www.engageinresearch.ac.uk

BMAF 2009Cardiff

Engage in Research for Business Engage in Research for Business Students: Developing an online Students: Developing an online tool for undergraduate research tool for undergraduate research

projectsprojectsDr. Peter Miskell, Ms. Isobel McClement,

Dr. Ismael Al-Amoudi, Dr. Simon Burke

Henley Business School, University of Reading

i.mcclement@reading.ac.uk

www.engageinresearch.ac.uk

Project background – Project background – the problemthe problem

• Some key objective’s of HE are to:Develop students critical thinking skillsDevelop independent learning skills

• Students starting university often have little experience of research (critical independent learning).- Student dissatisfaction (with guidance and feedback on their work)- Staff dissatisfaction (with the assumptions / expectations that students arrive with)

• These issues are often particularly highlighted with a final year UG project or dissertation.

• The challenge is to adequately foster and develop these skills to equip students for this task.

www.engageinresearch.ac.uk

So what is proposed to address the ‘research skills’ gap?

• The aim is to create a web resource that business and economics students can use to support their learning when undertaking independent study – and as a resource for teaching staff.

How is this being funded?

• CETL-AURS

• CETL-AURS also funded original ‘Engage in research for bioscience students.’

• The success of this site has paved the way for ‘Engage in research for business school students.’

Project background – the proposalProject background – the proposal

www.engageinresearch.ac.uk

Development ApproachDevelopment Approach

Starting my research project…

Critically reviewing literature..

Where can I find information?

Designing my research plan…..

Statistics & quantitative analysis…

Using qualitative material…

Communicating my results…

Going professional…

www.engageinresearch.ac.uk

Development ApproachDevelopment Approach

www.engageinresearch.ac.uk

Development Approach-key pointsDevelopment Approach-key pointsSite structure and usabilitySite structure and usability

Contracted professional web designer.

Using original engage site as a template.

Added advantage of learning from their experiences, issues such as:

‘Clutter free’ page design.

Limited vertical scrolling.

Simple page and subsection navigation.

‘Ease of use’ considered primary driver for web user acceptance of a free content site.

www.engageinresearch.ac.uk

Development Approach-key pointsDevelopment Approach-key pointsSite structure and e-learningSite structure and e-learning

Content split into chapters or sections of related material or ‘learning objects’.

Presenting content in pairs (text-picture, text-text) and using mixed media such as pod casts.

Students value examples to external websites, this helps to contextualise the content.