Modalities for teaching responsible and ethical conduct of research online: Lessons learned from an undergraduate workshop in Utah

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted scientific research, teaching, and learning in higher education and forced many institutions to explore new modalities in response to the abrupt shift to remote learning. Accordingly, many colleges and universities struggled to provide the training, technology, and best practices to support faculty and students, especially those at historically disadvantaged and underrepresented institutions. In this study we investigate different remote learning modalities to improve and enhance research education training for faculty and students. We specifically focus on Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RECR) and research mentoring content to help address the newly established requirements of the National Science Foundation for investigators. To address this need we conducted a workshop to determine the effectiveness of three common research education modalities: Live Lecture, Podcast, and Reading. The Live Lecture sessions provided the most evidence of learning based on the comparison between pre- and post-test results, whereas the Podcast format was well received but produced a slight (and non-significant) decline in scores between the pre- and post-tests. The Reading format showed no significant improvement in learning. The results of our workshop illuminate the effectiveness and obstacles associated with various remote learning modalities, enabling us to pinpoint areas that require additional refinement and effort, including the addition of interactive media in Reading materials.