The Sheridan Center inclusive teaching newsletter series theme for the 2023-24 academic year is high-impact practices (HIPs) and pathways. High-impact practices are defined by the American Association of Colleges and Universities as teaching and learning approaches for which there is a large body of evidence about significant educational benefits for students. In this series, we focus on the 11 HIPs identified by AAC&U, as well as high-impact pathways, or course-embedded approaches to developing equity of access to these educationally rich opportunities. Our second newsletter focuses on Collaborative Research and Scholarly Experiences (COEX) as high-impact pathways.

“Without a doubt, what I like most about teaching the COEX courses I have developed is seeing the joy that lights up a student's face when they are excited about their research project. Those moments are so very precious.”
- Professor Ruth Cowill, Instructor for three COEX courses: The Psychology of Pandemics, Observing Animals, and Life Under Water in the Anthropocene

Courses that engage students in collaborative research projects provide meaningful learning experiences, create value for local and community partners, and rewarding opportunities for instructors to connect their teaching, research, interests, and impact at Brown and beyond. 

What are Collaborative Research and Scholarly Experiences (COEX) Courses?
The Collaborative Research and Scholarly Experiences (COEX) curriculum designation at Brown is inspired by the course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) framework. By having students engage in a real research project in the context of their coursework, COEX courses provide undergraduates with an array of benefits while simultaneously producing broadly relevant, novel data. A growing body of evidence shows that undergraduate students, especially women and underrepresented minorities, benefit from research experiences (Bangera & Brownell, 2014; Dolan, 2016).  However, 1:1 mentored research opportunities are, by nature, limited by faculty availability and/or financial resources. Thus, one approach to increasing student access to research is through course-based undergraduate research experiences, which can accommodate more participants and mitigate barriers associated with traditional research mentorship models (Bangera & Brownell, 2014). 

A CURE, or COEX, course is defined by five characteristics (Auchincloss et al., 2014; Ballen et al., 2017): 

Why should I teach a COEX course?
COEX courses can provide many of the same benefits as mentored research but to a larger number of students. In this way, they make research more inclusive by making research experiences more accessible to a greater diversity of students (Bangera, Brownell, & Hatfull, 2014). Moreover, COEX courses can  provide a pathway to research for students who may otherwise have never considered participating in a research experience or may not have the time or resources to participate. A COEX course can also reduce the amount of cultural research capital (e.g., knowledge of how to assess, attain, and benefit from a research experience) required  to engage in research (Cooper et al., 2021), thus providing a more equitable experience for students.

Demonstrated benefits for students include: 

• Increased interest in the discipline and/or research (e.g. Brownell, Kloser, Pukami, & Shavelson, 2012; Lopatto et al., 2008)

• Increased self-confidence (Brownell et al., 2012; Flaherty, Walker, Forrester, & Ben‐David, 2017)

• Gains in content knowledge, conceptual understanding, and a better understanding of the scientific process (Flaherty et al., 2017; Shaffer et al., 2010, Shaffer et al., 2014) 

• Improvement in scientific practices such as data analysis and interpretation (Brownell et al., 2015)

Given the growing focus on COEX courses and student outcomes over recent years, education researchers have examined the impact that developing and implementing COEX courses has on faculty (Shortlidge, Bangera, & Brownell, 2016, 2017). The most commonly reported benefit is that the structure allows faculty to combine their research programs and teaching while providing students an opportunity to conduct authentic research.

Demonstrated benefits for faculty include:

• Producing publications, whether on results from the projects or education research on curriculum and/or assessment of the course  (Shortlidge et al., 2016)

• Saving time by combining research, teaching, and service efforts  (Shortlidge et al., 2016, 2017)

• Connecting teaching and research to service  (Shortlidge et al., 2016, 2017)

• Personal interest, engagement, and excitement about what happens in the classroom (Shortlidge et al., 2017)

What do interdisciplinary COEX courses at Brown look like?
Since the inception of the COEX designation in 2018, there have been a total of 24 unique COEX courses covering topics from antibiotic drug discovery to identifying novel soil microbes to the policy ecosystem of the Providence Public School District. 

While the original CURE framework was developed in the context of STEM education, Brown’s COEX designation spans beyond the natural science disciplines. Some courses currently combine the COEX designation with a Community-Based Learning and Research (CBLR) designation that engages students in a community-defined or -informed research question. Such projects can take many forms, for example, in Professor Lauren Yapp’s URBN 1871A: Heritage in the Metropolis: Remembering and Preserving the Urban Past, students have researched local public history and connected with community resources like the Rhode Island Historical Society and Providence Public Library to develop projects. The syllabus for this course indicates that:

“By researching an aspect of Providence’s own history – and proposing a heritage walk, monument, or exhibition based on their findings – students will become familiar with various social science research methodologies, as well as gain experience in the fundamentals of how to interpret historical materials for a wider public in a compelling and accessible fashion.”

Archival research and the digital humanities also lend themselves to developing collaborative projects. In Spring 2024, Gabriel Rocha will be teaching POBS 1601K: Early Modern Global History, which will engage students with the collections of the John Carter Brown Library. The Brown University Library’s Center for Digital Scholarship can provide consultations and support for faculty developing a digital course project to meet the COEX criteria. 

In addition, COEX courses can create a space for faculty and students to explore cross-disciplinary approaches to a topic or a question. With the support of the Cogut Institute’s Collaborative Humanities Initiative, undergraduate seminars like ANTH 1840: Indigenous Languages of the Americas, taught by Professors Paja Faudree (Anthropology) and Scott AnderBois (Linguistics) in Spring 2023, allow students to engage with practices of community-engaged language documentation. 

“One thing that was particularly fun was to see different ways that students brought their personal academic interests other than Linguistics and Anthropology to bear on the topic of indigenous languages. We had students with additional backgrounds in Modern Culture and Media, Education, Music, Comparative Literature, and Psychology, and seeing the course provided an unexpected opportunity to see discussion and papers that explored intersections with these other areas in addition to Linguistics and Anthropology as we had anticipated.”
-Professor Scott AnderBois, ANTH 1840: Indigenous Languages of the Americas

Where do I get started?
If you are interested in integrating elements of the COEX model into your course or completely redesigning your course, below are some recommendations to get started (Kveven, 2018):

• Find collaborators - Research is rarely conducted alone, so reach out to others to collaborate. This could be other instructors in your department, community members, or local institutions. For example, the Sustainable Interdisciplinary Research to Inspire Undergraduate Success (SIRIUS) Project at Sacramento State University consists of 67 courses and engages five institutions to study problems relevant to the Sacramento Region (Von der Mehden et al., 2023).
   

• Reflect on effective teaching practices - Think about teaching practices you already implement that align with the COEX course model. Are there other instructors you could learn from or talk with about teaching and how to incorporate research into such practices? The Sheridan Center also offers consultations if you would like to discuss your teaching practices.
   

• Identify a local, relevant, or interesting project - A project could come from talking with collaborators, transferring a part of your own research to the classroom, or using  a timely topic as a vehicle to help students learn disciplinary skills. An example of a local, relevant collaboration is St. Edward’s University where students worked with the city of Austin, Austin Youth River Watch, and the Lower Colorado River Authority to provide information about how the urbanization of Austin affected water quality using a particular method and piece of equipment (Hooser, Bilinski, & Baynham, 2018). For brainstorming potential community-based collaborators and projects, the Swearer Center has staff available for consultation.
   

• Develop assessment measures that incorporate reflection - COEX courses ask students to engage in disciplinary practices iteratively and collaboratively. As such, be creative in the way you think about assessing student understanding and skills. You may consider including metacognitive, or reflective assignments, group evaluations, and assessment of student troubleshooting skills. 

How do I add a COEX curricular designation to my course?
To add the COEX curricular designation to your course, you can follow the steps described here for  approval through the College Curriculum Council. It is worth noting that Courses@Brown refers to these as Collaborative Scholarly Experiences, which is the menu item a student needs to check to find COEX courses.

Are you interested in designing or revising a COEX course?
COEX Course Design Institute - June 2024
The Sheridan Center will host a 3-day COEX Course Design Institute on June 4-6, 2024 aimed at helping instructors incorporate authentic research into their courses. If you are interested in participating in the upcoming COEX Course Design Institute, please submit an application by Wednesday, May 1, 2024 at 9:00am. For more information, visit the COEX Course Design Institute website. 

Subscribe to the Sheridan Center newsletter here. 

Here is also a link to our previous Sheridan Center newsletter on peer led small group tutoring as a high-impact pathway. 

References: 

Auchincloss, L. C., Laursen, S. L., Branchaw, J. L., Eagan, K., Graham, M., Hanauer, D. I., . . . Dolan, E. L. (2014). Assessment of Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences: A Meeting Report. CBE Life Sciences Education, 13(1), 29-40. doi:10.1187/cbe.14-01-0004

Ballen, C. J., Blum, J. E., Brownell, S., Hebert, S., Hewlett, J., Klein, J. R., . . . Cotner, S. (2017). A Call to Develop Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) for Nonmajors Courses. CBE Life Sciences Education, 16(2), mr2. doi:10.1187/cbe.16-12-0352

Bangera, G., Brownell, S. E. (2014). Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences Can Make Scientific Research More Inclusive. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 13(4), 602-606. doi:10.1187/cbe.14-06-0099

Brownell, S. E., Hekmat-Scafe, D. S., Singla, V., Chandler Seawell, P., Conklin Imam, J. F., Eddy, S. L., . . . Cyert, M. S. (2015). A High-Enrollment Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience Improves Student Conceptions of Scientific Thinking and Ability to Interpret Data. CBE Life Sciences Education, 14(2), ar21. doi:10.1187/cbe.14-05-0092

Brownell, S. E., Kloser, M. J., Pukami, T., & Shavelson, R. (2012). Undergraduate biology lab courses: Comparing the impact of traditionally based “cookbook” and authentic research-based courses on student lab experiences. Journal of College Science Teaching, 41(4), 36-45.

Dolan, E. L. (2016). Course-based undergraduate research experiences: Current knowledge and future directions. Natl Res Counc Comm Pap, 1, 1-34.

Flaherty, E. A., Walker, S. M., Forrester, J. H., & Ben‐David, M. (2017). Effects of course‐based undergraduate research experiences (CURE) on wildlife students. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 41(4), 701-711. doi:doi:10.1002/wsb.810

Hooser, E. A., Bilinkski, T. M., & Baynham, P. J. (2018). Implementing a course-based undergraduate research experience in an introductory biology course. In N. H. Hensel (Ed.), Course-based undergraduate research: Education equity and high-impact practice (pp. 127-138). Sterling, Virginia: Stylus.

Kveven, A. (2018). Diving into research at the ocean research college academy. In N. H. Hensel (Ed.), Course-based undergraduate research: Education equity and high-impact practice (pp. 87-98). Sterling, Virginia: Stylus.

Lopatto, D., Alvarez, C., Barnard, D., Chandrasekaran, C., Chung, H.-M., Du, C., . . . Elgin, S. C. R. (2008). Genomics Education Partnership. Science, 322(5902), 684-685. doi:10.1126/science.1165351

Shaffer, C. D., Alvarez, C., Bailey, C., Barnard, D., Bhalla, S., Chandrasekaran, C., . . . Elgin, S. C. R. (2010). The Genomics Education Partnership: Successful Integration of Research into Laboratory Classes at a Diverse Group of Undergraduate Institutions. CBE Life Sciences Education, 9(1), 55-69. doi:10.1187/09-11-0087

Shaffer, C. D., Alvarez, C. J., Bednarski, A. E., Dunbar, D., Goodman, A. L., Reinke, C., . . . Elgin, S. C. R. (2014). A Course-Based Research Experience: How Benefits Change with Increased Investment in Instructional Time. CBE Life Sciences Education, 13(1), 111-130. doi:10.1187/cbe-13-08-0152

Shortlidge, E. E., Bangera, G., & Brownell, S. E. (2016). Faculty Perspectives on Developing and Teaching Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences. Bioscience, 66(1), 54-62. doi:10.1093/biosci/biv167

Shortlidge, E. E., Bangera, G., & Brownell, S. E. (2017). Each to Their Own CURE: Faculty Who Teach Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences Report Why You Too Should Teach a CURE. Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education, 18(2), 18.12.29. doi:10.1128/jmbe.v18i2.1260

Von der Mehden, B. M., Pennino, E. M., Fajardo, H. L., Ishikawa, C., & McDonald, K. K. (2023). Building Authentic Science Experiences: Students’ Perceptions of Sequential Course-Based Undergraduate Research. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 22(4), ar46.