Institutional Impact of Scaling-up Course-Embedded Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs)

Judy Awong-Taylor, Georgia Gwinnett College

Program Description

Georgia Gwinnett College was established in 2006 as a public liberal arts institution with a mission to provide open access to all high school graduates regardless of SAT scores. In 2011, The School of Science and Technology (SST) implemented a program for enhancing student engagement and learning in all STEM disciplines. GGC's Four-year Undergraduate Research and Creative Experience (4YrURCE) program is based upon a discipline-specific course-embedded research model which scaffolds multiple research and creative experiences for all STEM majors during all four years of matriculation. Each Course-embedded Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) provides a scaffolding of research skills, creative abilities, and core content knowledge (STEM competencies). As students progress through multiple CUREs, they gain the ability, confidence, and skills to conduct independent research and to enter the STEM workforce.

The 4YrURCE identifies key courses in each year of the curriculum during which students are exposed to research skills and experiences. Over the past four and a half years, faculty have been engaged in a) developing and/or redesigning courses to include course-embedded research, b) designing individual faculty–student research projects, and c) developing SoTL projects. These activities and projects are supported through competitively funded mini-grants.

To date, 54 courses have been re-designed as CUREs and over 3,000 students (unduplicated count) are impacted annually. Longitudinal program-level assessment data includes student performance, student attitudinal, and faculty attitudinal data gathered over the past five years of the initiative

Program Purpose

There is a large body of evidence that shows a link between student research and lasting learning, and that research experiences increase students' interest in careers in STEM. However, the practical implication of implementing research opportunities for all undergraduate students is challenging. The traditional faculty-mentored/apprenticeship model typically requires a large amount of financial and faculty resources, especially for institutions where teaching is the primary focus. Faculty at public, four-year colleges typically have heavy teaching and service loads, limited research resources, and limited time to carry out independent research projects with undergrads. Additionally, many students, particularly those from underrepresented populations, may not seek out these research opportunities because they lack the confidence and skills to do so.

At GGC, we wanted to overcome these obstacles by developing a model that could provide research experiences for all STEM students, over multiple semesters, in a cost-effective manner that results in a measurably better performing scientific workforce. Our project is based on a scaled-up model of Course-embedded Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) that systematically scaffolds course-embedded research and creative experiences with increasing complexity for every STEM major in each of the four years of their undergraduate matriculation.

Our motivation to develop such a model arose partly out of necessity but also from a confluence of factors: our institutional mission, our diverse student population, rapid institutional growth, and our desire to provide research opportunities to as many students as possible, and as early as possible in their matriculation.

We attract a highly diverse population of students, including many from groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM education. Many of our students require financial aid and many work a significant number of hours. Additionally, in just nine years, the college has grown from 118 students to 11,500 students and is projected to reach 13,000 within the next year. Classroom space and research facilities are very limited. Given our mission and student population, it was obvious that "doing what most other institutions do" was not likely to succeed at Georgia Gwinnett College.

Program Goals

The goals of our project are:

1. To provide research and creative experiences for every STEM major in each of the four years of their undergraduate matriculation over multiple semesters
2. To increase student engagement and performance
3. To provide scholarly opportunities and incentivize faculty participation through a structured mini-grant program

Program Activities

1. Each major/discipline identified a four- year sequence of courses (freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior-level) that are required for all students majoring in that discipline.
2. Each major or discipline developed a list of discipline-specific research/creative skills that faculty determined were essential for students to be successful and productive in the STEM workforce.
3. Faculty were then encouraged to re-design their course curricula (with a focus on courses specified on the 4YrURCE sequence) to include research/creative experiences and discipline-specific research skills. Using external funds, we leveraged internal mini-grants to improve the quality and engagement activities of class and lab, as well as to incentivize faculty to develop and embed these activities through a scholarly process.

The structured mini-grant program was helpful for rapid implementation of the project but GGC was committed to carry out the project regardless of external funds.

Notes and Tips

Successes:
- Faculty are incentivized and energized about the project
- Collaboration among faculty has increased
- Innovative and creative ideas and projects are being developed
- Process is faculty led and driven
- Work counts as scholarship
- Scholarly products for faculty
- Administrative commitment to sustainability

Challenges:
- Assessment of such a large-scale longitudinal study
- Time commitment is high
- Faculty leadership, coordination/integration in multi-section courses can be challenging
- Faculty knowledge, skills, and ability to embed research experiences in courses
- Concerns about loss of content from "cook-book" labs

Evidence of Success

We are still collecting and analyzing data but below are some initial results.

Student Achievement Data: Preliminary analysis of student achievement data indicate that the model may have a direct positive impact on student GPA. The STEM Fall 2011 student cohort showed an annual increase from 2.68 (Fall 2011) to 2.87 (Fall 2012) to 2.96 (Fall 2013). Over the past four years, the average retention rate of STEM students in SST was consistently higher (84.3%) than that of GGC's general student population (57.5%). Even more compelling is the fact that the average four-year retention rate of SST's underserved student population (84.4%) is also higher that GGC's retention rate (64.7%) for underserved populations.

Faculty Attitudinal Survey: One project goal is to encourage faculty to become more engaged in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and the way in which they teach and engage their students. Results from survey data indicate that as the 4YrURCE project is progressing, faculty have:

1. developed a better understanding of our initiative,
2. are collaborating more with other faculty,
3. participating in more and varied STEM initiative opportunities (e.g., mini-grants, engaging with colleagues, and working in K-12 schools),
4. reporting increasingly more positive attitudes towards SST's STEM initiative and 4-YrURCE project, and
5. using SoTL strategies in their classes, and are becoming more motivated to include different pedagogical approaches in their classrooms.

Future Work

Based on preliminary results, future work includes targeting introductory, gateway courses that are still showing high D,W,F rates. We are also planning to include a Peer Supplemental instruction program aimed at these introductory gateway courses.

References and Accessory Materials