High-Impact Practices 1. How to Identify an Interdisciplinary Model to Scale the Undergraduate Research Experience

Brett H. Say, Director of Honors Research Programs, University of Pittsburgh Frederick Honors College

Undergraduate research has long been identified as a High-Impact Practice that increases student engagement, retention, and success (Kuh, 2008). Traditional models of undergraduate research, however, rely heavily on individual faculty-student interactions that are often difficult to scale due to faculty workloads, student experience, or competition among undergraduate students for faculty mentoring opportunities. Moreover, disciplinary norms can create obstacles for scaling undergraduate research experiences. While undergraduate research is a common practice in many natural science fields, it is less common in arts, humanities, or social science fields, leaving many programs struggling to identify ways to support this high-impact practice (Malachowski, 2019). One way to address these obstacles has been to incorporate research training into undergraduate coursework. While valuable, this model also has limitations as it lacks personal mentoring opportunities, requires departmental resources, and may not include hands-on research experiences. This presentation discusses a pilot study of an interdisciplinary, team-based model focused on scaling undergraduate research experiences via institutional collaborations. This model, currently called a Research Hub, seeks to identify and support university research mentors working on projects that could benefit from undergraduate student research support. Ideally, research hubs are designed to provide small groups of undergraduate students (6-10) an opportunity to work on applied research projects with university partners. Hubs are identified through an internal call for proposals widely throughout the university. These proposals are reviewed by faculty and staff and awardees are provided a reasonable amount of financial program support to pilot their hub. Students then apply to work within a research hub over the course of the academic year. During this time students learn foundational concepts of research applicable to the project and gain academic credit for their work. Research hub directors benefit from program support and person-power provided by the undergraduate students, who act as research assistants. Ultimately, the research hub model is designed to scale undergraduate research opportunities while promoting interdisciplinary learning and cross-department collaboration within the university. This presentation outlines benefits, obstacles, and administrative needs related to a research hub pilot study conducted through the Frederick Honors College at the University of Pittsburgh.

After attending this presentation, audience members will be able to identify an interdisciplinary model that can be utilized to scale undergraduate research experiences via institutional collaborations.