Tips on Preparing a
Successful Educational
Research Proposal
Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, professor, BIT
Nancy J. Stone, professor and chair,
Psychological Science
Diane Hagni, CERTI
March 7, 2014
Data about the mini-grant program
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20 projects funded since spring 2011
Projects from 11 departments
Five team projects
Two awardees received multiple grants
52% of awardees are tenure-track; 48%
non-tenure-track
• Awardees have ranged from lecturers to
Curators’ Professors
Data about the mini-grant program
• Average award is $3,171; minimum
awarded, $500, and maximum, $7,500, for
a multi-disciplinary project
• Five projects had matching funds from
their departments or other sources
• Go here for suggested areas of focus
Resources on CERTI site
http://certi.mst.edu/educationalresearch/
Comparison of grant programs
Grant
Program
Amount of
funding
Range from
Educational Center for
Educational
$1,000-$10,000;
Research
average award
Mini-Grants Research and
Teaching
amount is
Innovation (CERTI); $3,000-$4,000
funding through
for single PI
Vice Provost for
project; one
Academic Affairs
year project
eFellows
grants
Administered by
Focus of
Program
Funding to
promote teaching
scholarship in the
classroom –
supporting
projects that
examine and
improve teaching
and learning
practices
3 tiers -- full
Funding to
Educational
redesign courses
Technology Office; course redesign
($5,000); step
for blended or
funding through
redesign ($2,000); fully online
Provost’s office
teaching with
delivery using
technology
best pedagogical
($1,000). These
practices to
are one-year to
improve student
three-semester
learning
projects
Timeline for
2014
Other
information
Letter of intent due
– March 14;
Proposal due – April
14;
Awards announced
in May;
Funding released in
May 2014 (50%) and
at end of project,
August 31, 2015
(50%)
Presentation required
at S&T Teaching and
Learning Technology
Conference Educational
Research Symposium in
mid-March (latter part
of grant cycle). For
more information about
the program, go to
http://certi.mst.edu/ed
ucationalresearch/
Program
Participation
Workshops –
March 20 and April
3;
Letter of intent
due – April 25;
Proposal due –
June 27;
Awards
announced – Aug.
15
Participation required in
the eLearning
Community of Practice
three times per
semester. Faculty will
work with instructional
designers on course
redesign. For more
information about the
program, go to
http://edtech.mst.edu/
elearning/efellows/
What is educational research?
• A systematic process for understanding
learning and teaching effectiveness
– i.e., applying the scientific method
• A means to uncover the processes and
interactions underlying learning and teaching,
such as
–
–
–
–
Motivation
Acquisition of knowledge
Presentation of material
Impact of environment and interaction
General suggestions
• Be sure to follow directions closely
• Be clear and specific
–
–
–
–
–
Consider your audience
Justification
Research question
Procedure
What are you measuring? How will you measure
it?
– IRB (http://irb.mst.edu/)
• Social and behavioral science
Research question/statement
Not specific or measurable Specific and measurable
• Students will be better
learners.
• Providing video demos
with the lab instructions
(i.e., specific intervention)
will help students to
improve their lab test
scores (i.e., specific and
measurable outcome[s]).
Hypothesis
Students who receive <intervention> will achieve higher <outcomes –
e.g., test scores> than students without <intervention>.
Research strategy / assessment
Non-specific or unclear
Specific with adequate details
• Students may incorporate • An experimental study will
be used to test the
the intervention and then
intervention where
provide feedback
students will be randomly
regarding the intervention.
assigned to one of the two
experimental conditions <control condition – i.e.,
without intervention> and
<treatment condition – i.e.,
with intervention>.
• Followed by research
procedures and
assessment details
Measuring outcomes
Non-specific or unclear
Specific with adequate details
• Student feedback will be
gathered and assessed.
• Satisfaction with the course
will be assessed using the
measurement items in
Eastman et al. (2011) that
were adapted from Oliver
(1993). [Validated measure]
OR
• We will develop our own
measures for assessing
Satisfaction with the course to
more specifically assess the
unique aspects of the course.
[“Homemade” measure]
Note: It would be helpful to
review existing validated
measures in the literature and
adapt from them in developing
your homemade measure.
Summary
• Format (see call for proposals for more info)
– A brief abstract (100 words)
– Purpose of project
• Motivation and significance of research project
– Pertinent information about your class (anticipated student enrollment,
number of sections taught, etc.)
– Research question to be addressed
• Clear educational research question/statement
• Hypothesis/Hypotheses (preferred/recommended)
– Learning outcomes to be addressed
• Be specific
– Methodology
• Research design (e.g., experiment, survey, case study – can be combination)
• Research procedures
• Measurement of outcomes
– Evaluation and feedback
• How will you document success and show how project objectives are achieved
– Budget with justification
– Deliverables