Director of Undergraduate Research

Welcome to the Director of Undergraduate Research section of my web page. If you are looking for specific resources, it is probably the DUR resource Page that you want. Below I present some of the basic strategies I've followed as DUR, and give the reader an idea of the resources that we in Psychology bring to the table in increasing Saint Leo University's capacity to perform quality collaborative undergraduate research.

As always, if you have any questions, please contact me.

I was very pleased to accept this position for the 2007-08 academic year and have been incumbent ever since. As the Director of Undergraduate Research, I work to increase the quality of undergraduate research, further build capacity for collaborative research on main campus and at the centers, and disseminate information useful in the conduct of research. Strategies include:

Using technology to increase capacity. We have recently brought online a collaborative research environment that will be used for senior seminar students, faculty-staff teams, and other collaborative endeavors. It uses a platform provided by 37signals basecamp. We have also recently acquired a ZOOMERANG^TM site license, which will allow students and faculty to conduct surveys online. Finally, we have contracted with Sona Systems to create an online participant pool, which will assist students in getting volunteer participants for their research. Most of the time spent directing the undergraduate research process will be in managing the technology.

Gathering resources. I have collected hundreds of rapid assessments (short surveys) for students to use in research. Many hours will go in to renaming and organizing files, after which I will create an electronic rapid assessment library for students and faculty to use. I have begun creating downloadable movies of SPSS and other technology, to assist students in learning how to use software in the research process. I have also begun the collection of various URL links and documents (including hundreds of primary source books in pdf format). All of these resources will be available through the collaborative research initiative web page, which will go online early in the fall term. Full functionality and extensive content is expected by the middle of fall term.

Quality control. I will be acting as a safety net for all undergraduate research projects (papers and posters) that are to be presented at academic excellence day, SEPA, Florida Academy of Sciences, APA, or other local, regional, and national conferences. Students will be expected to pass their work through me, and I will help students to increase the probability of a successful presentation. I will play the same role for the occasional student who seeks publication of their work.

Information dissemination. I will be gathering and disseminating information on summer research opportunities, publishing opportunities, and grant funding for research at the undergraduate level. Keep your eye on the bulletin board by my door, and check the collaborative research initiative web page often. Further, I will be creating various documents helping people to navigate processes (e.g., how do I use the participant pool? How do I get my survey online?).

Training. I will also be coordinating a small number of brownbag presentations to help students with things like SPSS, PSYCHINFO searches, hypothesis generation, and other higher level research tasks. I will deliver some of these; other volunteers will deliver some.

Services offered as Director of Undergraduate Research:

· Surveys or rapid assessments

· Institutional Review Board Guidance

· Animal research or IACUC Guidance

· Informed Consent Forms Assistance

· Sampling or data collection strategies

· Sources or literature

· Data entry and analysis Consultation

· Participant pools Consultation and assistance

· Online survey research

· SPSS (now PASW) training, assistance, and consultation

· American Psychological Association (APA) Format assistance

· Idea or hypothesis generation, planning studies, logic models, or concept maps

· Web applications and web pages

· Consultation in evaluating programs or interventions

· Online participant pool software (SONA System) - the DUR can enroll your students as participants so that they can be participants in online surveys, and can help you or them as a researcher to get your survey online. SONA also helps if you are doing on-ground or paper research, in recruiting participants. Please send your surveys in Word format if you’d like me to create them in the SONA system.

· Zoomerang is an online survey capability that we also have, if you want to reach an audience that is much broader than the SONA System allows. I would gladly help you to put your survey, or your student’s survey, online. Zoomerang surveys can be either anonymous or not anonymous depending upon your needs.

· I can help with SPSS data analysis or getting clearance for your study through the Institutional Review Board or Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

· I have a large database of public domain rapid assessments that are reliable and valid. Most are simple self-report surveys that have been published in one or another journal article, and are contained in an appendix or within the primary source article. The majority are in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format.

· I have a collection of several hundred classic primary sources (entire books by Freud, Jung, Adler, and Skinner, for example) in adobe acrobat format.

· I can set up collaborative pages for you and your students to do projects together no matter where you are.

· I can help you or your students to work through logistical details in planning your research studies.

· I can make arrangements to come to your class to share information about a special topic or data analytic technique (e.g., social network analysis, geographic information systems) or application (SPSS, web-based applications, other software).

"Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work" - Peter Drucker

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