Recreating Research Experience for Undergraduate Students
The learning of tomorrow is characterised by the need for a continuum in every undergraduate student’s educational journey beyond the classroom, regardless of the disciplinary paths taken. Taking into consideration the pivotal role that research opportunities play in developing this subfield, our team known as the Undergraduate Research Coordinating unit, has explored the various ways to recreate the research experience for undergraduate students as a means of providing them with the impetus to become self-directed learners who take ownership of their learning.
In pursuit of reframing the pedagogical value of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP), the UG Research Coordinating Team in NUS’ Office of the Provost (PVO) was formed to formulate ways to rebrand UROP as a rewarding, research-experience focused programme, and to broaden the definition of research to include applied and exploratory research. UROP seeks to build an ecosystem of self-directed learners from various disciplines who are able to build upon and provide ideas for improvisation and optimisation of resources for research education. The Research Experience (REx), a new course upgrade to UROP, seeks to develop a community of practice, whereby students, educators, faculties and research institutions share a strong interest for undergraduate research and ways to enhance undergraduate research experiences by working together and learning from one another. This includes providing the means for students to interact with their project from actual practice settings, including enterprise programmes and internship programmes.