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Mentoring Undergraduate Researchers in the Era of COVID-19

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Continuing to mentor undergraduate researchers during the current pandemic may not be a difficult decision for faculty in some disciplines. In other disciplines, particularly those that rely heavily on face-to-face interactions (e.g. social sciences, lab sciences), taking on an undergraduate student as yet another lab member, or devising a project that does not require close contacts with other people may be next to impossible.

If you are still wondering why you should consider mentoring undergraduate researchers or are not sure how to help guide undergraduate students through their research endeavors, here is an online that was developed by faculty at Georgia College and State University. Although somewhat specific for faculty in liberal arts, the main points made in the book apply to all of us.

 

Additional Mentoring Resources

• ; from UT Knoxville
• ; from Cornell University

 

Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) Resources for Virtual Mentoring

• ; recorded webinar in which CUR members discuss their experience in guiding undergraduate research virtually.
• ; recorded discussion of questions related to virtual mentoring such as communication, collaboration, equity and inclusion, constraints, etc.

 

CUR Resources for Virtual Research Programs and Conferences

• ; recorded discussion of virtual conferences (e.g. logistics of organizing; ways to create high-quality value for students; strategies to enhance opportunities for inclusion and equity; summer research programs).
• ; recorded discussion of reasons for supporting, advocating, and/or maintaining a summer research program; types of possible structures (face-to-face, hybrid, virtual) and what these would look like; potential timelines; planning issues; ways to create and sustain community and prevent student and faculty burnout in a virtual program.
• ; recorded discussion (in two parts) of conditions for continuing virtual undergraduate research; when to stop, suspend or delay; how to help students reach out to faculty; how to promote and manage online research collaborations with students; how to adjust projects to be productive in a virtual environment; how to establish realistic timelines; if face-to-face is allowed and required, how to ensure safe protocols.

 

Virtual Research Projects, Initiatives, Open Datasets, Resources

To identify or devise undergraduate research projects that are compatible with COVID-19 safety measures and minimize face-to-face contact, the following list contains virtual research projects/initiatives in which Southern Miss undergraduate students might be able to participate and datasets to which they have access. Many projects will need to be adapted and/or expanded to be suitable for upper-level college student and/or Honors thesis research. Please email Sabine.HeinhorstFREEMississippi if you have additional suggestions that can be added to the list.

 

Arts

 

Humanities

• Digital Humanities Projects at Southern Miss
• open access book
• ; links to a variety of datasets, Digital Humanities projects, Oral History projects, transcription projects, case studies

 

Social Sciences

• ; requires login to access public use data files
• ; case studies of relevance to Native Americans; listed alphabetically, and by theme, discipline, tribe
• ; collection of University of Washington Evans School of Public Policy and Governance; subjects range from advocacy and lobbying to urban planning; requires registration as a member to search cases and see case abstracts; requires $100 annual subscription to access case details and use for teaching purposes

 

Business

• article
• book; downloadable as EPUB

 

Nursing and Public Health

 

STEM

• ; need to be adapted to college level
• , see also
• ; examples of undergraduate research enabled by remote access to electron microscopes; from University of South Florida
• from The Allen Institute for Cell Science Research
• ; manuals include Build Your Own Case Study instructions
• ; from Data Observation Network for Earth (DataONE)
• and citizen science projects for various STEM disciplines
• ; datasets, simulations, case studies
• ; Stanford University case studies to illustrate how sex and gender analysis leads to innovation
• ;
• ; space science mission data archive
• ; DOE projects, collections, datasets
• ; NSF-funded multi-organization collaboration; very large number of STEM datasets
• ; ordered alphabetically by STEM discipline
• ; from University of Wisconsin; activities related to antibiotic production, novel antibiotic discovery in soil through studentsourcing

 

Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary

• ; see also: , , and
• ; several U.S. projects are listed that can be performed at home; most projects are suitable for multiple disciplines
• ; links to a variety of datasets, Digital Humanities, Oral History, transcription projects, case studies
• ; requires login to access public use data files
• , materials and collaboration opportunities
• ; cases in broad range of STEM areas, communication science, linguistics, etc.; teaching notes and answer keys are password-protected and require account registration and subscription
• ; Stanford University case studies to illustrate how sex and gender analysis leads to innovation
• ; interdisciplinary and discipline-specific search possibilities; datasets range from code-based data to social sciences data and STEM data
• ; collection of University of Washington Evans School of Public Policy and Governance; subjects range from advocacy and lobbying to urban planning; requires registration as a member to search cases and see case abstracts; requires $100 annual subscription to access case details and use for teaching purposes