Developing a Bioinformatics Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience for Online Students

该项目旨在通过开发和评估在线学位项目的学生参与真实的STEM研究体验的机会来服务于国家利益。研究表明，参与研究可以提高学生的记忆力和STEM成绩。该项目旨在将研究经验扩展到在线学生。具体地说，该项目团队的目标是为在线生物学学位课程的学生开发基于课程的本科生研究体验(CURE)，该课程通常不包括研究部分。治疗方法将使用生物信息学作为研究方法。生物信息学是对生物数据的收集和分析。因此，生物信息学疗法将使学生只需一台计算机和互联网连接就能进行真正的研究。该项目旨在增加基于探究的计算研究的机会，这些研究可以很容易地被其他机构采用，从而潜在地增加数千名学生获得研究的机会。在线学位课程的学生更有可能是女性、第一代学生、低收入、农村、全职工作和/或主要照顾者。因此，在线治疗体验有可能使参与科学的人多样化。因此，这个在线解决方案有可能扩大从事计算生命科学研究的个人的多样性。该项目旨在：1)开发一个在线计算生命科学解决方案，重点是计算机编程、遗传学、统计学和重复性方面的培训；以及2)评估在线计算生命科学解决方案对学生的科研目标和学习目标的影响。学生将学习基本的计算命令行技能，阅读主要文献，开发假设，使用软件产生结果，并解释这些结果。该项目的研究目标植根于与每年变化的数据集相关的生物学问题。学生们将被要求评估不断变化的生物信息学参数如何影响对他们结果的生物学解释。该项目旨在产生关于不同参数对下一代测序数据中生物推断的影响的科学研究成果。学生将从事科学研究，希望他们进行的研究将被汇编成可出版的手稿。此外，通过对在线治疗的评估，项目组预计定义在线治疗对本科生的影响，从而有助于了解治疗在本科生物教育中的影响。该项目团队将评估学生的生物信息学技能，以及治疗方法如何影响他们作为科学家的自我认同感，以及他们从事科学事业的可能性。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by developing and evaluating opportunities for students in online degree programs to participate in authentic STEM research experiences. Participation in research has been shown to increase student retention and performance STEM. This project intends to expand research experiences to online students. Specifically, the project team aims to develop a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) for students in online biology degree programs, which typically do not include a research component. The CURE will use bioinformatics as the research methodology. Bioinformatics is the collection and analysis of biological data. Thus, a bioinformatics CURE will enable students to conduct authentic research with only a computer and an internet connection. The project intends to increase opportunities for inquiry-based computational research that can be easily adopted by other institutions, potentially increasing access to research for thousands of students. Students in online degree programs are more likely to be women, first generation students, low income, rural, working full-time, and/or primary caregivers. Thus, an online CURE experience has the potential to diversify who participates in science. As a result, this online CURE has the potential to broaden the diversity of individuals who engage in computational life sciences research.This project intends to: 1) develop an online computational life sciences CURE focused on training in computer programming, genetics, statistics, and reproducibility; and 2) assess the impact of the online computational life sciences CURE on students’ scientific research goals and learning goals. Students will learn basic computational command line skills, read primary literature, develop hypotheses, use software to produce results, and interpret those results. The research aim of this project is rooted in biological questions relevant to datasets that change annually. Students will be asked to assess how changing bioinformatics parameters affect the biological interpretations of their results. This project is intended to yield scientific research findings regarding the effects of different parameters on biological inference in next generation sequencing data. Students will be engaging in scientific research and it is hoped that the research that they conduct will be compiled into a publishable manuscript. Further, through the assessment of this online CURE, the project team anticipates defining the impacts of an online CURE on undergraduate students, thus contributing to understanding the impact of CUREs in undergraduate biology education. The project team will assess students’ bioinformatics skills, as well as how the CURE affects their self-identity as a scientist and their likelihood to pursue a career in science. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.