing to advance similar initiatives. I then focus on the DEI goals associated with the lab and provide a template for evaluating whether these goals are being met.