Skip to main content

Research in Colleges



 Why are colleges interested in research? Isn’t that a university thing? I received a couple of questions about this last year and I think it’s worth addressing.


Colleges are obviously different from universities in important ways, otherwise we wouldn’t have both. Colleges offer different programs and different approaches to teaching. Additionally, our students are different from university students as is our faculty expertise. These differences mean that our students and classrooms aren’t typically represented in traditional university research (and more specifically in SoTL). For example, how do students learn best? Well, that likely depends on the characteristics of the student and the content being taught. Although there is some overlap between colleges and universities in terms of courses and student characteristics, each is unique and this uniqueness needs to be represented in knowledge. Research creates new knowledge, but that knowledge is only accurate if it is based on a representative sample of the population (if it misses a bunch of people – e.g., college students – it is less representative and therefore less generalizable to the entire population of students).

College professors, unlike our university counterparts, don’t actually need to engage in research activities, so when we conduct research, we do so willingly (Piché et al., 2011). Our mandate remains focused on teaching, but more and more college professors are contributing to research efforts because they see the value in doing so (e.g., improving process and practices) (Fisher, 2010). We also have different research needs and goals, and university researchers are unlikely to help us reach those goals or address our unique needs. A point echoed by the authors of the responsible conduct of research in colleges manual. This manual accompanies a tutorial on the responsible conduct of research at colleges and nicely complements the TCPS2 modules which I suggested in my last article. Additionally, DC just launched a new Employee Development platform similar to DC Connect which contains two “courses” related to research and research ethics (log in using your banner ID and network credentials).

If there is anything I can do to support your research or if you have suggestions for me in my role as Research Coordinator, please reach out via email or pop into my "office hours" on Fridays from 12:30-1:30 on Whereby.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is Secondary Use Research? (Part 1 of 2)

  In previous issues, I have addressed the forms required for secondary use of data as well as how, in some cases, participants’ consent may not be required for secondary use projects. This week, I will define what a secondary use research project really is (to be continued in the next issue). In future articles, I will detail how to complete the secondary use REB form, section by section. So, what differentiates a secondary use research project from a traditional research project? The short answer is: when the data were collected. If you are proposing to collect data from participants during your study, then you’re not engaged in a research project that would fall under secondary use. If the data have already been collected, and you simply plan to use those previously-collected data in order to answer your research question, then you’d fall in the secondary use category. Essentially, a project that falls under secondary use involves harnessing past data for new research. Where do ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tips for Completing the REB Form for Secondary Use (Part 2 of 2)

  Last time, I began to go through the Secondary Use of Data Research Ethics Board form (which is on ICE: Teams – Academic – Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Research Ethics Board, then click on “Related Forms” on the left hand side; or click here ). Remember that the secondary use of data form is only to be used when the data are already available either publicly (Statistics Canada) or privately (your previous semester students’ performance). This week, I’ll be reviewing the rest of the sections of the form, beginning with Section 4.0. In the first sub-section (4.1), you’ll explain your research question, why it’s important and what you think the outcome will be (if you have a hypothesis). Then, you’ll explain where the data came from (who the participants were) and the purpose for the original (primary) data collection. For example, if you’d like to examine a previous semester’s student outcomes, the data were originally collected to provide feedback/grades to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Developing a Research Question - Part 1: Generate Your Own Research Question from Scratch

  Today, I’d like to provide some guidance about research questions. This will be a two-part feature. Part 1 will include a description of research questions and guidance to help you develop your own. For Pat 2 (in 2 weeks), I will focus on how to use other sources as inspirations for your research questions. A research question is used to clarify the scope of your research project. It is a narrower version of the topic that you’re interested in studying. A good research question should be specific, include the variables you are interested in studying, and be testable in a finite amount of time. Your variables should also be operationally defined. It’s not enough to say “children” for example; you should specify “5-8-year-olds”. Similarly “do better” is not a good way to operationalize student success because it’s not easy to measure; instead, phrase it as “earn higher scores on Test 3” because that is how you will measure whether they have done better. Although specific, “When w...
Post a Comment
Read more