I.Project Title and Description

Undergraduate International Research at Tufts: Building a Global Online Learning Community

Tufts' undergraduate International Relations Program (IR) seeks an internal grant from Academic Technology's Faculty Grants Program to assist in the design and development of a global online learning community (OLC) to support students in producing high-quality undergraduate international research. Utilizing web-based instruction, tools, and resources to guide students through the research process and connect them to faculty in a network that transcends distance, the online learning community aims to address a major educational challenge: how to provide quality research methods training and faculty mentorship to Tufts students, particularly those who study abroad.

II. Educational Challenge

“International, student-centered Tufts University is dedicated to academic rigor and interdisciplinary research that addresses the most critical issues facing our world," states Tufts University's Bulletin. With over 550 majors, the International Relations Program represents Tufts' largest major. More than ten percent of Tufts students are international and a full 45% of undergraduates enhance their education by studying abroad (80% for IR). While Tufts' commitment to providing international education and experience is well established, its record in producing high-quality undergraduate research is less impressive. In 2001, only 5% of Tufts graduates completed a senior thesis, and only 4% of IR majors. Dean Charles Inouye, and faculty, have pointed out that many students have the potential to produce quality research but lack adequate preparation and faculty contacts, a disconnect that is especially egregious with regards to international research.

Three factors contribute to the relatively low output of undergraduate international research. First, many students involved in multidisciplinary international studies are unable to accrue sufficient research methods training and to build relationships with faculty due to the demands of university and major distribution requirements. Second, study abroad in the junior year exacerbates the problem. By this time, students have not developed solid research preparation that specifically addresses the unique challenges of conducting international research and working in another country. Disconnected from Tufts resources while abroad, students typically fail to use the time productively for research. Returning from abroad with minimal methods preparation and research data, they spend the beginning of senior year trying to catch up. This leads to frustration and eventual attrition in senior theses, scholarship competitions, and research publication. Finally, recognizing these issues, faculty often hesitate to support student endeavors they doubt will lead to successful completion. The lack of a systematic framework to start the research process earlier, connect students with faculty, and enable students to successfully use their abroad experience to yield significant research, will continue to leave Tufts students unprepared to produce high-quality international research.

A synergy between undergraduate research and study abroad allows students to link critical thinking and problem solving skillswith cultural understanding and language proficiency. A major educational challenge rests with providing students the opportunity to study abroad and conduct undergraduate international research. Pedagogically, both experiences should work in concert, enabling students to apply research theories and methods in a constructivist way by doing international research abroad. Embedding learning in activity intensifies the research process and enriches the immersion of the international experience.

III. Project Description

To meet this educational challenge, the International Relations Program aims to develop an online learning community (OLC) that uses educational technologies and web-based courses (INTR 91 for second semester sophomores and INTR 92 for juniors) to provide students with the instruction and support to conduct international research, thus bridging the current university gap between study abroad in the junior year and high-quality research products in the senior year.

a.)Goals and Objectives of the Online Learning Community Project:

  1. Integrate research and study abroad experiences, enabling students to conduct international research while abroad by providing them with the methods, cultural understanding, and guidance to conduct research in another country.
  2. Use educational technologies, supported by faculty guidance, to enhance the quality and quantity of research papers and proposals on international topics.
  3. Build a community of international researchers at Tufts that links students and faculty from across the academic disciplines, departments, and campuses to foster mentoring, exchange resources, construct knowledge, facilitate the storage, transmission, and access to data and resources for students, and to interact with each other in a space that transcends geographic locations.
  4. Unite resources at Tufts in a virtual space to serve as a portal and clearinghouse for Tufts departments, majors, disciplines, and campuses engaged in international research.

b.)Educational Design

Educational Approach –

Developing an online learning community would transform traditional face-to-face instructional approaches to research methods training that are not viable options for our main beneficiaries, juniors studying abroad. Moreover, the one-on-one email interactions that currently take place between students and faculty are not sufficient for quality mentoring and interaction nor does email allow groups of students to benefit from the same interaction with faculty. Creating an OLC that provides a space for these interactions would enable lessons learned, resources, and faculty guidance to reach a larger audience of students. Learning in an online learning community would entail four main instructional approaches:

  • Active Learning – Through the web-based courses (INTR 91 and 92) and the online community, students can apply the research skills and knowledge they have gained toward their research by embedding learning in activity. “Learning-through-doing” enables them to apply theoretical steps in a practical, constructivist way.
  • Collaborative Learning – The online community’s structure and tools would enhance a mutual learning process among students and faculty by fostering individual and group responsibilities such as consensus building, evaluations, project management, and submitting work online. Engaging in a collaborative experience facilitates a shared sense of responsibility and helps build community.
  • Peer Learning – Through student-student interactions, such as posting proposal drafts for peer feedback and review and forming subgroups around particular research topics, the online community will increase interaction among students throughout the research process, often an individual and isolated activity.
  • Distributed Learning – By bridging the disconnect between study abroad and research at Tufts, the online community would extend learning beyond the classroom and Tufts campus, distributing it out to other social spheres (learning in another country through informal and formal interactions, learning from students, learning from non-instructor faculty). The online community would enhance the immersion of study abroad by enabling students to use the location abroad for research as well as cultural sensitivity and language acquisition.

The goal of the online learning community (OLC) is to integrate the innovative approaches of distance education and online communities with traditional seminar/class teaching practices and faculty mentoring. The online learning community would serve as a web-based vehicle to enhance the mutually beneficial aspects of the diverse instructional approaches as well as enable teaching and learning to focus on intellectual dialogue and shared construction of knowledge.

Project Beneficiaries –
Users / Benefit /
Needs
On-campus
Sophomores /  / Gain skills and understanding to conduct research abroad / Learn tasks for conducting research with international dimension in another country; Become familiarized with web-based tools, participating in online community and Tufts resources for research (faculty, databases, relevant courses)
On-campus Juniors /  / Connect with faculty and become familiarized with university resources / Interact with faculty, link with relevant topic and methods courses, learn about relevant on-campus/domestic research opportunities (internships) and tasks to conduct international research
Abroad Juniors /  / Use abroad time productively to fine tune skills, refine research question, gather data and resources and learn to work in another country / Receive guidance in conducting research “in the field”; Turn research plan into product; Learn tasks to develop international research proposal; Interact with faculty and students sharing similar research interests; Gain research support from faculty; Access resources from abroad; Store data and personal information in central location accessible from anywhere
On-campus Seniors /  / Be better prepared to plow research into written products for internal/external acknowledgement / Support from faculty and students on writing capstone projects (senior theses, scholarship proposals, research papers etc.); Link to publication and presentation opportunities for research; Communicate with faculty, advisors/mentors, and other students writing research projects to develop a support community
Course Instructors /  / Use of technology to enhance learning and reach students abroad / Assistance in maintaining course web pages and uploading content; user-friendly platform to teach and interact with students
Faculty /  / Make mentoring and advising more efficient and focused on intellectual support / Way to communicate with groups of students who have the same questions and concerns; place to post resources and advice that benefit groups of students
IR Program /  / Better serve students/ Connect students with faculty and resources / Resources to manage and support online community, including staff, funding, time, technological training for faculty and students
Academic Depts. /  / Clearinghouse/Portal / Management/coordination support of project to ensure continuity and standardization of information and resources among the departments
Tufts Centers/Programs /  / Clearinghouse/Portal / Management/coordination support of project to ensure continuity and standardization of information and resources among the centers and programs
IR programs at other universities /  / Model and Synergy with other programs / A model to address similar educational challenges; a way to link up with other universities to enhance undergraduate research opportunities for students

Technology –

The online learning community, and web-based courses, would consist of educational technologies to promote curricular objectives. Developing a platform that addresses both communal and individual needs, the technologies would facilitate a sense of community, fostering communication and interaction, as well as assist the student to enhance research skills and preparation through active learning processes. Currently, INTR 91, the pilot project, employs a Blackboard page. While the IR Program would investigate ways to build upon the Blackboard tools, OLC would require a platform that moves away from a “course-centric” structure toward a “community-centric” structure that allows community expansion and links the various beneficiaries together. The IR Program aims to ensure the cost effectiveness of this project. Therefore, we would investigate available freeware, shareware, and “off-the-shelf” tools that Tufts currently uses, as well as others available, that could be customized to meet the needs of our beneficiaries without having to reinvent existing applications. The chart below details the various technological tools proposed for the OLC and web-based courses.

Tools/Services / Function / Description
“Traveling Backpack” /  / Personal online space /  / Password protected space within community to gain access from any computer to personal proposal/paper drafts, notes and journal entries, frequently used links and resources, participating forums, and user profile
Groupware Tools /  / Project Management/ Document Sharing /  / Interactive tools to guide students through research process that provide progress reports, checklists, tasks, schedules etc. as well as document sharing between participants
Discussion Forums /  / Communication, resource exchange, question and answer, interaction /  / Asynchronous discussions and conferences organized by topics and audience needs, e.g. research question, region, project type for students and faculty (can be moderated)
Member Profile Database /  / Link with and contact students and faculty /  / Search database of participants by name, research interests, region, location, type of research project, etc.
Postserve /  / Emailed Announcement and Updates /  / Push technology maintained by project manager to email announcements, updates, and news to participants
Virtual Meeting Place /  / Live group communication /  / Synchronous meeting places for participants to communicate on organized topics arranged through project manager or available for spontaneous group interaction
Resource Library /  / Resource and web links /  / Repository of online links, resources, and documents available for participants
Bulletin Board /  / Post Announcements /  / Notices of upcoming events, updates, and announcements posted by project manager and course instructors
Environment –

The online learning community would be available to students and faculty around the world, based on Internet access. Designing an online community that allows for global accessibility to application tools, as well as usability at a standard Internet speed, represents an innovative challenge for this project. For the web-based courses, students in INTR 91 would still be on-campus at Tufts and thus have access to computer facilities. Developing tools that address geographic location, hardware capabilities, and time requirements for task completion on the Internet would be most beneficial to help ensure access for all students and faculty.

c.)Methods, Evaluation, and Timeline

Evaluation of this project is critical to guarantee that the tools and services address the needs of the participants. Through formative and summative evaluation strategies, the IR Program would use quantitative indicators and qualitative methods to determine whether the project meets its objectives. Quantitative indicators would include: an increase in the number of students completing research projects, senior theses, and Fulbright proposals; an increase in internal and external publication (Fulbright award, journal publication); an increase in faculty participation in undergraduate research projects demonstrated by number of faculty participants in the online community and number of documented mentoring relationships (captured through online participant profiles); a decrease in attrition rates among students for senior theses and scholarship applications; in addition to other indicators. Qualitative methods would include: documentation of project design implementation; case studies on INTR 91 and 92; focus groups and in-depth interviews; and online open-ended questionnaires. The IR Program would also evaluate the effectiveness of the technologies employed in the OLC by monitoring the rate of connections made, number of participants registered in community, and number and preferences of active participants as demonstrated by their frequency of log-ins and tools used.

Project Timetable for Development and Implementation

The IR Program would begin the design phase of the project in July of 2002. The program would initially hire a student assistant to support AT and IR staff with administrative needs and to finalize collaboration with faculty to develop the curricular content for the online tools and resources. Through the summer and fall of 2002, IR would work with AT to assess tools for customization, design the online community (see chart below), input content for resource links, and test the applications. IR, with AT support, would begin project implementation in January 2003 for juniors studying abroad in INTR 92 who would serve as the first cohort to build community online. Through the spring semester, IR would assess the functionality and outcomes of the project based on the needs of the students, modifying the tools and resources accordingly. IR and AT have developed the following detailed project timeline:

Time Frame: 2002-2003 / Tool/Task / AT Time / Activity
July--August 2002 / User Database / 80 hours / Develop database design and information architecture for user profiles, areas of interest, project interests, research goals, location, and privileges. Design basic user interface
August–September 2002 / Traveling Backpack (1) / 40 hours / Develop front-end page (password protected) personalized for users to access anywhere in world that stores profile, personal content, etc.
September-October 2002 / Groupware Tools / 80 hours / Determine available tools for customization that facilitate a co-development environment (Web Board with customized interface)
October-November 2002 / Mailing List, Groups, Calendar, Newsletter / 80 hours / Determine available tools for customization to support community building; Input content
November-December 2002 / Virtual Meeting Place / 40 hours / Develop basic model or use existing tool
November-December 2002 / Discussion Board / 20 hours / Customize freeware to project needs
December-January 2003 / Resource Library / 80 hours / Design of library, population of library (content) and search capability
January-February 2003 / Traveling Backpack (2) / 60 hours / Customize tools to user needs and complete backpack development
January-July 2003 / Quality Assurance/ Project Assessment / 60 hours / Application testing and modification on need basis and further development of tools
Grant Year / Project Management / 60 hours / Project management and collaboration with IR project manager

d.)Staffing and Administration

The IR Program requests assistance in user interface design, project management, application assessment, customization and development, application testing, and project assessment from AT. An IR staff member would work with an AT staff member to design the online community, develop content for applications and/or customize “off-the-shelf” applications for the community, and manage the project for the duration of the grant year, among other tasks. The IR Program would also employ two students, with technological backgrounds, to assist the AT and IR staff members with administrative and project support. Please see the chart above for a detailed estimate of AT support for this project.

e.)Dissemination of Results

Given the multidisciplinary focus of the IR Program, the project involves an extensive group of faculty, students, academic departments, and centers across the Tufts campus. The IR Program currently functions as a portal that pulls in and links together over 60 faculty and 550 students within 18 departments, programs, and centers at Tufts. Dissemination of results and “lessons learned” is, and would continue to be, a continual process for the IR Program through communiqués, meetings, workshops, and program publications. The broader application of this project extends beyond the participation of these populations in the web-based courses and online community. This project serves as a model for Tufts to address the needs of, and bridge the gap between, faculty and students with regard to mentoring, teaching, and learning across distances. Departments, programs, centers, faculty, and students that fall under the umbrella of IR, as well as others across the Tufts schools, could link into the online community and use the tools already designed for their own constituency’s needs. Furthermore, the OLC is a model for other universities and colleges confronting similar educational challenges of integrating research and study abroad opportunities while maintaining the integrity of close faculty-student interactions and solid research preparation.