Collaborative Proposal: EURO: Enhancing Undergraduate Research Opportunities

博耶的报告(博耶研究型大学本科生教育委员会，“重塑本科教育；美国研究型大学的蓝图”，1998)指出了仍然渗透在许多公立研究型大学的三个挑战：需要更早地开始学生的研究活动，为更多的学生提供高质量的研究经验，以及创造可以提供给越来越多的转学学生的经验。《第二美国竞争法案》(2011年1月)敦促将本科生纳入美国国家科学基金会的标准补助金。然而，在许多高等教育机构，更多地参与早期本科生研究仍然是一个挑战。这个项目正在开发一种合作的方法，以增加早期本科生对重大研究活动的参与。这是通过旨在教授一般研究技能的课程和计划来实现的，而不仅仅是让学生参与特定的学科研究活动。通过专注于“研究导向”或“研究技能”的经历，更多的学生可以在经济上更早地进入他们的本科学习。该项目由华盛顿州立大学、中佛罗里达大学和阿拉巴马大学组成，威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的教职员工担任顾问角色。合作伙伴正在调整彼此现有的研究技能课程(每个机构一门，总共三门)。所有这三门课程都向每个合作院校的学生开放。这三种模式是：-教职员工主导的新兵训练营短期课程，在夏季作为强化项目运行一周(最初在威斯康星州州立大学开发)-在学年开始前为转学学生提供同行指导的短期课程(最初在威斯康星大学开发)-为期一学期的研讨会课程，在学年期间使用异步授课方式举行会议(最初在威斯康星州开发)。由一个集中的评估小组对三所大学的这些项目的有效性和成本进行持续的、全面的评估，从而提高了这项建议的智力价值。评估涉及以下问题：-这三个技能项目是否在保持现有经验质量的同时增加了参与本科生研究的学生数量？-技能项目是否缩短了新本科生研究人员在实验室的“潜伏期”，并增加了全校教师的参与？-在三所公立研究型大学实施可持续的研究型教学和培训模块的成本和好处是什么？这些信息对于考虑将其本科生研究项目制度化或发展的机构具有潜在的价值。

The Boyer Report (Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in Research Universities, "Reinventing Undergraduate Education; A Blueprint for America's Research Universities," 1998) identified three challenges that still permeate many public research universities: the need to start students in research activities earlier, providing quality research experiences for more students, and creating experiences that can be delivered to increasing numbers of transfer students. The second America COMPETES Act (January 2011) urged that undergraduates be included in standard NSF grants. However, increasing participation in early undergraduate research continues to be a challenge at many institutions of higher education. This project is developing a collaborative approach to increasing early undergraduate participation in significant research activities. This is being accomplished through courses and programs designed to teach general research skills, rather than only engaging students in specific disciplinary research activities. By focusing on "research oriented" or "research skills" experiences, more students can be economically included early in their undergraduate studies. The project is a partnership comprised of Washington State University, the University of Central Florida, and the University of Alabama, with faculty members from the University of Wisconsin-Madison participating in an advisory role. The partners are adapting each others' existing research skills courses (one per institution, three in total). All three courses are being made available to students at each partner institution. The three models are: - A faculty led boot camp short course, running one week in the summer as an intensive program (developed originally at WSU) - A peer mentored short course for transfer students just prior to the beginning of the academic year (developed originally at UCF) - A semester long seminar course that meets during the academic year using asynchronous delivery of lecture material (developed originally at Wisconsin). The intellectual merit of this proposal is increased by an ongoing, comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness and cost of these programs at three universities, as undertaken by a centralized evaluation team. The assessment is addressing the following questions: - Do these three skills programs increase the number of students participating in undergraduate research while maintaining the quality of existing experiences? - Do skills programs decrease the "incubation period" of new undergraduate researchers in the laboratory and increase faculty participation campus-wide? - What are the costs and benefits of implementing sustainable research-oriented teaching and training modules at three public research universities? This information is of potential value for institutions considering efforts to institutionalize or grow their undergraduate research programs.