Involve Students in Research
You can help your students extend their classroom learning, build analytical skills, and prepare for graduate-level studies by involving them in research. Several Web-based technologies serve as powerful and efficient research tools, helping you and your students collaborate with colleagues, collect data, receive feedback, and present research projects.
Common Goals
- Support research as an opportunity for active and independent learning.
- Promote the sharing of ideas.
- Emphasize the importance of inquiry and investigation.
- Provide a connection between course material and current challenges in the discipline.
Options
Options for involving students in research are suggested below.
Course Web Site
Both students and instructors can present the results of their research
on a Web site, by uploading or linking to their essays, projects, and
presentations. Access to the Web site can be open to everybody or restricted
with a password. By publishing their research papers on a Web site, students
and instructors can share their work, provide examples for future classes,
or contribute to scholarship in the area. There are numerous ways to go
about creating a Web site. The Catalyst Web site offers step-by-step instructions
for using a variety of Web page editors.
Planning
Considerations
Catalyst Peer Review tool
This flexible, Web-based tool opens doors to student cooperation and
collaborative learning. Peer Review provides a common space for students
to read and annotate course materials and their own research. By exchanging
and building upon each other's ideas, students are encouraged to work
and learn together. Anything that can be viewed on the Web is fair game
for the Peer Review tool, including sound and video files.
Planning
Considerations
Catalyst Collect It
If a project requires sharing files among students or colleagues (for
example, collecting papers for a conference) a Web-based tool called Collect It
may facilitate the transfer of the documents. Collect It enables people
to post their documents to a secure collection area on the Web using a
Web browser. Collect It makes it easy to collect, manage and download shared
files. With Collect It you can avoid messy email attachments or personal
email boxes filled with large documents.
Planning
Considerations
Catalyst WebQ
Developed at the CTLT, this tool makes it easy to create, administer
and collect data from surveys and questionnaires. You an your students
can collect data for research projects over the Web and download the results
into a file format that can be easily imported into the most common statistics
packages.
Planning
Considerations
Online discussion tools
Catalyst GoPost, newsgroups, and listservs are all tools that can be used
as forums for exchanging research findings and collaborate online. You
can exchange information with a group of people and coordinate group discussions.
The asynchronous nature of these tools provides a convenient way for students
to contribute at any time and from any location.
Planning
Considerations
Wikis
Wikis are Web sites that can be browsed and easily edited by anyone with Internet access and a Web browser. They can be a very useful tool for student collaboration and cooperation. Not only can students easily collaborate on a project using a Wiki, they can also easily make it public and invite experts in the field to react to their contribution.
MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching)
MERLOT is an online educational portal that contains links to over 14,000 online learning materials created by college faculty in all subject areas. All material is peer-reviewed. You can easily find the material you need to support your teaching and address the diverse learning styles of your students.