Tips on Preparing a Successful Educational Research

ProposalFiona Fui-Hoon Nah, professor, BITNancy J. Stone, professor and chair,

Psychological ScienceDiane Hagni, CERTI

March 7, 2014

Data about the mini-grant program

• 20 projects funded since spring 2011• Projects from 11 departments• Five team projects• Two awardees received multiple grants• 52% of awardees are tenure-track; 48% non-

tenure-track• Awardees have ranged from lecturers to

Curators’ Professors

Data about the mini-grant program

• Average award is $3,171; minimum awarded, $500, and maximum, $7,500, for a multi-disciplinary project

• Five projects had matching funds from their departments or other sources

• Go here for suggested areas of focus

Resources on CERTI site

http://certi.mst.edu/educationalresearch/

Comparison of grant programsGrant Program

Administered by Amount of funding

Focus of Program

Timeline for 2014

Other information

Educational Research Mini-Grants

Center for Educational Research and Teaching Innovation (CERTI); funding through Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

Range from $1,000-$10,000; average award amount is $3,000-$4,000 for single PI project; one year project

Funding to promote teaching scholarship in the classroom – supporting projects that examine and improve teaching and learning practices

Letter of intent due – March 14; Proposal due – April 14;Awards announced in May; Funding released in May 2014 (50%) and at end of project, August 31, 2015 (50%)

Presentation required at S&T Teaching and Learning Technology Conference Educational Research Symposium in mid-March (latter part of grant cycle). For more information about the program, go to http://certi.mst.edu/educationalresearch/

eFellows grants

Educational Technology Office; funding through Provost’s office

3 tiers -- full course redesign ($5,000); step redesign ($2,000); teaching with technology ($1,000). These are one-year to three-semester projects

Funding to redesign courses for blended or fully online delivery using best pedagogical practices to improve student learning

Program Participation Workshops – March 20 and April 3;Letter of intent due – April 25;Proposal due – June 27;Awards announced – Aug. 15

Participation required in the eLearning Community of Practice three times per semester. Faculty will work with instructional designers on course redesign. For more information about the program, go to http://edtech.mst.edu/elearning/efellows/

What is educational research?• A systematic process for understanding learning

and teaching effectiveness – i.e., applying the scientific method

• A means to uncover the processes and interactions underlying learning and teaching, such as– Motivation– Acquisition of knowledge– Presentation of material– Impact of environment and interaction

General suggestions

• Be sure to follow directions closely• Be clear and specific

– Consider your audience– Justification – Research question– Procedure– What are you measuring? How will you measure it?– IRB (http://irb.mst.edu/)

• Social and behavioral science

Research question/statementNot specific or measurable• Students will be better

learners.

Specific and measurable• Providing video demos

with the lab instructions (i.e., specific intervention) will help students to improve their lab test scores (i.e., specific and measurable outcome[s]).

Students who receive <intervention> will achieve higher <outcomes – e.g., test scores> than students without <intervention>.

Hypothesis

Research strategy / assessmentNon-specific or unclear• Students may incorporate

the intervention and then provide feedback regarding the intervention.

Specific with adequate details• An experimental study will be

used to test the intervention where students will be randomly assigned to one of the two experimental conditions - <control condition – i.e., without intervention> and <treatment condition – i.e., with intervention>.

• Followed by research procedures and assessment details

Measuring outcomesNon-specific or unclear• Student feedback will be

gathered and assessed.

Specific with adequate details• Satisfaction with the course

will be assessed using the measurement items in Eastman et al. (2011) that were adapted from Oliver (1993). [Validated measure]

OR• We will develop our own

measures for assessing Satisfaction with the course to more specifically assess the unique aspects of the course. [“Homemade” measure]

Note: It would be helpful to review existing validated measures in the literature and adapt from them in developing your homemade measure.

Summary• Format (see call for proposals for more info)

– A brief abstract (100 words)– Purpose of project

• Motivation and significance of research project– Pertinent information about your class (anticipated student enrollment, number of

sections taught, etc.)– Research question to be addressed

• Clear educational research question/statement• Hypothesis/Hypotheses (preferred/recommended)

– Learning outcomes to be addressed• Be specific

– Methodology• Research design (e.g., experiment, survey, case study – can be combination)• Research procedures• Measurement of outcomes

– Evaluation and feedback• How will you document success and show how project objectives are achieved

– Budget with justification– Deliverables