"How do we do this at a distance?!" A descriptive study of remote undergraduate research programs during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic shut down undergraduate research programs across the U.S. Twenty-three sites offered remote undergraduate research programs in the life sciences during summer 2020. Given the unprecedented offering of remote research experiences, we carried out a study to describe and evaluate these programs. Using structured templates, we documented how programs were designed and implemented, including who participated. Through focus groups and surveys, we identified programmatic strengths and shortcomings as well as recommendations for improvements from the perspectives of participating students. Strengths included the quality of mentorship, opportunities for learning and professional development, and development of a sense of community. Weaknesses included limited cohort building, challenges with insufficient structure, and issues with technology. Although all programs had one or more activities related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, these topics were largely absent from student reports even though programs coincided with a peak in national consciousness about racial inequities and structural racism. Our results provide evidence for designing remote REUs that are experienced favorably by students. Our results also indicate that remote REUs are sufficiently positive to further investigate their affordances and constraints, including the potential to scale up offerings, with minimal concern about disenfranchising students.

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Student Outcomes from Undergraduate Research Programs: Comparing Models of Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs)

Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research ◽

10.18833/spur/1/1/5 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 20-27

Author(s):

D. Jake Follmer ◽

◽

Sarah Zappe ◽

Esther Gomez ◽

Manish Kumar

Keyword(s):

Student Outcomes ◽

Undergraduate Research ◽

Research Experiences ◽

Research Programs

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Implementing a course-based undergraduate research experience to grow the quantity and quality of undergraduate research in an animal science curriculum1

Journal of Animal Science ◽

10.1093/jas/skz319 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 97 (11) ◽

pp. 4691-4697 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Cassandra K Jones ◽

Annie B Lerner

Keyword(s):

Critical Thinking ◽

Experiential Learning ◽

Undergraduate Research ◽

Research Experience ◽

Animal Science ◽

Research Experiences ◽

Unique Challenge ◽

Undergraduate Research Experiences ◽

The Impact

Abstract Undergraduate research involves experiential learning methods that helps animal science students gain critical thinking skills. There is high demand for these opportunities. For example, 77.9% of incoming freshmen in the Department of Animal Sciences & Industry at Kansas State University in Fall 2017 and Fall 2018 planned to conduct research sometime during their undergraduate career (422 of 542 students). Conventional, one-on-one mentoring methods in the department were only serving 1.7% of the undergraduate population (21 of 1,212 students). This creates a unique challenge of increasing the number of undergraduate research opportunities, while maintaining the impact of individualized experiential learning. One method to address this challenge is the incorporation of a course-based research program. In this model, research projects are conducted during a conventional semester during scheduled classroom hours, with project components divided into 3 sections: (1) research preparation, including compliance requirements, hypothesis testing, experimental design, and protocol development; (2) data collection; and (3) data interpretation and dissemination. Students collect data as a team, but individually develop their own research abstract and poster to maintain a high level of experiential learning. By teaching multiple sections of this course per semester and incorporating the concepts into existing laboratories, 13.5% of students in the department completed undergraduate research in the 2018–2019 academic year (162 of 1,197 students). To monitor the quality of these experiences, student critical thinking ability was assessed using the online Critical Thinking Basic Concepts & Understanding Test (Foundation for Critical Thinking, Tomales, CA). Undergraduate research experiences increased (P = 0.028) the growth in student critical thinking score, but the type of research experience did not influence assessed skills (P > 0.281). Thus, course-based undergraduate research experiences may be an option for growing the quantity and quality of undergraduate research experience in animal science.

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426 Awardee Talk: growing the quantity and quality of undergraduate research experiences in animal science

Journal of Animal Science ◽

10.1093/jas/skz258.224 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 97 (Supplement_3) ◽

pp. 109-109

Author(s):

Cassandra K Jones

Keyword(s):

Critical Thinking ◽

Experiential Learning ◽

Undergraduate Research ◽

Research Experience ◽

Animal Science ◽

Research Experiences ◽

Unique Challenge ◽

Undergraduate Research Experiences ◽

The Impact

Abstract Undergraduate research is known to be one of experiential learning methods that helps animal science students gain critical thinking skills. There is high demand for these opportunities. For example, 77.9% of incoming freshmen in the Department of Animal Sciences & Industry at Kansas State University from 2016–2018 planned to conduct research sometime during their undergraduate career (225 of 289 students). Conventional 1:1 faculty:undergraduate mentoring methods in the Department were only serving 1.7% of the undergraduate population (21 of 1,212 students). This creates a unique challenge of increasing the number of undergraduate research opportunities, while maintaining the impact of individualized experiential learning. One method to address this challenge is the incorporation of a course-based research program. In this model, research projects are conducted during a conventional semester during scheduled classroom hours, with project components divided into three 5-week sections: 1) research preparation, including compliance requirements, hypothesis testing, experimental design, and protocol development; 2) data collection; and 3) data interpretation and dissemination. Students collect data as a team, but individually develop their own research abstract and poster to maintain a high level of experiential learning. By teaching multiples sections of this course per semester and incorporating the concepts into existing laboratories, 13.3% of students in the Department completed undergraduate research in the 2018–2019 academic year (159 of 1,197 students). To monitor the quality of these experiences, student critical thinking ability was assessed using the online Critical Thinking Basic Concepts & Understanding Test (Foundation for Critical Thinking, Tomales, CA). The type of research experience did not influence assessed skills (P > 0.10). Thus, course-based undergraduate research experiences may be an option for growing the quantity and quality of undergraduate research experience in animal science.

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Long-Term Outcomes of Biotechnology Student Participation in Undergraduate Research Experiences at Delaware Technical Community College

Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research ◽

10.18833/spur/4/3/12 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 5-12

Author(s):

Virginia B ◽

◽

Linda Grusenmeyer ◽

John McDowell

Keyword(s):

Community College ◽

Sense Of Community ◽

Undergraduate Research ◽

Institutional Research ◽

Long Term Outcomes ◽

Research Experiences ◽

Undergraduate Research Experiences ◽

Technical Community ◽

Student Relationship

This article describes the infusion of the bioscience/biotechnology program at Delaware Technical Community College with course-based and mentored research experiences, which may serve as a model for other institutions. Studies done with the Office of Institutional Research revealed a concurrent increase in enrollment and graduation rates. Interviews with program graduates highlight the critical influence of research, the mentor-student relationship, and a sense of community.

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A Learning Community Involving Collaborative Course-Based Research Experiences for Foundational Chemistry Laboratories

Education Sciences ◽

10.3390/educsci10040117 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 117 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

David M. Rubush ◽

Kari L. Stone

Keyword(s):

Learning Community ◽

Postsecondary Education ◽

Undergraduate Research ◽

Scale Up ◽

Large Body ◽

Scientific Communication ◽

Essential Elements ◽

High Impact ◽

Research Experiences ◽

Laboratory Courses

Numerous American national committees have recommended the replacement of traditional labs with a more engaging curriculum that inspires inquiry and enhances scientific skills (examples include the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)’s Engage to Excel program and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Vision and Change, among others), due to a large body of evidence that shows significant enhancements in student learning and affective outcomes. The implementation of Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) is a creative way to scale up the deployment of authentic research experiences to students. Another highly regarded high-impact practice in postsecondary education is the addition of learning communities. The integration of a three-course learning community and authentic research experiences to laboratory courses adds both a community of scholarship and a development of scientific communication and process skills. This study describes a course that blends these two high-impact practices in higher education in order to promote greater post-course gains in essential elements of a CURE curriculum. This collaborative course shows large post-course gains in essential elements, such as scientific communication and working collaboratively.

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Why Work with Undergraduate Researchers? Differences in Research Advisors’ Motivations and Outcomes by Career Stage

CBE—Life Sciences Education ◽

10.1187/cbe.16-07-0229 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. ar13 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Charles N. Hayward ◽

Sandra L. Laursen ◽

Heather Thiry

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

Undergraduate Research ◽

Early Career ◽

High Tech ◽

Career Stage ◽

High Quality Research ◽

Research Experiences ◽

Student Researchers ◽

And Mathematics

Undergraduate research is often hailed as a solution to increasing the number and quality of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduates needed to fill the high-tech jobs of the future. Student benefits of research are well documented but the emerging literature on advisors’ perspectives is incomplete: only a few studies have included the graduate students and postdocs who often serve as research advisors, and not much is known about why research advisors choose to work with undergraduate researchers. We report the motivations for advising undergraduate researchers, and the related costs and benefits of doing so, from 30 interviews with research advisors at various career stages. Many advisors stated intrinsic motivations, but a small group of early-career advisors expressed only instrumental motivations. We explore what this means for how advisors work with student researchers, the benefits students may or may not gain from the experience, and the implications for training and retaining research advisors who can provide high-quality research experiences for undergraduate students.

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