Impacts of Undergraduate Research for Fully Online STEM Students

This project aims to serve the national interest by investigating curricular innovations to engage online STEM students in undergraduate research. While the benefits of traditional undergraduate research are well-studied, little work has been done in providing a framework for supporting undergraduate research in a globally distributed wholly online learning environment. This project will create an undergraduate STEM research minor to address some of the administrative and student barriers to engaging in a course-based undergraduate research experience, and support the minor with workshops available to all students, mentor training, and a diffuse group of faculty to support students. The project’s goals are to broaden the implementation of undergraduate research, improve student perspectives, and promote STEM career pathways. The discrete objectives of this 3-year project are to develop and administer a Research Scholars Program in a wholly online learning environment. The program is anticipated to increase undergraduate research participation for students completing STEM degrees exclusively online at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and lead to impactful student research outputs, including student authorship of papers and conference presentations. Engaging in the research minor and the research experiences is expected to positively influence students' STEM attitudes and support them in choosing and pursuing STEM career pathways. Research data include institutional data and qualitative interviews with students and other stakeholders to best determine the efficacy of the developed courses and workshops as well as their impact on students and the institution. The NSF IUSE: EDU 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.