A project, or set of related projects, in which students define questions that they regard as personally significant and answer these questions through their research. Although generally supported by faculty and mentors, undergraduate research projects allow the student to place his/her unique signature on the project. Signature work may be undertaken as capstone, internships, practicums, community-based, or service-based experiences. It inevitably includes a substantial writing output, reflective learning, and multimedia outputs that are often best presented as student portfolios.
Published in Chapter:
Kindling Research Interest in Undergraduate Business Students: Beyond Superficial Pragmatism
David Starr-Glass (SUNY Empire State College – Prague, Czech Republic)
Copyright: © 2018
|Pages: 11
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-5667-1.ch012
Abstract
Undergraduate Research Experiences (UREs) provide a means of encouraging, engaging, and supporting students in the co-production of relevant and legitimate knowledge. Research-centered experiences can be designed as capstones at the conclusion of the undergraduate degree, integrated into single courses or sequence of interrelated courses, or form an element of internships, community-based projects, service-learning experiences, and practicums. UREs have a high impact on student engagement and learning, and can serve as vehicles for establishing the student's distinctive personal signature on his or her learning. However, despite their value, UREs are underutilized in business education. This chapter explores some of the reasons for this, suggests ways through which undergraduates might be introduced to research, and argues that an involvement in relevant scholarly endeavor plays a significant part in the future success of business graduates.