Bringing Authentic Research to the Remote Classroom: A Fully Online Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience for Astronomy Majors

This project aims to serve the national interest by developing a scalable model for bringing research into online undergraduate programs. There has been a tremendous shift towards online learning in the past two decades. At the core of this initiative is the desire to make participation in research accessible to a diverse population of learners who may not be able to accommodate the standard model of full-time education on a physical campus.

Participation in research is a critical component of any STEM degree, as it involves learners in the process of scientific inquiry, while improving students’ data literacy and critical thinking skills. Although participation in research is a common component of in-person STEM degrees, fewer opportunities exist for online students. This project will broaden student participation in research through the implementation of a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) geared towards students enrolled in online astronomy degree programs.

This CURE will take the form of an upper-level research course that focuses on computational literacy and data replication. The emphasis on renewed analysis of existing data is an innovative and significant divergence from the way CUREs are typically conducted. Since multiple students can engage in analysis of the same dataset, this design will highlight the under-discussed role of result replication.

As a result, this scalable replication-based model will be transferable to other institutions while simultaneously laying the groundwork for developing online CUREs for students across a variety of scientific disciplines.

The goal of this project is to address a common disparity between online and in-person STEM degree programs by providing students in the Astronomical and Planetary Sciences program with an upper-level research course that focuses predominantly on research literacy and data replication. This research course will emphasize the importance of repeated analysis as it pertains to exoplanet observational characteristics.

Future space-based observations of exoplanets require ongoing maintenance of their predicted celestial position, also known as ephemerides. Replication-driven research of this kind will provide updated ephemerides, making meaningful contributions to current exoplanet research. Using established measures from prior work analyzing undergraduate research experiences, the project team will study the effectiveness of this course to determine the impact of an online CURE designed around the use of data analysis and reproducibility on student learning, research literacy, and student self-efficacy.

The goal of this research is to advance understanding of the design components that are required in an effective CURE, knowledge that will inform the development of both online and in-person undergraduate research courses in the future. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students.

Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.