Logo image
Back
Course-based undergraduate research experiences are a viable approach to increase access to research experiences in biology
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Course-based undergraduate research experiences are a viable approach to increase access to research experiences in biology

Kevin P.W. Smith, Edward A. Waddell, Annette N. Dean, Shivanthi Anandan, Susan Gurney, Karen Kabnick, Joy Little, Matthew McDonald, Jaya Mohan, Daniel R. Marenda, …
Journal of biological education, v ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp 1-15
17 Jun 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00219266.2021.1933135
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel

Abstract

biology cure expanding access Undergraduate
Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have been described as a mechanism to allow more undergraduates to engage in research experiences. To understand whether CUREs are viable to scale-up undergraduate access to research experiences, it is essential to carefully evaluate whether CUREs promote comparable self-reported outcomes for students and are less resource intensive than undergraduate research internships. In comparing student outcomes from four distinct CUREs to outcomes from students engaged in a summer research programme in the biology department at one institution, we found that students in both experiences self-report comparable gains on all items studied using the Undergraduate Research Student Self-Assessment tool. CURE students report similar levels of satisfaction with aspects of research experiences, such as amount of time spent conducting research and working with a mentor, compared with students engaged in the summer research programme. The CUREs studied here are less resource intensive than the summer research programme, and still led to comparable self-reported outcomes. These courses increased the number of biology undergraduates able to engage in research experiences, suggesting that CUREs are a viable option to expand access to research experiences that promote expected learning outcomes in a more efficient way.

Metrics

26 Record Views
13 citations in Web of Science
15 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#4 Quality Education

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Biology
Education & Educational Research
Education, Scientific Disciplines
Logo image