Planning the Course
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Consider the research skills and knowledge that students bring to your course
For example, can your students:
- Use SuperSearch to find literature on this topic?
- Distinguish peer-reviewed from non-peer-reviewed articles?
- Identify different research methodologies (e.g., experiments, surveys, interviews)
and the types of conclusions that can be drawn from those different studies?
- Critically analyze past research on a given topic?
- Synthesize the past research into a cohesive introduction to their own study?
- Develop a research question?
- Design a study to answer a particular research question?
- Identify and address ethical issues in research?
- Complete the IRB process (if applicable)?
- Collect data?
- Analyze and interpret data?
- Write a research report using the conventions of your discipline?
- Create a presentation for a conference?
- Communicate the results of a research study to a general audience?
If your students' research skills might be underdeveloped, you will need to consider ways to develop these skills in your course.
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Consider the research skills that can realistically be developed in your course
It is worth taking some time to think through these issues as you plan your course,
including the types of products (e.g., poster, oral presentation, paper, performance,
visual display) that can be developed in one 15-week semester.
- “Undergraduate Research” is defined by the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) as the following: “A mentored investigation or creative inquiry conducted by undergraduates that seeks to make a scholarly or artistic contribution to knowledge.”
- Willison and O’Regan (2007) argue that research skill development can best be conceptualized as a continuum, with students having varying levels of autonomy in different facets of research.
- Beckman and Hensel (2009) discuss several different dimensions of undergraduate research
to consider (e.g., student, process centered versus outcome, product centered; multi-or
interdisciplinary versus discipline based).
References
Beckman, M., & Hensel, N. (2009). Making explicit the implicit: Defining undergraduate
research. Council on Undergraduate Research, 29(4), 40-44.
Willison, J., & O’Regan K. (2007). Commonly known, commonly not known, totally unknown: A framework for students becoming researchers. Higher Education Research and Development, 26(4), 393-409.
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Engage in backwards course design
Backwards course design (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998) entails the following steps:
- First, consider the outcomes that you would like your students to achieve:
- For example: "At the end of the semester, students should be able to write a clear
abstract to submit to an academic conference"
- Then, determine what evidence you would need to determine if the students had achieved
those outcomes:
- For example: "a polished abstract from each research team that conforms to the conventions
in the discipline"
- Finally, design classroom/homework activities to help students achieve those outcomes:
- For example: You could plan a module teaching students how to write effective abstracts. Maybe they look at examples of abstracts and identify what’s missing (formative assessment). Maybe they practice writing abstracts for brief articles (formative assessment). Maybe they submit drafts of their conference abstract for peer and instructor review (formative assessment) before they write and submit the final abstract (summative assessment).
Scaffold difficult research skills by starting small and gradually building to more
complicated tasks (Shanahan et al., 2015).
References
Shanahan, J. O., Ackley-Holbrook, E., Hall, E., Stewart, K., & Walkington, H. (2015).
Ten salient practices of undergraduate research: A review of the literature. Mentoring
& Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 23(5), 359-376.
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
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- Faculty members who regularly teach a CURE at the University of Saskatchewan have
written a blog about their experiences. Highly recommend!
- A good practical guide for designing a CURE can be found in this document.
- The following edited collection is a good introduction to CURES: Hensel, N. H. (2018) (Ed.). Course-based undergraduate research: Educational equity and high-impact practice. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
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