EAGER International Type II: Collaborative Research: Reimagining International Research for Students in a Virtual World

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Part 1.International research collaborations provide important opportunities to support innovative research and address the significant global challenges facing the world today. To develop U.S. researchers who are both interculturally competent and able to navigate global research networks within their field, it is important to provide international research experiences for students. Reimagining international research programs for students in a virtual environment will ensure the resilience of future international engagement to sudden changes such as COVID-19 and potentially broaden access to such opportunities. This project will explore the future of international research experiences for STEM students in the post-COVID era. Building on prior research of student experiences and program structures for these programs, we will convene stakeholders to think creatively about how similar experiences can be provided for students in a virtual environment. To strengthen the international research collaborations of the future, we need to understand the challenges, benefits, and supports necessary to provide international research experiences for students in a virtual environment. Developing virtual programs that maintain the learning outcomes students gain from the traditional format will require intentional design based on the experiences and best practices of the community of educators who have coordinated international research experiences for students previously. Part 2.This project will explore the design of international research experiences for STEM students in virtual environments. In particular, we will address the following research questions: 1) How could each element of an international research experience for students be translated into a virtual environment?; 2) What program structures would allow for these new virtual experiences?; 3) What support would program leaders need to implement such programs? This project will include two phases, the first focused on collecting a broad range of ideas through virtual focus groups, and the second collecting feedback on these ideas from a wider audience through a questionnaire. We will use a participatory design approach to collect information from the community of researchers who currently run international research experiences for students as this will allow us to build on their tacit knowledge and expertise in this area. In a post-COVID world, more educational experiences may need to be provided virtually, and our findings can support the development of virtual research experiences and laboratory experiences generally (e.g., REUs and RETs). Similarly, studying abroad is often a challenge for students in STEM disciplines where programs are highly structured, so providing virtual experiences may increase access. We will disseminate our findings broadly through academic channels and through webinars and online resources that can support faculty and universities seeking to develop virtual research experiences for students.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.