How do undergraduate students come to see themselves as researchers? What shapes their experiences, builds their confidence, and helps them navigate challenges? In Research/Research (“Research on Research”), we use qualitative and mixed-methods research to study student experiences, while actively creating Open Educational Resources (OER) to support future student researchers.

Using data from surveys, student reflections, assignments, interviews, and focus groups, our Team works to understand and contextualize the experiences, identities, skills, influences, and factors that may affect undergraduate student researchers.

Research in Research/Research is grounded in social sciences and higher education research, with an emphasis on mixed-methods and qualitative approaches. Students gain hands-on experience working with real data they help to collect and analyze to better understand how students engage with and benefit from research and navigate the higher education landscape. Further, some projects explore how emerging generative AI tools can support qualitative and mixed-methods research and program evaluation.

In addition to research projects, our Team works to create and update Open Educational Resources (OER) used by students at UMD and beyond. Team members author open-access guides and toolkits that make basic research methods and skills more accessible and provide guidance on finding, navigating, and succeeding in undergraduate research.

New Team members will work with peers to develop and propose a research or OER development project to carry out while on the Team with guidance from Dr. Ferguson and more experienced team members. Current and past projects led by R/R students include:

• Peer Mentoring Relationships: Interviewing & analyzing responses from undergraduate students serving as  peer mentors

• Career Readiness Measurement & Assessment: Interviews of students about career readiness skills, quantitative analysis of pre-existing datasets  on career readiness skills

• First Generation Students’ Undergraduate Research Experiences: Analysis of data gathered from surveys and interviews of first-generation students about career readiness and experiences in higher education settings.

• Comparative Analysis of the Use of Generative AI in Qualitative Research: Comparing outputs and usefulness of a GenerativeAI-based analysis of open text data with traditional thematic analysis.

• Creation & Authoring of Open Educational Resources (OER): Co-creating, updating, designing, and publishing open access guidance, toolkits, and learning materials to help undergraduates learn research skills and navigate undergraduate research.

Research/Research is a good fit for students who want to contribute to a shared research agenda, build practical research and content-creation skills, and collaborate on projects that aim to improve student experiences in research and higher education.