Project-Based Learning in the First Year: Beyond All Expectations

Quantifying undergraduate participation in institutional research activities is challenging. This article describes an approach for estimating student participation in scholarly activities using a parametric model to follow the inflows and outflows of students in terms of classes (first-, second-, third-, and fourth-year students) and to control for duplications. The goal is to obtain a participation rate (among a graduating class) of students who have at any time participated in a scholarly activity. An example is presented for East Tennessee State University (ETSU). Model outcomes are compared and generally found to agree with averages from multiyear responses by ETSU with the National Survey of Student Engagement. The model is flexible to allow for application to diverse program designs.

Communication is a diverse discipline that includes many social scientific, humanistic, and critical modes of inquiry. After elucidating several challenges to teaching a communication research methods course, this article describes a four-credit, one-semester “research incubator” that was piloted by two faculty members and seven students at a midsize, private, New England college in spring 2017. The incubator built upon the methods class, involving students in one of three projects: content analysis of race/ethnicity and character deaths in The Walking Dead, textual analysis of mortality and morality in The Walking Dead, and focus group analysis of podcast listener motivations. Assessment of students’ research and soft skills revealed that the course involved valuable experiences with methodological rigor as well as critical thinking, analysis, and group communication skills.

The national prominence of undergraduate research arises from both the myriad benefits offered for a wide range of stakeholders and the variety of modes in which this scholarly endeavor may be pursued. The evolution of undergraduate research in the United States parallels that of a social movement, with an array of participant entities that aspire to incorporate the research process into undergraduate curricula. Throughout its history, the Council on Undergraduate Research has contributed significantly to the extraordinary development of this form of engaged learning. Although it is thriving, the undergraduate research movement must address emerging as well as potential challenges facing higher education today to continue to flourish and serve greater numbers of students.

Undergraduate research (UGR) has grown in prominence and stature over the past 25 years as it has been embraced at institutions of all types. The enormous changes that have been made to support these endeavors have led to many success stories but also have created many challenges for faculty operationalizing these activities. In this article, the successes and challenges of institutionalizing UGR at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) are described, and the concerns that still need attention are addressed. Assisting faculty in remaining student-oriented rather than becoming research-oriented, the primary reason to do research at PUIs and valuing the process of doing UGR along with the products of the work are probed. The creation of scaffolded, backward-designed, research-rich curricula is discussed, and some of the remaining challenges to institutionalizing UGR are considered.